Chapter 5

The next morning, Lily's condition deteriorated rapidly.

Her blood pressure plummeted, and her cardiac output dropped to less than half of normal.

As the nurses wheeled her toward the operating room, she regained a brief moment of consciousness.

She reached out from under the sterile sheet and grabbed my sleeve.

"Are you having surgery too, Mommy?"

I was already in my surgical scrubs, my hair tucked completely inside the cap.

"Mommy’s going to take a nap with you, baby."

Lily’s lips were completely white.

"When I wake up, can I have ice cream?"

I stroked her cold cheek.

"Only once a week."

She giggled softly.

"Then... when will Daddy be back?"

My hand froze.

The intercom in the hallway began to blare, urging family members to clear the sterile corridor.

I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"Lily, close your eyes and count."

"When you reach a hundred, the gift Mommy promised you will arrive."

She obediently closed her eyes.

"One, two, three..."

Our surgical gurneys were pushed into separate operating rooms.

Before the heavy doors swung shut, I could still hear her faint, fragile voice counting.

"Seventeen, eighteen..."

The anesthesiologist placed the mask over my face.

Dr. Sterling stood under the bright surgical lights, his eyes bloodshot.

"It’s not too late to back out, Clara."

I stared up at the blinding white lights.

"Yesterday, Lily asked me if her life was only meant to be five years long."

"Dr. Sterling... I don't want her story to end at five."

The warm anesthetic began to flow into my veins.

Forty minutes into the surgery, I suffered a massive hemorrhage.

My blood pressure crashed from 90 to 50. The monitors shrieked in a frenzy of alarms.

"The right kidney has been successfully harvested! Flush it with preservation solution immediately!"

"Donor’s blood pressure is still dropping! Her coagulation has collapsed! We can't stop the bleeding!"

Dr. Sterling’s hands were covered in bright red blood.

"Push more blood! Get the bypass machine ready!"

A nurse cried out, her eyes streaming with tears.

"Lily's vascular anastomosis is complete! The donor kidney is being perfused!"

Blood kept pooling in my abdominal cavity.

Dr. Sterling injected epinephrine directly.

Once. Twice. Three times.

The waves on the EKG monitor grew flatter and flatter.

Dr. Sterling’s voice cracked, sounding raw and desperate.

"Clara, don't sleep! Lily made it! She’s going to live! Do you hear me?!"

My fingers twitched slightly. Then, the EKG line went completely flat.

At that exact moment, Julian arrived at the hospital.

Hailey had suffered a sudden panic attack on the mountain, claiming that the white snow reminded her of the car crash years ago.

He had spent hours consoling her until his assistant forwarded an emergency notification from the Vance Group’s private hospital.

The patient’s name on the emergency surgery list was Lily Vance.

A sudden, chilling panic seized him. He abandoned Hailey on the spot and caught the fastest flight back.

Julian sprinted into the transplant center.

The moment he stepped off the elevator, he heard the faint, weak cry of a child coming from the pediatric recovery ward.

The sound was tiny, but it instantly made his tense shoulders relax.

He grabbed a passing nurse.

"My daughter... was the surgery a success?"

The nurse’s face was white as a sheet.

"The transplanted kidney has successfully restored blood flow."

Julian let out a massive sigh of relief.

"Where is Clara? She must have been terrified."

The nurse’s tears spilled over her cheeks.

Suddenly, the heavy doors of the operating room were kicked open.

Dr. Sterling, his surgical gown soaked in dark blood, marched out and slammed his fist directly into Julian’s face.

"Clara is dead! She gave her remaining kidney to Lily!"