Chapter 1The Stolen Lifeline

Nate Brooks took the emergency blood supply I had been stockpiling for seven years and authorized its use for his childhood friend’s daughter.

His colleagues tried desperately to talk him out of it:

"But what about Clara?"

"She has a complex chimeric blood type. Carrying a pregnancy is extremely high-risk for her. If she hemorrhages without backup blood, it's an absolute death sentence."

Nate was silent for a long time before replying softly.

"Lily is Elena's daughter. She's just a little girl. She needs this blood more than Clara does right now."

One of the doctors couldn't bear it. "But Clara is already five months pregnant! You know better than anyone the risks of operating without a blood reserve. If something goes wrong, you'll lose both the mother and the child!"

Nate didn't hesitate.

"Then we'll just put off having a baby for now. Clara has always listened to me."

I looked down at the ultrasound report in my hands, a sudden wave of dizzying numbness washing over me.

Years ago, Nate was the one terrified of me getting hurt, begging me to bank my blood every few months just in case.

Now, for the sake of Elena Foster's daughter, he was the same man privately authorizing the depletion of my only lifeline.

The words ‘Viable Twin Gestation’ printed on the ultrasound felt like a silent, cruel joke.

I turned around, walked up to the reception desk, and scheduled a medical termination.

I would give Nate exactly what he wanted. No baby.

And no me, either.

……

When I was booking the termination, the nurse’s tone was incredibly grave.

"Are you absolutely certain you want to proceed?"

"With your rare blood type and chronic anemia, performing a second-trimester termination carries significant risks. Does... does Dr. Brooks know about this?"

I nodded, saying only, "Yes. I'm certain."

It didn't matter if Nate knew or not.

From the exact moment he gave away the blood I had spent seven years banking, a guillotine had been suspended over my neck.

Right before the anesthesiologist administered the IV, my phone rang. It was Nate.

"Clara, one of the techs said they saw you in the maternity ward. Are you here to grab lunch with me?"

Through the speaker, I could hear the hospital PA system in the background, mixed with the sound of a woman gently coaxing a child.

Before I could answer, he continued, "I can't meet you for lunch today. Lily's vitals aren't great, and Elena is trying to calm her down. I need to stay here and monitor her."

I sat in the empty pre-op waiting area, staring at the surgical risk consent form in my lap.

I asked him, "Why exactly are her vitals dropping?"

"What?" He clearly hadn't expected me to ask that.

My voice was dead calm. "I said, Nate, after draining seven years' worth of my life-saving blood... what right does she have to be doing poorly?"

The line went completely dead.

A long time passed. I heard footsteps walking away, and then Nate's hushed, guarded voice.

"You know?"

He took a deep breath. "Clara, Lily is like you. She has a dual-population blood chimerism. Right now, your blood is the only viable match we could find. She’s just a kid. I couldn't just let her die."

"Is that so?"

He must have caught the icy detachment in my tone, because his voice dropped lower.

"Don't overcomplicate this. Even if she wasn't Elena's kid, I still would have saved her."

He sounded so incredibly righteous, as if he had completely forgotten that the blood he gave away was drawn, vial by agonizing vial, from my own veins over seven years.

I asked him, "So what am I supposed to do?"

Nate was silent for two seconds, sounding exhausted.

"Clara, you are perfectly healthy right now."

"And?"

"And so... just stop making a scene, okay?"

Making a scene?

I repeated the word softly under my breath.

I reminded him, "Nate, I paid the storage fees for that blood. It was deposited in the hospital's blood bank for safekeeping, it wasn't a public donation. Without my explicit consent, absolutely no one had the legal right to touch it."

Nate's voice suddenly spiked in volume.

"Well, the blood has already been transfused! We can't exactly suck it back out of her! What do you want to do, report me to the medical board?!"

After a brief, tense silence, he rubbed his temples.