My Two Hearts, Both Taken by You

I'm born different, with two hearts inside my body. This is the only thing about me that makes my parents happy, because my brother, Tristan Foster, has congenital heart disease. They bring me into this world only so he can keep living. Then I meet Cindy Green and marry her. She pulls me out of the desperate need to chase my family's love. I think she's going to be different from my parents. But when Tristan's condition flares up, she becomes obsessed with wanting me to donate one of my hearts to him. What she doesn't know is that I only have one heart left. The other one is already beating inside her. Chapter 1 "It's just one heart. Why are you being so selfish? "You were born to keep your brother alive. That's the whole reason you exist." As she spoke, Cindy Green had my hand in a death grip. "But I want to live too," I said. "Without a heart, I'll die." Her expression stiffened for a second, but she kept going. "You have two hearts. Give one up, and you'll still have one left. You'll survive. "But Tristan's different. Without your heart, he dies." She ignored my struggling and shoved me into the prep room. "I only have one heart now," I said, desperate. "You've seen the test results yourself." But Cindy wouldn't listen. "God knows what you pulled to get out of this. You probably bribed the lab techs too." She was convinced that I'd paid off the technicians to falsify my results. "That's not what happened, Cindy. I had surgery when I was a kid. I've already donated a heart." "Enough, Hayden. All we're asking is for you to save your brother. Why are you fighting this so hard?" "I'm not lying. My heart is inside you." She didn't hear a single word I said and walked straight to my brother Tristan Foster's prep room. The other doctors stared. Then someone spoke up. "Sweet-talking her at a time like this? That's disgusting." "Your brother's life is on the line, and you're over here feeding his wife sappy lines." Nobody knew that Cindy and I were married except our families. None of her colleagues had ever met me, and she'd personally handled all the arrangements for Tristan's hospitalization, everyone in the department assumed he was her husband. Still, she never corrected them. "Exactly. Instead of trying to save his own brother, he's hitting on his sister-in-law." "That heart's wasted on someone like you." I couldn't help myself. I wanted to tell them the truth. "Actually, I'm the one who's—" Cindy came back out and grabbed my hand. "You're donating your heart today. Tristan's already in the operating room. You're next." She pulled out a stack of paperwork. "I already signed everything. You're going straight to the table." Inside the operating room, I saw Tristan. He looked so frail that everyone around him felt sorry for him. "Don't worry," one of the doctors told him. "Your wife, Dr. Green, will make sure you live a long life." Tristan didn't correct them. He just smiled weakly. "It's all my fault for making my younger brother sacrifice like this for me." His words dripped with guilt, but the look he gave me was pure provocation. When the other doctors heard him, they decided that my brother was a saint, and I was heartless. After comforting Tristan, Cindy forced me onto the operating table despite how hard I fought her. She then ordered the anesthesiologist to sedate me immediately. Moments later, I stopped struggling. Chapter 2 Cindy brushed her hand across my cheek and said, "Don't worry. I'll keep you alive." Her mentor had performed heart transplants before, so she was confident that she could pull this off. "Once Tristan recovers, your whole family will finally accept you. And I'll be right there with you." She and her colleagues worked through the surgery with focused precision. After a long time, Cindy removed a heart from my body. She didn't even stop to look at it before rushing it into Tristan's operating room. My chest was still open, my body lying alone on the operating table. The shrill flatline from the monitor woke the doctor left on watch. "He's dead? I thought he had two hearts." One of Cindy's colleagues couldn't make sense of it. "You actually believed Dr. Green when she said that?" Kelly Thompson answered. "Good riddance. He did so many awful things and wouldn't lift a finger to save Dr. Green's husband. On top of that, he tried to make a move on her." "So what do we do now?" "He's dead. Wait for someone to come collect the body. If nobody claims him, let the morgue deal with it," Kelly added. And with that, every doctor in the room walked out. Cindy was fully focused on Tristan's surgery. Even though she was confident, this was her first time performing a heart transplant on her own. But after several hours, she successfully finished the procedure. When