The Heart They Gave Away

From the back cover

At General Hospital's annual gala, Director Hammond praises Dr. Paige Henson as a paragon of selflessness for giving a matching heart—one intended for her own daughter—to an impoverished student, Max Dickerson. Her daughter Samantha, twenty-four and still waiting for a transplant, learns in front of the whole room that her mother personally went to the organ allocation center to arrange the swap. When Samantha protests, her parents insist Max's family is struggling and that she, as a doctor's daughter, can wait.

Humiliated and betrayed, Samantha walks out, cutting ties with her family. Her mother's texts and her father's messages demand she apologize to Max and stop damaging the hospital's reputation. Even Uncle Richard urges her to understand her mother's calling, until Samantha reminds him that twenty-four was the deadline for her own surgery—and that her mother performed Max's operation herself.

Then the breathing on the line changes. Her mother has been listening all along.