Chapter 1

Three months after my uremia diagnosis, my shared-payment limit with Nadia was down to ten dollars.

Nadia Henson had set every one of my paychecks to transfer automatically, all of it going to her childhood sweetheart, Ivor Fox.

She called it letting him manage the investments for her.

Severe kidney failure dropped me at a bus stop, where a stranger found me and got me to the hospital.

The doctor wanted a five-thousand-dollar deposit before they'd run the emergency dialysis.

I called Nadia for help. She hung up on me, irritated.

To stay alive, I went back home and took the gold necklace she'd bought two days ago out of the drawer, then pawned it.

I'd just gotten back to the hospital with the cash that was supposed to save my life when the police surrounded me.

"Someone reported you for breaking and entering."

Nadia stood behind the officer, looking at me with disgust in her eyes.

The young officer held the pawn receipt, looking uncomfortable. "This is your husband. He did it to make the deposit so he wouldn't die. That's hardly theft, is it?"

Nadia kept both hands in her pockets, cold. "If he's broke, that's his own fault."

"Three years ago, when Ivor was diagnosed with severe kidney failure and couldn't even afford his meds—"

"didn't he sit on Ivor's insurance settlement and refuse to hand it over, and nearly force Ivor to give up treatment?"

I looked at the contempt in her face and calmly held out my hands. "I stole it. Take me in and file the case."

......

Nadia stared at the cuffs on my wrists, her brows knotting together.

"What's with the pitiful act now?"

She jabbed a finger at my face.

"You think if you turn yourself in, I'll go soft and drop the case?"

"Warren Delgado, you're so selfish."

"You only ever think about yourself. You never once consider how anyone else feels."

"Ivor's condition finally stabilized, and you have to go steal something right at this exact moment."

"You want him to feel like you stole because of him, don't you?"

"You're using a crime to guilt-trip him!"

I stared at Nadia while the pain tore through my lower back and belly, wave after wave.

I didn't even have the strength left to stand up straight.

"Nadia, I'm in end-stage uremia."

I stated it as a fact.

"There's ten dollars in my account."

"I didn't even have the money for a cab to the hospital."

"I passed out at the bus stop. A passerby called 911."

"If I don't pay the deposit, the doctor won't do the dialysis, and I'll die."

"You gave every cent to Ivor Fox. Pawning your necklace was the only thing I had left."

Nadia let out a scornful laugh.

"Don't try to hold your illness over me."

"So what if it's uremia? Does uremia mean you get to ignore the law?"

"When Ivor was gravely ill back then, where was your sympathy for him being a sick man?"

"Everything you're suffering now is the karma you brought on yourself."

"I gave my paychecks to Ivor to manage because he understands investing."

"What can an unemployed drifter like you do with money except waste it?"

"Besides, right now Ivor needs money to feel secure."

"If I don't help him, am I supposed to just watch him die?"

Fast, sharp heels clicked outside the ER.

Ivor Fox came running in, dressed in Versace couture, an Hermès bag on his arm.

His eyes were rimmed red as he grabbed Nadia's arm.

"Nadia, don't blame Warren."

"This is all my fault."

"If I hadn't lost that bet today and made you transfer me fifty-two thousand,"

"Warren would've had the money for the hospital deposit."

"Please, tell the officer to let Warren go. He's still sick."

He turned to look at me, his voice gone impossibly gentle.

"Warren, don't be angry with Nadia."

"She just worries about me too much."

"You know I haven't been emotionally stable lately."

"Nadia's afraid something will happen to me, so she stays by my side."

"I'm not blaming you for the necklace."

"I'll pay the money for you right now."

As he spoke, he pulled a stack of cash out of the Hermès bag.

Nadia slapped the money out of his hand.

The bills scattered across the floor.

"Ivor, you're just too kind."

At the ER triage desk, a nurse came running out with my blood report.

The nurse was shouting my name.