The Price of a Second Heart Chapter 1

I was born with two hearts.

It was the only thing about me that ever pleased my parents.

Because my brother was born with a congenital heart defect.

They had me for one reason: to keep my brother alive.

Then I met Stella. We fell in love, we got married.

She pulled me from the abyss of my family’s conditional love and saved me.

I thought she was different.

But when my brother’s heart began to fail, she became obsessed with the idea of me donating one of my hearts to him.

She didn’t know that I only had one heart left.

My other one was already inside her.

* * *

“It’s just one heart. Why are you being so selfish?”

“Weren’t you born for the sole purpose of keeping your brother alive?”

Stella’s grip on my arm was like a vice.

“But I want to live, too,” I pleaded. “Without a heart, I’ll die.”

Her face hardened. “You have two hearts. You give one away, you still have one left. You’ll live.”

“But your brother is different. Without your heart, he dies.”

Ignoring my struggles, she pushed me toward the pre-op room.

“I only have one heart now,” I explained, my voice desperate. “You saw the test results.”

She wouldn’t listen. “Who knows what you did to fake those results? Bribing the lab technicians so you wouldn't have to save him.”

She thought I had faked the report.

“No, Stella, that’s not it. I had surgery when I was a child. I already donated one of my hearts.”

“Enough, Adrian! This is about saving your brother. Why are you being so stubborn?”

She cut me off before I could finish.

“I’m not lying,” I whispered, my voice cracking. “My heart is inside you.”

But she wasn't listening. She had already turned and walked toward my brother’s room.