Blurb：
Elena Rossi is dying from acute kidney injury. Her fiancé, Dario Ajello, the powerful Mafia Don, will stop at nothing to save her. The only match is her stepsister, Lucia Rossi, who refuses the five million dollars—instead, she demands Dario pretend to be her boyfriend for one month. Elena would rather die than accept Lucia’s kidney under these terms. Dario promises to refuse, but Elena soon discovers he has agreed to Lucia’s demand. Heartbroken, Elena gives up on treatment, convinced Lucia will never donate the kidney anyway. As her health fails, secrets unravel in Notoroville. Will Dario’s sacrifice save Elena, or destroy their love forever?
Content：
I, Elena Rossi, was diagnosed with acute kidney injury a year ago. I need a kidney transplant to survive.
My fiance, Dario Ajello, is the Don of the mafia family, and he looks everywhere to find a suitable kidney donor for me.
As it turns out, my younger stepsister, Lucia Rossi, is the only person who is eligible to be my kidney donor. However, she refuses to take the five million dollars Dario offers her as compensation.
Instead, she makes a ridiculous demandthat Dario pretend to be her boyfriend for an entire month.
I am all against it. I would rather die than agree to her conditions in order to receive her kidney.
Dario promises me that he won’t fulfill her demands, but I soon find out that he still has agreed to be Lucia’s boyfriend for a month.
After learning the truth, I decide to give up on my treatment and silently make arrangements for my passing.
That is because I know that Lucia will never donate her kidney to me, even if Dario fulfills his side of the obligations.
Chapter 1
I smelled the strong scent of jasmine flowers as soon as I woke up in the hospital bed.
I opened my eyes and saw Dario Ajello, my fiance, changing out the water in the vase sitting by the windowsill.
“Lena, your body can’t hold on much longer. You need to go through with the transplant as quickly as possible,” Dario said, helping me sit up against the pillows as he patiently fed me some water.
I pushed his hand away and said determinedly, “I’ve already told you. I don’t want Lucia’s kidney!”
Dario smashed the glass onto the ground and yelled at me with red eyes, “Elena Rossi! Stop being so difficult! Lucia is the only person whose kidney matches with your blood type. You will die if you refuse to receive her kidney!”
“I would rather die than accept her kidney,” I said, reiterating every word clearly as I watched him lose his cool.
Dario quickly regained his composure and apologized, “I’m sorry. I was just too worried about you. I just didn’t want to think that you’d leave me It’s too much for me to bear.”
I felt my resolve soften. After all, Dario was a childhood sweetheart of mine, and we’d been together for 15 years. Our feelings for each other were very strong.
Dario was a usually cold and aloof young man, but he had reserved all of his gentleness and tenderness only for me. Even after being the biggest authority figure in Notoroville, he still had never once raised his voice or said anything grave to me.
“Elena, if you can’t make it, then I’ll give up on mine as well,” Dario said seriously. “I won’t give up on you if there’s still the tiniest hope for your survival.”
I knew of his love and feelings for me, but I still didn’t want him to be Lucia Rossi’s boyfriend for the month.
He eventually gave in after seeing how stubborn I was about it. He gathered me in his arms so tightly that it felt as if he wanted me to melt into his body.
“I’ll do whatever you say and find another suitable donor for you. But you must also promise me that you’ll receive all the necessary treatments and take care of yourself.”
I thought that Dario would forget about Lucia’s demand if I was firm about rejecting it.
However, three days later, my main doctor, Dr. Fabio Romano, happily announced to me, “Elena! The kidney donor issue has been all sorted out. The transplant surgery will be in one week’s time, so you just need to hold out until then!”
I was very surprised. After all, I had a very rare blood type, and we hadn’t been able to find any suitable kidney donors even after half a year of searching high and low. Dr. Romano had even just told me yesterday that my body would give out soon if they still couldn’t find a suitable donor for me.
But now, he suddenly told me that they’d found me a donor.
I asked him who the donor was. Dr. Romano kept stammering and stuttering as if he was trying to hide the truth from me.
In the end, he told me nothing. I had an increasingly bad feeling about this.
It was boring staying in my hospital room all day. I would often take a stroll out to the park next to the hospital building to get some sun.
Today, I was sitting in the sun as usual in the yard when I suddenly overheard a conversation between two nurses nearby.
“She just got slightly scalded on her hand, and her boyfriend immediately summoned all the doctors to treat her at once. That’s got to be some absolute power he has!”
