Goodbye to the Man Who Betrayed Us novel · Chapter 1 of 32
Chapter 1: Third Time
Lily's transplant is cancelled because Daniel gave her grandmother's corneas to Vivian; Grace sends him away, rips up the statements he wants signed and asks for a divorce, then sees the man charged with her mother's death on the news and knows him.
The third time my daughter's transplant was cancelled, I didn't cry.
Daniel's assistant told me in the hallway outside the operating room, holding his phone.
"Mr. Chen says he'll find Lily another pair next time," he said. "He's giving these to Ms. Park. He says his stepmother needs them more."
I looked at his mouth while it moved.
Those corneas were my mother's.
Three days ago a car ran her down on Fulton Street and didn't stop.
The woman driving it was Vivian Park.
My mother lived long enough to say one thing to me in the ER bay.
"Give my corneas to Sunny. She's so young. She deserves to see again."
Sunny was what she called Lily. It came from a lullaby.
Those were her last words.
Daniel never called me after she died.
He hired Vivian the best defense lawyer in San Francisco instead.
His assistant was still talking. Something about scheduling.
Behind him, Lily had climbed off her chair.
She'd heard my voice and wanted to come to me.
She put her hands out in front of her and walked.
Six steps.
On the seventh her sneaker caught a chair leg and she went down hard on the tile.
I got to her before she started crying.
Two women by the vending machine didn't bother to lower their voices.
"That poor baby. Three transplants this year and every one fell through."
"I heard those were her grandmother's eyes. And the husband gave them to the stepmother."
"He's awfully attentive to that young stepmother. I wonder if his daddy minds."
I held Lily against me and put my face in her hair.
It smelled like the strawberry shampoo my mother bought her.
"Sunny," I said. "Do you want to leave San Francisco with me? Just us. Somewhere Daddy can't find us. We'll wait for the next donor there."
She felt for my cheek with both hands.
"Can we bring my whale?"
"We can bring your whale."
Daniel came around the corner fast, breathing hard.
He'd heard the last part. His face went tight.
"Grace. Lily goes first on the next donation. I promise you that."
For once he looked sorry.
"I heard your mom was in the hospital too. Do you need anything?"
In the hospital.
She was in a drawer downstairs.
He took out his black card and held it out between two fingers.
"Vivian feels terrible about the corneas. Take this. Get whatever you need."
The fluorescent light slid across it.
"Okay," I said.
I pushed his hand away.
His eyebrows went up.
He'd come ready for a fight. I could see the speech loaded behind his teeth.
"If you're angry, tell me," he said. "It won't happen again. Her family pushed her into marrying my father. He hurts her, Grace. I'm only cleaning up after what he did."
He waited for me to start screaming.
For a year that's what I'd done.
I'd yelled about the late nights. I'd cried about the phone he took into the bathroom.
He knew how to handle that version of me.
He didn't know what to do with this one.
I lifted Lily onto my hip and turned my back on him.
"Go take care of Ms. Park. We don't need you here."
He sucked in a breath.
"Don't do this. Don't make me guess."
"Fine." I looked at him over my shoulder. "My lawyer got two statements from your attorneys this morning."
"Mr. Chen?" a nurse called from the next door down. "Will you be handling Ms. Park's recovery yourself again?"
He shoved the black card at my chest.
It caught in the collar of my cardigan.
Then he ran.
I watched him go through the doors to her.
I didn't feel a thing.
I'd used it all up a year ago, at his father's fifth wedding.
Raymond Chen was the richest man in the city, and he married women.
Daniel had skipped the first four weddings.
He sat in the front row for this one.
He cried when the bride came down the aisle.
That night he drank for the first time in his life.
Not at our own wedding. Not one glass of champagne, even when I stood there holding two.
He leaned all his weight on me in the hallway and said one name over and over.
"Vivian. Vivian. I can't believe they gave you to my father."
It took me months to find out she was the girl he dated in college.
His only one.
Now I sat across from my lawyer, who had known my mother forty years.
She slid the two statements across her desk.
The first said I had willingly given up my daughter's place on the transplant list.
The second said my mother's death was an accident and nobody's fault.
Willingly.
Accident.
I tore them in half, then in half again.
"I'm not signing that."
My voice came out steady. It surprised me.
"And I need you to file for divorce. Today."
She didn't argue. She just picked up her pen.
Lily was asleep in the chair beside me with her whale under her chin.
The TV on the wall was on mute.
A banner ran under a mug shot.
ARREST IN FULTON STREET HIT-AND-RUN.
Under it, a name. Rafael Ortega, 35, Oakland.
The man in the photo was big, with a short beard and a shaved head.
I knew him.
Three nights ago he stood in the ER bay in a navy work jacket soaked dark with my mother's blood.
He was the one who'd held her on the road.
He'd looked at me and said, "She was asking for you the whole way."
My phone buzzed.
Daniel.
"It's handled. Sign the statements and this all goes away."
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