The Human Blood Bank Chapter 2

The moment I stepped into the office the next day, I could feel the oppressive weight in the air.

Colleagues were whispering in hushed clusters, their eyes on me filled with a mix of curiosity and unconcealed disdain.

I knew instantly. Jessica's smear campaign had already begun.

Sure enough, just as I sat down, my desk phone rang.

It was a call transferred from the front desk. The second I picked up, David Bell's voice, sharp enough to pierce my eardrum, exploded through the receiver.

"You heartless little bastard! How dare you show your face at work!"

His voice was so loud and strained that I could hear the whistle of his breath, ragged with fury.

I instinctively winced and held the receiver a little further from my ear.

The colleague in the cubicle next to me immediately perked up, pretending to shuffle papers while his eyes were glued to my every move.

"Our Jessica is such a good person! She thought of you as her best friend, and what do you do? You take advantage of our crisis! What kind of sick game are you playing?"

David began to sob, his voice thick with a nasal whine, as if he were the most aggrieved man on earth.

"My wife is still lying in the hospital! The doctors say she could go at any moment, and you won't help save her life for twenty thousand dollars? Can you even sleep at night? Is your blood made of gold?"

His words were a dull knife, sawing at my nerves.

Especially that line, "Is your blood made of gold?" It was an echo of Jessica's accusation from the night before.

No, my blood isn't made of gold. But it is a part of my body, the very essence that keeps me alive.

Why should I be expected to give it away for free, just to satisfy their sense of entitlement?

I calmly turned in my chair, shielding myself from the prying eyes around me, and pressed the record button on my cell phone.

"Mr. Bell, if you have something to say, say it. Yelling won't solve anything," I said, my tone as placid as if I were discussing the weather.

My composure seemed to enrage him further.

"Solve anything? Twenty thousand dollars! Why don't you just rob a bank? You're trying to ruin us!"

"We were doing you a favor by asking you to donate! We were giving you a chance to do a good deed! And you threw it back in our faces!"

That sentence ignited the fury I had been suppressing all night.

Doing me a favor?

So, in their eyes, my sacrifice was nothing more than a gift they had bestowed upon me.

I cut him off, my voice cold. "The first time I donated, it was a favor, not an obligation. You people couldn't even be bothered to say a simple 'thank you.' What right do you have to come asking me for anything now?"

There was a brief, choked silence on the other end. Then David immediately switched to full-blown tantrum mode.

"I don't care! You have to go to the hospital today! If you don't, I'll come to your office and cause a scene! I'll let everyone see what kind of person you are! A cold-blooded monster who values money more than a human life!"

"You just wait! I'm on my way! I'll make sure you can't work there anymore! I'll destroy your reputation!"

He was threatening me, his voice growing shriller with every word.

I held the phone tightly and replied, each word deliberate. "You're welcome to try. It will be a perfect opportunity for everyone to judge for themselves who the truly cold-blooded one is: the person who ignored someone for six months, only remembering them when they needed more blood."

"And by the way, every single word you've just said, including your insults and threats, has been recorded."

"If necessary, I will be forwarding this recording to my lawyer as evidence."

The line went dead silent, except for the sound of David's ragged, furious breathing.

I didn't give him another chance to speak. I hung up.

I renamed the audio file "Threats from David Bell" and uploaded it to my cloud for backup.

I knew a much bigger storm was brewing.

They wouldn't give up this easily.

And I was ready to see it through to the end.