Chapter 2

Even knowing the truth already, hearing Percival defend Gwendolen Winfield like this still felt like a blade driven clean through my chest.

I let out a cold laugh. "Her illness has nothing to do with me."

"Her father stole my father's chance to live, and now she wants me to forget all of it and donate my marrow to her?"

"Gwendolen is innocent!"

There was strain in Percival's voice, the sound of a man holding himself back.

The word innocent set me off completely.

"And my father wasn't? He waited three years for a chance to live!"

"And I'm not innocent? I deserve to be a walking marrow bank for your precious Gwendolen?"

"If you hadn't given that marrow to her father, my father might still be alive!"

The words had barely left me when the office door swung open.

Gwendolen stood there in a hospital gown too big for her, pale and frail.

She rushed forward and dropped to her knees in front of me.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I won't get treated, just please don't talk about Percival that way, okay?"

"I know this is all my fault. I was the one who begged Percival to save my father back then!"

"I won't get treated. Just let me die. A life for a life, okay?"

She wept, her face streaked with tears, and grabbed my hand to strike her own cheek with it.

"Hit me, okay? As long as you stop blaming Percival, just hit me, okay?"

Percival couldn't stand to watch anymore. He stepped in and shoved me away.

"How can you be so cold-blooded? Can't you see how sick Gwendolen already is?"

"And you actually dared to hit her!"

I looked at the two of them, almost amused. Gwendolen had grabbed my hand and slapped it against her own face. I hadn't done a thing, yet in Percival's mouth it became my cruelty, my cold blood. I didn't want to be tangled up with either of them a second longer. I turned to go, and Percival called out my name.

"Carla Swanson, you try walking out that door."

"Your father's grave. I've been paying the upkeep on it year after year."

"The fee just came due. If you dare walk out, I'll call the caretaker right now and tell him I'm not renewing. I'll have him throw your father's ashes in the trash!"

My steps stopped dead. Stiffly, I turned back to face Percival.

"Percival, you actually dare use my father's ashes to threaten me!"

"Are you even human?"

Percival seized my wrist. "Curse me all you want. After your father died, you followed me around. Every cent your family had went to his treatment. If it weren't for me, do you think you'd get to be Mrs. Harding, decent and respectable?"

"Everything you have, I gave you. Stop making a scene. Just donate your marrow to Gwendolen and I'll give you anything you want. I won't divorce you. I promise I'll be good to you from now on, all right?"

Those last few lines carried a coaxing edge.

I looked at him and let out a cold laugh. "Percival, you really do love Gwendolen. For her sake, you'd bind yourself to me for the rest of your life."

Then I picked up the consent form off the desk and signed my name.