1 The day my aunt Teri’s heart began to fail, my father strapped my mother to an operating table, forced a heart transplant, and bought Teri another ten years of life. From that day on, I ran away from home and buried myself in my studies. I graduated at the top of my class and secured a fellowship at the prestigious Medical Research Institute. Ten years later, I developed a fully functional artificial heart. As a highly sought-after specialist, countless desperate souls begged at my door, all vying for a slot to receive the artificial heart. My assistant, Lexi, handed me the latest batch of applications. At the very top of the stack, in bold letters, was my aunt’s name. I took a pen, drew a heavy line through her name, and said, “Denied. Block her permanently.” The applications were sorted by the size of the donation offered. The only reason Teri’s name was at the top was because my biological father, Victor, had offered an astronomical sum. Yet, I crossed it out without a second thought. She had lived on my mother’s stolen heart for a decade. It was time to pay the debt. Lexi took the paper back, her eyes widening as she stared at the dark ink. “Dr. Eva, Vargas MedTech is offering a one-billion-dollar endowment for our research.” “They want to distribute it over ten years, a hundred million annually.” “If we take this, we won’t just secure our funding. We could double the number of charity surgeries we perform every year.” I stared at Lexi until her voice trailed off into a whisper. Ten years. It had been exactly ten years since my mother died. My gaze drifted to the frame on my desk. The original family photo had been torn in half, leaving only a bright, smiling woman holding her young daughter. “I’ll handle the funding,” I said quietly. “But this application is permanently blacklisted.” Lexi looked bewildered. When the artificial heart first launched, I established a strict rule: a fixed portion of our budget must be reserved annually to provide free surgeries for pediatric heart patients. Accepting the Vargas deal meant saving dozens of innocent children, yet I was turning it down. Seeing the absolute resolve in my eyes, Lexi hesitated. “Should I draft the rejection letter to Vargas MedTech?” “Yes,” I replied. She left my office, glancing back at me with concern. A moment later, a notification popped up on my screen. The system’s blacklist count had changed from zero to one. Lexi had been with me since the project’s inception, but she didn’t know the truth. That charity rule wasn’t just policy. It was a tribute to my mother’s soul. I poured my life into this research to prevent another tragedy like the one that took my mother. She was only thirty-eight when she died. The night it happened, I had just received my college acceptance letter. We stayed up late in her bed, talking about my dreams of medical school. I fell asleep beside her, completely unaware when my father dragged her away. By the time I woke up the next morning, the surgery was over. Teri was alive, my mother was a pile of ashes, and I never even got to say goodbye. Instead, I was forced to face my aunt. When she woke in the recovery room, I watched my father rush to her side, weeping with joy as he held her hand. Teri looked at me and promised she would care for me in my mother’s place. But she wasn’t my mother. I would never have a mother again. Once the horrifying truth came to light, I packed my bags and fled. I changed my major to cardiothoracic medicine. From that day on, I consumed textbook after textbook, studying anatomical specimens and tracing the pathways of human hearts until my eyes burned. My life became a relentless cycle of libraries and study rooms, starting at dawn and ending past midnight. I lived like that for eight years. By graduation, I had designed the first prototype. It took another two years of grueling trials and regulatory hurdles to finally bring it to the public. Ten years. I hadn’t seen either of them in a decade. Until today. I sat back down at my desk and pulled up my computer. A clean folder of new patient files was waiting in my inbox, but my hand moved on its own, clicking on the archived Vargas application. When the scan of Teri’s face appeared on my screen, mirroring my mother’s features so closely, a tear slipped past my lashes and splashed onto the keyboard. My phone began to buzz. Lexi knocked twice before bursting in, her face flushed with panic. “Dr. Eva, someone from Vargas MedTech is on the line. I don’t know how they bypassed our system to get your direct number, I couldn’t stop them.” I stared at the vibrating screen. With a slow sweep of my finger, I wiped away the tears. “It’s fine,” I said quietly. Ten years was long enough. “It’s time we had a talk.” 2 I swiped to answer. A voice, both intimately familiar and chillingly distant, filled the line. “Are you the lead developer of the artificial heart? I’m Victor. I assume you know who I am.” “I do,” I replied smoothly. “What is your price? Money? Status? Recognition? I can donate fifteen million, twenty million, call it a blessing for my ailing wife. I’m close friends with your board director. Accept this patient, and I can guarantee you a fast track to department head. Think it over.” When I offered only silence, he immediately tried to sweeten the pot. “In addition to all of that, I can personally transfer shares of Vargas MedTech to your name.” A small, cold smile touched my lips as I cut him off for the first time. “Mr. Victor, those things don’t interest me.” The line went dead silent for a few seconds. “Then tell me what you want,” he demanded. “Name your price.” I chuckled softly. “It isn’t a matter of money. It’s