He Traded Our Baby to Save His First Love novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Stranger's Marrow
Carl's POV
The donor was a stranger with thick glasses and a paperback in his lap, and he did not once look at the clock.
He lay in the bed beside the window in the transplant ward on the sixth floor, with a line in his arm and a bag of his own marrow dripping slowly into a tube.
I had come in to see my sister, and I stood at the foot of his bed instead.
"Mr. Creedon," he said, in careful English. "You are the brother."
"I am."
"She will be all right. It takes a few days. The numbers go up."
"Why did you say yes?" I said. I did not mean to ask it.
He looked puzzled by the question.
"They asked," he said. "I was a match. It is a bag of cells. I will make more."
"You never wanted anything for it."
"A sandwich," he said, and smiled. "The hospital has one with egg."
I laughed, and my eyes stung, and I went down the hall.
Emmeline's room was the corner room, with the pine cones still on the sill.
She sat up in bed with the new line in her chest and a pale pink color she had not had in months.
Nobody else was there.
No Nigel, no Cornelia, no foundation people with cards and bouquets.
The nurses had told me that morning that eleven of the twelve Gift of Life donors had pulled their pledges.
The twelfth had asked for her gala deposit back.
I took the chair by the window, and she watched me do it.
"Hello, Carl."
"Emme."
"You came."
"I said someone would sit with you. I didn't say who."
Keep reading free with an account. Start He Traded Our Baby to Save His First Love from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 22 · All chapters · Chapter 24 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend