Chapter 4

Crash!

Piper froze.

The bowl slipped from her hand and shattered across the floor.

Elliot went ghost-white. He dropped my arms and spun toward the door.

"M-Mr. Carlson..."

Walter ignored him.

His eyes stayed locked on the receipt, his chest heaving.

The old butler rushed over, carefully picked it up, and handed it to him.

Walter took it with shaking hands, slid on his reading glasses, and read it again and again.

The room went dead silent except for my muffled coughing.

Piper's expression flickered, but she forced herself to stay calm.

"Grandpa, you've got it wrong. Marco—"

"Enough!"

Walter's roar shook the room.

He held up the receipt, his hand trembling with rage.

"What is this, Piper? Tell me. What is this?"

She pressed her lips together and shot me a dark look.

"Marco forged it to trick me. It's one of his usual games..."

"A game?"

Walter threw the receipt in her face, furious.

"Look at the date! Look at what the payment was for!"

"This is the deposit receipt from the kidney transplant center I arranged for you back then. So why does Marco have it?"

Walter stood there, completely stunned.

"What?"

Piper froze.

She caught the receipt and, for the first time, actually looked at it.

The deeper her frown grew, the more Elliot unraveled.

He rushed over and grabbed her arm, his face drained of color.

"Piper, it's fake! Marco forged it! He only knows those details because he read my diary. He's manipulative. There's nothing he won't do!"

He could barely get the words out.

Cold sweat ran down his face.

"Fake?" Walter let out a cold laugh, his eyes locking on Elliot. "Then go forge me one."

He snatched the receipt back.

"Look at the handwriting. Look at the hospital seal. The name's faded, but you can still make out 'Mercer.'"

Walter's voice exploded through the room.

"Is your last name Mercer?!"

The second Walter finished, Elliot started shaking.

His legs gave out, and he crumpled to the floor.

All he could do was frantically shake his head.

"M-Mr. Carlson... Piper... please, let me explain!"

"Enough!"

Walter brought his cane down hard across Elliot's back.

His eyes turned ice-cold.

"You look perfectly healthy to me. Do you look like a man missing a kidney?"

He pointed toward the door.

"One more word, and you're out."

Piper stared at the faded but still readable name on the receipt.

Mercer.

Then she slowly looked up at me.

Shock flashed across her face.

Then confusion.

Disbelief.

And finally, crushing regret.

"No... that's impossible..." she whispered. "Back then, Elliot clearly—"

"Clearly what?" Walter snapped. "He had some random scar? Dropped a few vague hints? And that was enough for you to call him your savior?"

The angrier he got, the harder his cane came down on Piper's head.

"What did I teach you? You can't tell friend from enemy, and you believe every word you hear!"

His voice shook with fury.

"You've been a complete idiot!"

Blood slid down Piper's forehead.

She didn't even seem to feel it.

She just stared at me, shock and panic twisting into fear.

A cold smile pulled at my lips.

Using the wall for support, I forced myself to stand.

"Piper, haven't you always wondered why I'm so messed up?"

I pointed at the spilled medicine.

"I'm not sick because of some disease. I only have one kidney. The other was removed three years ago after I donated it to save a woman dying in an alley."

Tears ran down my face as all the pain and rage finally broke loose.

"You kept asking why I couldn't get you pregnant. It wasn't because I wasn't good enough.

"My condition made me infertile. The doctors said I didn't have much time left. I took all those meds in secret because I wanted us to have a child. That's why I ended up like this."

Then I pointed a shaking finger at Elliot. "And you believed him. You slipped drugs into my vitamins to destroy my fertility and made everything worse."

I looked back at Piper. "Then when you got pregnant, you secretly had an abortion."

My whole body shook. "What gave you the right to do any of that to me?"

Every word hit Piper like a punch.

The disbelief drained from her face until she was pale as a ghost.

She stumbled back.

Then her eyes landed on the spilled medicine.

Fear.

Doubt.

Panic.

"No... no... You're lying..."

She kept shaking her head, barely able to get the words out.

Elliot lunged at me, trying to slap a hand over my mouth.

"You're lying! Piper, don't listen to him! He's a liar—"

"Get away from me!"

Piper shoved him so hard he slammed into the floor.

She didn't even look at Elliot.

Her bloodshot eyes stayed locked on me.

Like she was seeing me for the first time.

She took one slow step after another, her voice raw, shaking with desperate hope.

"Marco... was it all true? That kidney... was it really yours? And... you knew about the abortion?"

She looked like she was drowning in guilt.

I should've felt satisfied.

Instead, I felt nothing.

My heart had already been broken beyond repair.

"Piper."

I crooked a finger at her.

"Come here."

I wanted to tell her the secret I'd carried through both my lives.

A secret so devastating...

Even Piper would wish she were dead.

But before I could speak, my body finally gave out.

I collapsed backward.

As everything went dark, I heard Walter's furious roar, Elliot's panicked screams, and Piper shouting for the doctors like she'd lost her mind.