Chapter 2

The fluorescent lights of the hospital corridor slid past in a monotonous, sterile procession. Aracely lay on the gurney, her world reduced to the white acoustic tiles of the ceiling.

Her phone vibrated against her thigh. She pulled it out. An email. The subject line read: Final Divorce Agreement. It was from Keenan's lawyer. The terms, she knew, would be brutal. A final twist of the knife.

She didn't open it.

With a strange sense of peace, she powered the phone down and handed it to the nurse walking beside her. "Can you hold this for me?"

The heavy doors to the operating room swung open, then closed behind her with a soft hiss, sealing her off from the world.

Cheyenne was already there, a reassuring figure in blue scrubs and a surgical mask. Only her eyes were visible, and they were calm, steady. The eyes of a top surgeon.

She walked over and took Aracely's hand.

"It's going to be okay," Cheyenne said, her voice muffled by the mask.

Aracely squeezed her sister's hand, a final, desperate plea. "If I don't... if I don't make it, promise me you'll make Keenan sign all the papers himself. The death certificate. Everything."

Cheyenne nodded, her eyes crinkling in what looked like a smile. She squeezed back, her grip surprisingly strong, almost painful. "I promise."

The anesthesiologist appeared at her side. He didn't speak, simply moved with a detached efficiency, his hands expertly pushing a clear fluid into her IV line. Aracely felt a coldness spread up her arm. The lights above began to blur, their sharp edges softening into a hazy, dreamlike halo. The rhythmic beep of the heart monitor was a steady, lulling drumbeat.

Her last conscious thought was of her sister's calm eyes.

Then, the world dissolved.

Cheyenne watched her sister's eyelids flutter and close. She held her breath for a count of ten, then looked at the other surgeon in the room, Dr. Zamora. He gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod.

She picked up a scalpel, its steel edge gleaming under the surgical lights. But she didn't move toward Aracely's head.

Instead, she held out her other hand. Dr. Zamora placed a syringe into it. It had no label. The liquid inside was a pale, almost ethereal blue.

Without a moment's hesitation, Cheyenne found the port on Aracely's IV tube and injected the entire contents of the syringe.

The heart monitor, which had been beeping a steady rhythm, suddenly screamed. The green line on the screen became a frantic, jagged mess.

A piercing alarm filled the silent room.

A strange sensation, a violent tearing, ripped through Aracely. It felt like her entire being was being pulled apart. A pressure built in her chest, immense and crushing, and then-release.

Her consciousness shot upward, a cork popping from a bottle. She was floating, weightless, near the ceiling.

Below her, she saw her own body on the table. It was convulsing.

She saw Cheyenne, standing perfectly still, watching the chaos with an unnerving calm.

The nurses and Dr. Zamora rushed around, a flurry of panicked activity. They shouted medical terms, prepared defibrillator paddles. But Cheyenne, the lead surgeon, her sister, did nothing. She just watched.

Aracely tried to scream. Help me! She's killing me!

No sound came out. She was a ghost, a silent, horrified spectator at her own murder.

She watched, powerless, as Cheyenne, in the midst of the fake resuscitation attempt, subtly reached down and switched off a small, vital piece of equipment on the life-support machine.

The frantic beeping of the heart monitor stopped.

It was replaced by a single, high-pitched, unending tone.

A flat line.

The sound echoed in the room, a declaration of death.

Aracely's soul trembled. She was dead. And her sister had killed her.

Cheyenne pulled off her gloves, her face devoid of any grief. Instead, a flicker of something else crossed her features. Greed. Triumph.

She walked to a phone on the wall and dialed a number.

Aracely's soul drifted closer, straining to hear.

"The donor is ready," Cheyenne said, her voice crisp and businesslike. "The liver and both kidneys are viable. Begin the extraction. I'll handle the paperwork."

A cold, paralyzing terror seized Aracely. This was never about a tumor. It was about her organs.

Rage, pure and absolute, surged through her. She lunged at Cheyenne, a silent, spectral scream tearing from her, but her form passed right through her sister's body.

Cheyenne shivered, a sudden, involuntary tremor. She rubbed her shoulder, a flicker of confusion in her eyes, as if a cold draft had just passed by.

Dr. Zamora approached, holding a clipboard. On it was a form. Organ and Tissue Donation Consent.

At the bottom, a blank line was waiting. For the signature of the next of kin.

Cheyenne's lips curved into a chilling smile. "Don't worry," she murmured, her voice a low, silky promise. "By the time anyone notices, it will be too late. She'll have simply disappeared."

Aracely's soul stared at the document. It was a death warrant. And her husband, the man who wished her dead, was about to be told she had vanished.