the patient. I won’t operate on her.” Victor let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh. “You won’t? I’ve done my research. You’re the only surgeon capable of performing this specific implantation. Now you’re telling me you won’t do it? Are you playing games with me?” He paused, likely remembering he was the one begging, and forced his tone to soften. “Look, if you do this, if you save her life, I will sign over five percent of Vargas MedTech to you immediately. That is more wealth than you could earn in several lifetimes.” I repeated my words, slowly and deliberately. “Mr. Victor, money is not the issue here.” “Then what is the issue?” Victor practically roared through the receiver. “You’re a doctor! It’s your duty to save lives! Refusing to treat her is no different from murder!” He took a few ragged breaths before continuing, his tone turning venomous. “I’ve looked into your history. I know you’ve bled for this project. You’re deeply in debt from a high-stakes funding agreement you signed years ago, one you still haven’t cleared. I even know you recklessly tested experimental materials on yourself, nearly dying from anaphylactic shock. That funding agreement expires this year, doesn’t it?” “Vargas MedTech is the heavyweight in this industry. With a single word from me, I can ensure no venture capitalist touches your lab. Once I cut off your financial oxygen, your funding dries up. Your project, your career, everything you are will be utterly ruined.” “Is that so?” I let out a soft laugh. “Then you don’t need to trouble yourself on my behalf, Mr. Victor. But if I go down, the woman you’re so desperate to save will go down long before I do. Go ahead and try your worst.” Silence stretched over the line, punctuated only by his heavy, rapid breathing. “What do you actually want? What will it take for you to perform this surgery?” “I’ve already told you,” I said. “No.” A sudden realization seemed to strike him. “Who are you? Do we know each other? Have I crossed you in the past?” My silence only solidified his suspicion. “I don’t care who you are,” he snarled, his patience snapping. “You will save her, whether you want to or not. I expect you to be in that operating room within three hours. If you aren’t, you will face the consequences.” “I’ll be waiting,” I said calmly. I pressed the end-call button, cutting off his threats with a dial tone. I wasn’t afraid of Victor digging into my background. My research was under federal security clearance, and my true identity was classified. I opened an encrypted application on my desktop. Inside lay the puzzle pieces of the truth I had painstakingly gathered over the past ten years, evidence Victor believed he had swept away long ago. It was more than enough to dismantle Vargas MedTech and send both Victor and Teri straight to prison. One click would ruin their reputations instantly. Looking at the torn photo at the corner of my desk, I whispered to the empty room. “I know, Mom. Your heart must be so tired of beating inside her. But please, just wait a little longer. I still have a part to play.” “The fall is always most devastating from the highest peak. Only when Victor feels the exact pain I felt will he truly begin to pay.” 3 Three hours came and went. Victor didn’t get his surgery, but his retaliation arrived right on schedule. A group of federal investigators marched into my office, their expressions stern and uncompromising. “Dr. Eva, an internal whistleblower has filed a formal complaint accusing you of embezzling state research grants. You need to come with us for questioning.” Before I could open my mouth, Lexi stepped forward defensively. “That’s impossible!” Her eyes were wide with shock as she blocked the investigators. “You must have the wrong person! Anyone else in this facility might be capable of that, but not Dr. Eva!” She was on the verge of tears. “A few years ago when our budget ran dry, Dr. Eva sold her own house to keep us afloat. She even pawned her own mother’s heirlooms just to cover the security deposit for our funding.” “Lexi, that’s enough,” I said sharply. She fell silent, tears spilling over her cheeks. I looked around the room. Several members of my research team lowered their gaze, unable to meet my eyes. I had handpicked every one of them, guiding them from the project’s infancy. I had treated them with nothing but fairness and respect. “You all did great,” I murmured, my voice dripping with cold irony. “I won’t forget this.” They confiscated my access cards and seized my research servers. To ensure I didn’t leave the country, they held my passport. Later that evening, Victor’s call came through. “Ready to surrender?” “Never,” I said, and hung up. The next morning, Victor uploaded a video statement to social media. With tears streaming down his face, he pleaded desperately for his wife’s life. “I don’t know what grudge this doctor holds against me, but my wife is completely innocent. She has been confined to a hospital bed for ten long years, watching the world go by through a window.” “Her only wish is to feel the ocean breeze one last time, to see the snow.” “I beg of you, give her that chance. If you agree to perform the surgery, Vargas MedTech will donate three hundred million dollars to artificial heart research and charity care.” The video spread like wildfire, igniting public outrage. With paid bots steering the narrative, I became public enemy number one overnight. The comment sections were brutal. “Who is this doctor? Sounds like a bitter, miserable creature. How can someone be so heartless?” “A human life is on the line, and she’s playing god. Absolutely disgusting.” “Vargas MedTech, tell us where