“Of course! You’re talking about Don Ajello. He’s the most powerful person in Notoroville. And everybody knows how much he spoils his little darling to death!”
“That woman’s such a lucky person. I bet every woman in Notoroville must be so jealous of her!”
“Yeah. It was just a very minor burn, and yet, he still got every doctor in Rosa Hospital to treat her.”
“And you know that we’re the top hospital in Notoroville, where the doctors only treat socialite patients from the upper crust of society.”
My glass slipped from my fingers and fell to the floor, shattering into pieces.
The person they were talking about, the so-called Don Ajello, was none other than my fiance, Dario.
Still, I refused to believe them.
Until I went into the VIP hospital room and saw Dario looking at the woman in his arms with the gentlest, most doting, and most loving eyes I’d ever seen.
The woman was none other than Lucia, my stepsister.
Dario gently held her legs up, a look of anxiousness on his face as he barked occasionally at the nurse dressing Lucia.
“Be more gentle with her! You hurt her again!”
Meanwhile, Lucia kept leaning shyly into his embrace, pulling him closer as she whimpered in his arms, “You promised me you’d bring me to Velnise if I let them dress the wound”
Dario just let her hug him as he replied in a soft, gentle voice, “Alright, alright. You can go wherever you want as long as you let them treat your burn, my little darling.”
At that moment, the nonchalance and calmness I’d been trying so hard to maintain finally shattered.
Chapter 2
I had always been the invisible one in my family. Yet, Lucia had always been both Dad’s and my stepmother’s little princess growing up.
Even though I’d made my presence at home as tiny as possible, Lucia still disliked me and did all that she could to take everything away from me.
She took Dad from me. She took my room from me. She even took away the dresses and jewelry Mom had left for me after she passed.
The only thing she couldn’t take away from me was Dario.
For the past 15 years, Dario had always stood by my side, ignoring Lucia and all of her attempts to grab his attention.
Dario was the person whom I loved. He was also the first and only person Lucia had ever fallen in love with.
I knew Lucia too well. She would never agree to donate her kidney to me. She would only continuously postpone the transplant until the day I finally died.
Her goal was only to snatch Dario away from me anyway.
My face had gone so pale that Dr. Romano got concerned and asked, “Do you want to go for a checkup? You don’t look too good.”
I shook my head robotically. Suddenly, I said, “Stop all the medication, Dr. Romano. I won’t go through with the treatments anymore.”
Dr. Romano was shocked. He protested at once and said, “Do you know what’s going to happen if we stop the treatment now?
“Your heartbeat will turn irregular within a day, you’ll experience breathing difficulties within three days, your whole body will get bloated, and your internal organs will get infected by bacteria”
“How much longer would I have to live?” I asked, interrupting him with the only question I needed the answer to.
Dr. Romano hesitated for a while. Then, he said, “With your condition right now, I think you might only hold out for another week without medication. There’s also a chance that your heart might stop beating at any time.”
At that, he tried advising me against my wishes again, saying, “Ms. Rossi, you’ve already found yourself a suitable donor. You only have to wait for another week to have a brand-new body again. There’s no need for you to stop your medication now!”
“It’s okay. Please just do as I say,” I replied determinedly.
Seeing that I was so insistent about it, Dr. Romano didn’t have any other choice. Still, he told me before leaving, “You just need to wait another week until the day of the transplant. You’ll have a bigger chance of survival after that.”
“There’s no chance of survival,” I said with a bitter smile on my face.
I would never get the kidney. Not next week, not ever. Even if I were to continue with all my medication, I couldn’t possibly hold out until the day I finally got it.
Just as I’d finished speaking, however, a familiar voice suddenly rang out behind me, “Who has no chance of survival?”
I turned around and saw Dario’s panicked eyes looking at me. I just replied calmly, “A sick friend of mine. She didn’t manage to wait for a suitable kidney and passed away this afternoon.”
A split second later, I found myself tightly held in Dario’s shaky arms. He was trembling all over as he said, “Don’t worry, Lena. This will never happen to you! I’ve already found a suitable donor for you. You’ll be fine! I promise!”
I quietly allowed myself to be held in his arms and said nothing in reply. I didn’t even question him for lying to me.
Because I knew that none of it mattered anymore. I was already counting down to my last breath from the moment Dario chose to believe Lucia instead of me.
A long while later, Dario finally calmed down. Then, a conflicted look appeared on his face as if he’d just thought of something.
“Lena, I won’t be able to come and visit you at the hospital for the next few days.”
