Never Again in This Life

The Cuyahoga River didn’t kill me, though the ice nearly finished what the surgery started. No, it was the clinical silence of a flatline in an empty ward that finally turned me into a ghost. Now, I stand in the shadows of Willow’s Rest, watching Grayson Holt—the man who carries my kidney in his body and my ring in his trash—burn every trace of my existence. He toasts to his freedom with Jade, mocking the scar on my side he never realized was the price of his life. He thinks he’s finally rid of the woman who "betrayed" him, unaware that the very pulse thrumming in his wrist is a gift from the girl he left to die in the cold. The truth is buried in a medical file he refuses to open, and as I watch him shatter the urn meant for my ashes, I realize the real tragedy hasn’t even begun: Grayson is alive because of my sacrifice, and soon, he’s going to spend the rest of his life wishing he wasn't.