it was done, she followed Tristan back to his room. It wasn't until he was settled in that she remembered me. She was about to head back to the operating room when she ran into a colleague who'd assisted her in the hallway. "Where's my husband?" The colleague thought for a moment. "He's already in the room, isn't he? Don't worry. There's always someone keeping an eye on post-op patients. The nurses on the floor will take care of him." Cindy didn't realize that something about the answer didn't add up. She figured her colleague was right. With her working here, the nurses would at least keep an eye on things. So she went back to her office and got back to work. A day later, Tristan woke up. Cindy was at his bedside. "Tristan, you're finally awake." The moment he saw her, he broke down crying. Cindy pulled him into a hug. "It's okay. The surgery went well. Your heart won't give you any more trouble." Tristan pressed his hand against his chest. Knowing the disease that had plagued him for years was finally gone, he clung to Cindy and sobbed. She told him to calm down, that he couldn't let his emotions spike like this, and rubbed his back to soothe him. One of the nurses on the floor saw them and teased him. "Dr. Green really does take good care of her husband." Cindy froze when she heard that. She thought of me, still in another room down the hall, and started to explain. "Oh, you've got it wrong. He's not my—" But Tristan clutched his chest at just the right moment, cutting her off. Cindy had no choice but to pat his back instead. "I told you to stop crying. All you need to do right now is rest so you can recover." Something about seeing him like that made her suddenly think of me. She realized that she hadn't seen me at all since the surgery. "Tristan, get some rest. I'm going to go check on Hayden." She started to stand, but Tristan grabbed her hand and said, "I had this surgery behind our parents' backs, and right now is the most critical part of recovery. I don't have anyone here with me, and I'm worried I won't heal properly." He looked so pale that Cindy's resolve softened. She figured that the doctors and nurses on the floor would look after me, if only as a courtesy to her, so she let it go. Chapter 3 Cindy said, "Okay. I'll stay with you a few more days." Tristan watched her sit back down before he slowly closed his eyes. Down in the morgue, an orderly stared at my body, unsure of what to do. "It's been two days, and nobody's come to claim him. What are we supposed to do?" Another orderly was tidying up nearby. "What are you staring at? Finish up so we can clock out." The two of them stuffed my body into a bag together. "Look at him. Dying like that, all cut open. He probably wasn't a good person." "Good, bad, it doesn't matter. Everyone looks the same after they're cremated." "True. It's still a shame, though. He was so young." Two more days passed. Once Cindy saw that Tristan was recovering well, she finally remembered to see me. She walked into my room and found it empty. A nurse was changing the sheets. "Where's the patient from this bed?" The nurse looked up. When she saw that it was Cindy, she replied, "He's no longer staying in the hospital." That irritated her. I'd just had surgery, and instead of staying in the hospital to recover, I'd taken off somewhere. She pulled out her phone and dialed my number, but the call wouldn't go through. "Fine. Go ahead and drop dead out there for all I care." She stormed back to Tristan's room. He picked up on her anger right away. "Is Hayden upset? He won't forgive you? "This is all my fault. Let me go talk to him so you two don't end up fighting because of me." He tried to get out of bed, and Cindy stopped him immediately. "Don't worry about him. All you need to focus on right now is getting better. "When you're discharged, and your parents hear the good news, they'll be so happy. As for Hayden, he's fine. He already left the hospital." But the memory of how I'd begged her before the surgery still nagged at her. She couldn't understand why I would refuse to save my own brother. Seeing Tristan continue to think of me and worry about me even from his hospital bed only made her think less of me by comparison. She figured that if I was stubborn enough to leave the hospital on my own, I could cool off for a while. She'd deal with me when Tristan was ready to be discharged. In the doctors' office, her colleagues were laughing and chatting, but the moment Cindy walked in, everyone went quiet. She found it strange. "What were you all just talking about?" Nobody answered. After a long pause, one colleague came over and put an arm around her shoulder. "What do you think? We were just saying how sweet you and your husband are together." Cindy thought of