Chapter 1

At the payment window for my daughter's liver transplant, the doctor kept pressing me.

"The full surgery fee has to be paid today. If we go past the window, the donated organ goes to another patient."

I nodded over and over, terrified of losing this one chance for my daughter to live.

"We just sold the house. My mother collected the money for me and she's wiring it over right now!"

A second later, my mother sent me the bank transfer receipt.

The moment I saw it, I was overjoyed. The weight that had been crushing my chest finally lifted.

I pushed the card through the window at once, but the nurse looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Sorry, ma'am. The system shows the balance on this card is zero."

The next second my phone lit up. A text from my mother.

"I already sent Abby's surgery money through the AI chatbot. Go check your account."

1

After my ex-husband heard our daughter was sick, he never showed his face again. This money from my mother selling the house was Abby's only hope.

The phone rang five times before she picked up, her voice tangled with the crackle of firecrackers.

"Your brother's getting married today, I'm run off my feet. I already transferred the money, so what are you calling for again?"

I forced my voice louder to cut through the firecrackers.

"Mom, you can't transfer money through the chatbot. You have to go to the bank!"

"What kind of nonsense are you talking? The chatbot told me the transfer went through!"

My mother's voice was even louder than mine, furious as she cursed.

"Your brother is getting married and you think I can just leave? You're picking a fight on purpose, aren't you?"

For as long as I could remember, anything to do with my brother was the single most important thing in the world to my mother.

When he was away at school, he'd mail his dirty clothes and reeking socks back every few days, and the moment my mother finished washing them she'd have a courier run them straight back to him.

My living money in college had to wait until my uncle happened to take a trip to New York so he could carry it over for me.

One semester of waiting each time. I worked part-time jobs until dawn just so I could eat a full meal.

Later my mother said, "You've managed to survive this long without the money, haven't you?"

And then she cut off my tuition and my living money for good.

I knew my parents had no obligation to put me through college, and I didn't qualify for hardship aid because both of them had steady incomes.

So I gritted my teeth and finished college on student loans and odd jobs.

But this time was different. This time it was my own money. It was my daughter's lifeline!

My voice shook with panic.

"Mom, I'm begging you, the chatbot can't transfer money. Just go to the bank!"

The nurse at the payment desk frowned.

"Transferring money through a chatbot? Is your whole family messing with me?"

My mother's full-throated voice carried down the line.

"You little wench, are you trying to swindle money out of me? And you hired an actor to help you con me?

"Besides, why can't the chatbot transfer money? Doesn't the receipt spell it out plain as day?"

I pulled up the receipt and rushed to explain.

"Mom, the payee account on here says 'your daughter's bank card' with no account number at all. A bank would never write 'wishing you and your daughter a closer and closer relationship'!"

"Aren't you my daughter? Why can't it say the relationship's getting closer? So they've got good customer service, is that a crime?"

The nurse at the payment desk waved me off.

"There are people waiting behind you. If you're not paying, step aside and go wait on your chatbot!"

I stamped my feet in desperation. It was only because my daughter had gotten so much worse that the doctor had made an exception and let her receive the transplant first.

Another couple whose child was waiting on a liver source wouldn't accept it. Several times they'd rushed over trying to take Abby's slot,

and now they were lined up right behind me with money in hand, ready to pay.

But Abby's eyes had gone yellow all the way to the whites, and no matter what I did she wouldn't wake.

The only time she'd been awake was last night, when she vomited three times, every time bright red blood.

The doctor said if she didn't get the transplant, she might not make it through tonight.

I dropped to my knees at the window with a hard thud, my knees slamming onto the cold tile with nothing to soften the blow.

"Please, just wait a little longer, I'm not stalling on purpose, it's honestly that the elderly woman at home doesn't know how to transfer money.

I'll teach her right now, please just wait, save my daughter!"

The doctor's grim face eased a little, and he let out a sigh.

"It's nine ten now. Nine thirty at the latest. If you can't do it by then, the people behind you come up."

I thanked him again and again, my tears falling to the floor as I bowed.

On the other end of the line, my mother interrogated me, righteous as ever.

"I just asked the chatbot again, and the chatbot said you already got the money and you're pretending you didn't so you can swindle another million out of me!"

I held up the phone, screaming until my voice tore.

"Mom, I really didn't get it, just go to the bank, go to the bank, is that so hard!"

"Or put my dad on the phone. No, get my brother to come to the phone!"

Then my mother let loose on me.

"On a happy day like this, you just have to bring bad luck down on your brother, don't you?"

"It's about to be my turn as the mother-in-law to drink the tea my new daughter-in-law serves me. I don't have time to fuss with you!"