Two sentences. That was all it took. Delivered with the casual air of a joke, they'd destroyed everything I had.

And when I finally confronted him about it, years later, after I'd built myself into something, he waved it off like smoke.

"I don't remember that. It was just a joke. Let it go."

The sting behind my nose wouldn't fade.

Dr. Cobb's brow furrowed deep. He glanced at his watch, then his eyes cut to the cold-storage container holding the donor kidney.

Ten minutes. That was all that remained before the organ became completely unviable.

"Mr. Gilbert, we don't have time to keep going back and forth! Once that kidney loses viability, no one on earth can save you!"

"If this is all a misunderstanding, then the surgery proceeds!"

I looked at my father one last time, long and hard. Then I turned away.

From the crowd of onlookers, someone seemed to recognize me.

"Harmony Corp... wait, is that the Harmony Corp that just went public?! Then this guy is the CEO!"

My father nodded, his face splitting into a grin.

"That's right! If my son weren't the CEO of Harmony Corp, he probably couldn't have paid his way to the front of the line."

Those words were a lit match tossed into gasoline.

Every pair of eyes in the crowd swiveled toward me. Most of them belonged to families of other patients—people who had waited months, sometimes years, for a donor organ. If there was one thing they despised above all else, it was someone cutting in line.

And through it all, my father just kept smiling, nudging the nearest patient's family member with his shoulder like they were old friends.

"My son's the executive CEO of Harmony Corp. If you need a kidney, I'll just have him get you one!"

"He always says waiting in line is for poor people. And if you're poor, well—that's your problem!"

The moment those words left his mouth, the furious crowd closed in around me and the medical team.

One man lunged forward, snatching a scalpel from a surgical tray and raising it toward me.

I couldn't dodge in time. All I could do was squeeze my eyes shut.

When I opened them again, my sister was there.

Camila Gilbert had rushed over in her white coat and thrown herself between me and the blade. She seized the man's wrist, her grip iron-tight, forcing his fingers open.

Clang.

The scalpel hit the floor.

Camila's brow creased with frustration, and she turned to our father.

"Dad! What kind of joke are you pulling this time?!"

"Do you have any idea how long my brother waited for this kidney? How could you do this to him?!"

Under Camila's explanation, the crowd of families gradually calmed down.

But they didn't leave.

They stood there, glaring at me with undisguised hostility.

Dr. Cobb let out a heavy sigh.

"If this kidney was obtained by cutting the line, then by all rights, we shouldn't be performing this surgery."

He looked at me. Pity in his eyes. And resignation.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Gilbert."

"As things stand, neither the STD allegation nor the question of whether you jumped the queue can be resolved quickly."

With that, he turned and motioned for his team to leave.

My mother's eyes went wild with desperation. She dropped to her knees in front of the doctors.

"My son would never do any of those things!"

Her eyes were raw and red, her whole body swaying as if she might collapse at any second.

"Doctor, I'm begging you—save my son! If he can't get this transplant, he'll..."

She couldn't finish the sentence.

She didn't need to. We all knew. Without that kidney, I was already halfway in the grave.

She had never been good with words. The only thing she could offer now was her own dignity, traded for my life.

Camila stepped in front of the medical team, blocking their path.

"Dr. Cobb, I'm staking my entire career on this—my brother is not that kind of person!"

"Everything I've achieved, I owe to him!"

"And that STD accusation? Baseless slander, nothing more. My brother is the CEO of Harmony Corp. He's always conducted himself with integrity. There's no way he'd have contracted something like that!"

Watching them fight for me with everything they had, I couldn't hold back the tears burning in my eyes.

Bartholomew shrugged helplessly, his face a portrait of innocence.

"Alright, alright, I must've remembered wrong. And the rest of you—I was just joking around! You all took it way too seriously!"

Dr. Cobb let out a cold scoff and fixed my father with a glare.

"Sir, there are jokes you can make, and jokes you absolutely cannot."

"If you'd actually delayed your own son's surgery today, you'd have regretted it for the rest of your life. Fortunately, it's not too late."

From the doctor's tone, it sounded like the surgery could still proceed.

The relief had barely settled in my chest when I saw my father looking at me, letting out a long, weary sigh.

"Gerard. I raised you to be honest. To keep your word."