how I'd been forced into donating my heart. She supposed I really did love her deeply. It was coerced, sure, but I'd still done it. I'd helped her and saved a life. Thinking about it that way, she was willing to forgive me for disappearing, but the fact that I wasn't picking up her calls still made her angry. Her colleague noticed the frustration on her face and asked, "Is your husband in a bad mood?" Cindy didn't answer. "He just had surgery. It's normal for him to be upset," her colleague continued. "Give him some time. Be a little understanding. How about you do something nice for him?" That seemed to help. Cindy's expression softened. She remembered how much I loved the pastries from the bakery near our apartment, so she decided to stop by on her way home after work. She arrived at our apartment carrying the box of pastries. "Honey? I got you those pastries you like." But nobody answered. She set the box down and noticed the divorce papers I'd left on the table a week ago. The moment I found out she wanted me to give up my heart, I'd already made my decision. Chapter 4 Cindy stared at the papers in disbelief, wondering if I was being serious. It was just one heart, and I actually had the nerve to ask for a divorce over it. She grabbed the box of pastries and hurled it into the trash. "If you don't want this family, then don't ever come back." Her phone rang just then, and she picked it up. "Cindy? Where has Hayden been lately?" It was Dad, which was rare. He rarely called to ask about me. Usually the only name out of his mouth was Tristan's. Cindy thought it over and realized my parents were the only people who could pressure me into showing my face. And since Tristan had almost healed anyway, she told Dad about the surgery. My parents rushed to the hospital that night. The moment Tristan saw them, he couldn't stop crying. The three of them held each other and sobbed for a while before my parents finally asked about me. "Where's your brother? He's right here in the hospital. He can't even be bothered to come see you?" Tristan hesitated. "He already left the hospital." Mom held Tristan tighter. "Left the hospital? He's got some nerve. A few days after surgery and he's already running around out there like he can't die." Dad cut in. "Watch what you're saying. Tristan had the surgery, sure, but there's no guarantee there won't be problems down the road. If Hayden drops dead, what will happen to Tristan then?" Mom caught herself and knocked on wood. "Don't jinx it. Even if he does die, he'd better not go before Tristan needs him. Sweetheart, don't worry. Dad and I will always take care of you." Tristan felt a wave of warmth at their words. The next day, Cindy walked into the room to find my parents gathered around Tristan in a cozy family scene. Something about it stung. She realized that she'd never once seen them treat me that way. "Cindy, thank goodness for you. Tristan's heart is all thanks to your work." My parents thanked her over and over without once mentioning my name. When Cindy asked if they'd heard from me, their mood soured immediately. "Why do you care about him? He's out of the hospital, so he's obviously fine. Focus on Tristan instead. "Tristan's been fragile since he was a kid. Hayden, on the other hand, is healthy as an ox." They'd always wanted to push Tristan and Cindy together, but Tristan's condition had kept them from saying it outright. Now that the surgery was done, all they needed was for me and Cindy to divorce, and everything would fall into place. Before Cindy could respond, Kelly walked in. She remarked, "Dr. Green is truly devoted to her husband. She's in here every single day." My parents heard that and assumed that it was already a done deal. Tristan went a little red, but Cindy's expression turned cold. "Who told you he's my husband?" Kelly didn't pick up on her tone and laughed it off. "Everyone on the floor knows. Stop pretending." Then she walked out to get back to work. My parents pulled Cindy aside. "Cindy, since Hayden isn't around anyway, it doesn't hurt if your colleagues think that Tristan is your husband. They'll take better care of him that way." Cindy glanced at Tristan, who looked pale, and swallowed her anger. Back in the office, she was about to track down Kelly and set the record straight when someone told her that her mentor had come by. She hurried to the department head's office, and the moment she saw David Langston, she threw her arms around him. "Dr. Langston, it's been so long. How have you been?" He nodded and looked her over, smiling. "I heard you performed a heart transplant. It looks like I taught you well." He went on about how he'd operated on Cindy when she was a young girl, and how he never imagined she'd grow up to follow in his footsteps.