she is! If she won’t do the surgery, we’ll drag her to the hospital ourselves!” “Isn’t saving lives literally a doctor’s job? Revoke her medical license immediately!” “If you have zero empathy, you don’t deserve to live.” It didn’t take long for internet vigilantes to dox me. My name, Eva Vargas, my license plate, and my position at the research institute were posted online for the world to see. Once news of my suspension and embezzlement investigation leaked, angry protesters began gathering near my apartment’s parking garage. The moment I stepped out of the building, rotten eggs and garbage rained down on me. “Monster! You have no right to practice medicine!” “Get out of our city!” In the span of forty-eight hours, I had become a pariah, hunted by the very public I had spent ten years trying to save. 4 I barely managed to scramble into my car and lock the doors before my phone rang again. Victor’s name flashed on the screen. “How does it feel to be the most hated woman in the country? Ready to yield, my dear daughter?” “Shut up,” I hissed, gripping the steering wheel. “Hearing that word come out of your mouth makes me physically sick.” “Does it? That’s rather hurtful. But whether you like it or not, I am your father.” Victor let out a soft laugh, then sighed. “I suggest you agree to my terms soon. After all, if we can’t use the artificial heart, there is always another way to save her.” “Then go find someone else to do your dirty work,” I spat. I ended the call and put the car in drive, but as I pulled out of the garage, I noticed several dark SUVs tailing me. Within minutes, they boxed me in on the highway, forcing my sedan to a screeching halt. The door of the leading black SUV swung open, and a man stepped out. It was Victor. He leaned against the hood of his car, adjusting his cuffs. “Since you refused to do this the easy way, we’ll have to do it the hard way.” Before I could hit the lock button, his bodyguards shattered my driver’s side window, dragged me out, and threw me into the back of his vehicle. Victor climbed in right next to me. “I really wanted you to live, Eva. I truly did. All you had to do was cooperate. But since you’ve chosen to be stubborn, and we have no artificial heart, your own heart will have to replace your mother’s.” My hands were bound tightly behind my back, leaving me with nothing but a lethal glare. “That’s how my mother died ten years ago, wasn’t it?” Victor clipped the end of a cigar, lit it, and took a long, slow drag. He blew a thick cloud of smoke into the tight cabin. “You’re smart, Eva. But just like Judith, you’re far too stubborn.” He glanced at me sideways. “I tried to reason with her. But she refused to listen. She claimed she had promised to take you on a graduation trip, insisting she would only donate her heart after she returned.” “She thought I was an idiot, unable to see she was just trying to buy time. She wanted to stall until Teri died so she could keep living. How could I let that happen?” Rage boiled inside me, threatening to burst. “So you kidnapped her, strapped her down, and stole her heart to keep Teri alive!” “Exactly. Though I must admit, Judith’s heart proved to be just as fragile as she was. Ten years was all it could manage.” Victor turned to look at me, his eyes as cold as stone. “Fortunately, when the doctors told me about her genetic match back then, I made sure she gave birth to you first. Now that her heart is failing, yours will do nicely. If you hadn’t run away a decade ago, I wouldn’t have had to waste so much time chasing after that artificial heart project in the first place.” I gritted my teeth, staring directly into his hollow eyes. “The embezzlement charges, the media campaign, the doxing, it was all you.” He smiled. “But you already knew that, didn’t you?” The SUV pulled into the secluded courtyard of a private clinic, the facility where Teri was being kept. Victor’s men pulled me out of the car. He caught my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Don’t worry, Eva. You will sign a voluntary donor agreement, just like your mother did. When the media reports on your passing, they will say you gave your life to atone for your crimes. It will be poetic.” I spat at his feet, shouting over the roar of the wind. “You will regret this, Victor! You are going to pay for every single thing you’ve done!” He didn’t bother responding. He simply pushed me toward the waiting surgeons. “I’ll be waiting,” he muttered. As soon as my back was turned to him, a cold grin spread across my face. Deep inside my coat pocket, my phone’s screen was glowing, transmitting a live broadcast signal to a secure server. Every confession, every threat, and every detail of how he murdered my mother was currently being broadcasted live to the entire country. They dragged me into the sterile operating room where Teri lay hooked up to a life-support monitor. Seeing me, she wept, reaching her trembling hand toward Victor. “Thank goodness you found her. We can finally be a family again.” She was never innocent. She knew where her first heart came from, and she knew exactly where this one was coming from now. I stared at her, engraving her twisted face into my mind. They strapped me to the cold steel table. The anesthesiologist prepped the syringe, the cold metal needle resting against the vein on the back of my hand. Just as the plunger was about to be pressed, the heavy silence of the corridor shattered. My rescue had arrived. The double doors of the operating room burst open, slamming against the walls with a violent crash. “Police! Nobody move! Put your hands where we can see them!”
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