The Request: A Burden I Could Never Have Imagined
What Ethan asked of me next was a cosmic joke, a demand so unfathomable it felt like a distortion of reality. After everything, after the five years of isolation I’d endured, he was asking me for a favor that would require me to re-enter the very trauma I had escaped.
“Liam is… he’s in trouble,” Ethan whispered, his voice cracking. “It’s bad. Medically. I can’t handle it alone. He needs a donor, and I’m not a match. Elara, you’re the last person, the only person left to ask. He needs your help to live.”
I was speechless, the phone buzzing against my ear like a trapped insect. Disbelief, a searing anger, and an almost paralyzing confusion warred within me. The audacity was staggering.
Should I save the life of the man who chose my brother over me? Could I even look at him, knowing the wreckage they left behind? His broken, pleading voice—the voice of my brother—chipped away at the stone I’d built around my heart. Yet, the five years of agonizing solitude stood as a monument to his selfishness.
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