I said nothing. I knew he would soon say that to me, and I’d expected it. I still couldn’t forget the scene from earlier when he’d promised Lucia to bring her to Velnise.
“It’s work-related. I need to leave Notoroville for that But I’ll still text you every day! I’ll come home immediately if you suddenly feel uncomfortable or anything!”
Dario was probably worried I would start overthinking things and kept stressing to me that he had no choice but to leave for this trip even if he didn’t want to.
I looked up at him and decided not to expose his lies. I just said in a gentle voice, “It’s okay. Just go. Your work is more important.”
Then, I lowered my head and let my tears silently slide down my face.
If this was my fate, then I could only calmly accept my demise.
Chapter 3
It had only been three days since Dario left, and my heart had already stopped beating twice. Each time, the doctors managed to pull me back to life.
Dr. Romano was frantic. “Ms. Rossi, your renal tubules have completely failed. If this persists, you’ll lose your life before you know it. I really highly recommend that you restart your medication again.”
I shook my head and took two more painkillers.
“I’m fine. Please just keep my situation a secret from the others. I don’t want Dario to find out.”
Just as I was done speaking, my phone suddenly buzzed with a notification. It was a text message from Lucia.
“Look, my dear Ellie. Guess who I’m with right now?”
She’d also sent at least a dozen photos of her and Dario being close and intimate on vacation. The photos showed them riding on the gondola, taking pottery classes, hugging on the streets, looking at each other lovingly while under the willow trees
Every photo was in 4K resolution, and I could clearly see the tender, loving eyes Dario had for Lucia in each and every one of them. It simply couldn’t be ignored.
The last thing she sent was a video. I tapped into it and suddenly felt my breath hitch.
Lucia was wearing a beautiful wedding gown, and Dario was wearing an equally stunning suit as they stood in the Church of Saint Marco, with a priest standing between them and reading the scripture.
“Do you, Mr. Dario Ajello, take Ms. Lucia Rossi to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
Dario lowered his head. I could see Lucia’s shy figure reflecting in his gray eyes.
“I do,” his low, magnetic voice sounded in my ears.
My phone dropped to the floor, the last scene stopping where they kissed.
I held a hand to my chest and curled up in pain in a fetal position.
My phone screen lit up again with another text message from Lucia.
“Dear Ellie, did you really think that my kidney actually matched with yours? Haha! I lied! Just be good and die without my kidney!”
I lay quietly in the hospital’s operating room, already half-unconscious.
Dr. Romano kept checking his watch anxiously. “We’ve agreed to proceed with the transplant today! Why isn’t the donor here yet?”
“Oh, no! The patient’s health is deteriorating too fast! We must start the transplant now!”
While slipping out of consciousness, I still heard Dr. Romano calling Dario.
“Mr. Ajello? Today’s the date for the kidney transplant. Is the donor not arriving yet? We’re still waiting for her to begin the operation”
“Lucia”
Dario’s voice suddenly turned blurry, and Lucia’s voice could be heard on the other end of the line.
“Dario, I’m feeling dizzy. Come here and feed me some grapes”
After some static, Dario’s voice came through on the other line again, “Dr. Romano, Lucia just fainted from low blood sugar. She can’t come for the operation today. Elena should still be doing fine, so tell her to wait for another day. I will bring Lucia over tomorrow for sure.”
He hung up before Dr. Romano could get a word in.
“But Mr. Ajello, Ms. Rossi can’t hold on any longer. She can’t wait till tomorrow Hello?”
The ECG monitor kept beeping louder and more frequent as if signaling that the end of my life was near. Dr. Romano couldn’t wait to call Dario again and quickly instructed the staff to perform emergency resuscitation on me.
“Quick! Bring the defibrillator! The patient’s blood pressure is dropping too much!”
The rest of the noise felt like a blur, as though I was listening to everything happening underwater. I couldn’t hear much, not even the warning beeps on the machine or the doctors and nurses shouting and scrambling to save my life.
I could feel my life force slowly leaving me.
Memories flooded my mind, finally stopping on a bright, sunny day, when Dario held my hand and promised me forever.
“Lena, we’ve been together for 15 years. I will remain loyal to you for the rest of my life and never let you down!”
In the end, Dario and I still could never end up together. I had to leave the world first.
A single tear trickled down from the corner of my eye, sliding all the way down my cheek and onto the pristine operating table.
The erratic lines on the ECG monitor screen suddenly turned straight as a piercing siren went off in the operating theater.
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