"Everything I said before was me giving you a chance to come clean. But you still refuse to tell the truth, so don't blame me for doing what's right—even if it means turning against my own son."

With that, he pulled out his phone. A video was already playing on the screen.

A man was on top of a woman, drenched in sweat.

Heavy, ragged breathing filled the air.

The video froze on the man's face.

It was me.

"You think being a CEO means you can cover up anything?! The woman in this video has been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease! That's a documented fact!"

The room erupted.

Even Dr. Cobb, who had been on my side just moments ago, was furious.

His eyes held more than anger. There was disappointment.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous occupational exposure is?! If we'd gone into surgery today without knowing this, we could have been infected!"

"This is a matter of life and death! Were you trying to get us killed?!"

I stared at the video, shaking my head over and over.

"No... that can't be me!"

"It's not you?!" My father held the phone closer and closer to my face. "There was a company party a week ago. Don't tell me you weren't there!"

A company party a week ago?

The words hit me like a jolt. My head snapped up, and I looked at my sister with desperate, pleading eyes.

I hadn't gone to that party. I knew I hadn't.

That night was the night my sister had held her proposal ceremony for her boyfriend, Joshua Delgado.

She'd invited me to witness their love.

If she would just vouch for me, then—

"Cam—"

I barely got the word out before my sister turned her cold gaze on me.

"So that's what you were really doing that night, Gerard. You actually went into someone else's room."

Never. Not in a thousand years would I have imagined this.

The sister I had raised with my own hands. The sister who had just stood up for me moments ago.

She had become the blade now being driven into my chest.

Time was slipping away, second by second. Just like my life.

I looked at my sister and my father. The same faint smile curled at both their lips, perfectly synchronized.

How could I not understand now?

Every one of those so-called jokes had been nothing more than an excuse to run down the clock.

A dull, crushing ache spread through my chest, reminding me that I was running out of time.

Fine, then.

Once this surgery was over, there were certain things I would no longer bother protecting them from.

Perhaps the only person in that room who truly ached for me was my mother—the one who'd been kept in the dark all along.

She murmured the same words over and over, like a prayer.

"That's impossible... my son would never do something like that!"

Every pair of eyes in the room converged on me.

This time, I was certain.

All that remained in those stares was pure, bone-deep revulsion.

"Tch. And this guy's a CEO? Probably slept his way to the top."

"Wouldn't surprise me. Did you hear him moaning in that video? Guy became a CEO just so he could have his fun."

"Disgusting! An animal like him doesn't deserve a kidney. He deserves to die!"

In the face of all that venom crashing over me, I no longer cared.

I watched the triumph gleaming in their eyes—my father and my sister, standing side by side—and pulled out my phone.

I played a video of my own.

The footage from that night. Camila, down on one knee, proposing to Joshua.

I never could have imagined that a video I'd recorded out of pride and genuine happiness for my sister would become my lifeline.

"Dr. Cobb, please watch this."

"The timestamp on my video overlaps exactly with the timestamp on that footage. That video was clearly fabricated."

Faced with my proof, the attending physician scoffed and turned on his heel.

"Seems like your whole family enjoys playing games!" He didn't look back. "I don't care whether you're infected or not. I won't perform this surgery. I can't perform it."

He walked out.

I looked at Dr. Cobb, who had stayed behind.

I pulled up the electronic agreement I'd had my lawyer draft before any of this started.

"Dr. Cobb, I know that nothing I say carries weight anymore."

I glanced at Camila and my father. Not a second of hesitation.

"I'm willing to put up half the shares of my company as collateral. If the post-operative results show any trace of infection, half of Harmony Corp is yours."

The moment the words left my mouth, the smugness drained from my father's face.

I knew that expression all too well.

Whenever his little jokes failed to achieve their purpose, the mask slipped, and what remained underneath was bone-deep hatred.

He glared at me.

Then at the agreement on the screen.

Dr. Cobb let out a long breath and nodded.

"I'll do the surgery."

But when the nurse opened the cooler that was supposed to hold the donor kidney, she screamed.

She stumbled backward, nearly falling over herself as she scrambled toward the doctor. Her face was white as paper, and her voice wouldn't stop shaking.

"D-Dr. Cobb..."

"The kidney is gone!"