Chapter 1

My wife's first love, Jeremy Gates, drove drunk and crashed into my car. He suffered kidney damage, while I was critically injured and fell into a coma. My wife, Nellie Shaw, who was supposed to be my doctor, secretly took one of my kidneys during surgery and gave it to Jeremy. Even while I lay unconscious on the operating table, she glared at me. "This is what you get when you let jealousy drive you to harm Jeremy. Let's see if you dare act so recklessly again!" Her gaze was fixed entirely on Jeremy. She didn't even notice my injuries. What she didn't know was that I was already beyond saving. And what she did to me didn't just hurt, but it also erased my last chance of ever waking up. I died at the hands of the woman I had been married to for five years. My resentment must have been so strong that my soul stayed close to Nellie. Jeremy Gates and I ended up in the ER, but the contrast was shocking. Only a few people had tried to save me, while all the top doctors in the hospital were swarming around Jeremy, crowding the room. I exhaled bitterly and watched with my own eyes as Nellie implanted the kidney she'd taken from me into his body. The room visibly relaxed afterward, but I could still feel the fading pain of my own body in my soul. "Dr. Shaw, are you sure nothing will happen to your husband? All the other doctors are here, and there's just a new nurse over there. His injuries look pretty serious…" The nurse beside Nellie hesitated. I was badly hurt. When the car crash happened, I barely had time to react. The impact hit me like a hammer. I felt my insides shatter, and I went out cold instantly. I hadn't expected Nellie to steal my kidney while I was unconscious. Perhaps it was a brief return of consciousness, but I could hear the conversation between the nurse and Nellie. "Dr. Shaw, we can't remove a patient's organ without consent!" Nellie's voice was sharp and cold, like ice breaking on a frozen pond, and it made me shiver. "I'm his wife. I have the authority to make decisions for him, even about his life. He brought this on himself by letting jealousy drive him to hurt others. This is his punishment." When she removed my kidney, she didn't even glance back. If she had paused for a moment, she would have noticed my heart monitor flatline. "A reckless fool like him doesn't deserve this kind of medical care. It's just a kidney. He won't die!" Her words pulled me back into my own agony. I bit my lip, the pain spreading from my chest through every limb and bone. So I was worthless to her. "Finally done!" After finishing the sutures, Nellie snipped the thread with a satisfied smile, radiant like she'd just uncovered a treasure. I had been married to her for five years and had never seen her smile like that. Strangely, something as routine as stitching a wound, which I had begged her to do for me before, she did willingly for Jeremy. I remembered when I broke my leg falling from a ladder while changing a light at home, I begged her to treat me personally, knowing she was the best doctor. However, she looked at me with disdain and spat, "You're such a mess that you can't even fix a light. And you expect me to treat your broken leg?" Even though she was now my doctor, she had taken my kidney and was personally tending to Jeremy. The lack of love was painfully obvious. I'd been deceiving myself for five years.