Chapter 1

The world knew me as Liam Miller, the luckiest man in New York City. And they weren't wrong. I had a son, Leo, who was the center of my universe. And I had a wife, Sarah Jenkins, who seemed to worship us both. The whole city saw it.

I had a passion for vintage cars, a simple hobby. Sarah, the CEO of a massive tech empire, turned it into a spectacle. She bought me a private island just off the coast, a climate-controlled paradise of steel and glass, just to house my collection. She called it "Liam's Garage."

My son, Leo, loved superheroes. He lived and breathed them. So Sarah built him a playhouse in our backyard, a perfect, scaled-down replica of the Fortress of Solitude. It was an absurdly extravagant gift, but it made Leo' s eyes light up, and that was all that mattered to me. Our life was a series of grand gestures, a public display of a perfect, doting family. I believed in it completely.

Then came the day of the comic convention. Leo was vibrating with excitement, strapped into his booster seat, clutching a new Captain America action figure. I was driving. I remember the rain, the slick blacktop of the highway. I remember Leo laughing at something I said.

Then, there was only a blinding light and the horrific sound of twisting metal. A truck, appearing from nowhere. The world went black.

I woke up to the sterile, white ceiling of a hospital room. The rhythmic beep of a machine was the only sound. Sarah was by my side, her face pale and her eyes red-rimmed. She looked like she hadn't slept in days. She held my hand, her grip tight.

For a moment, the fog in my head was too thick. Then, like a physical blow, memory returned.

"Leo," I rasped. My throat was raw. "Where' s Leo? I need to see my son."

Sarah' s face crumpled. A tear traced a path down her cheek. She squeezed my hand harder, her knuckles white.

"Liam... oh, God, Liam."

Her voice was a choked whisper.

"There was an accident. A terrible one. He... he lost too much blood, honey. He died at the scene. He didn' t suffer."

The words didn't make sense. They were just sounds, disconnected from reality. Leo? My Leo? Dead? The beeping of the monitor next to me sped up, a frantic, screaming rhythm that echoed the panic in my chest. The world started to tilt, the white ceiling spinning into a vortex of grey. I felt a scream build in my throat, but no sound came out. Then, nothing. I fainted from the sheer weight of the grief.

The next time I woke, the room was dimmer. I didn't open my eyes. The pain in my heart was a physical presence, a crushing weight that made it hard to breathe. I could hear voices, low and serious, near the door. It was Sarah and the attending doctor. I lay still, pretending to be asleep, not ready to face her, not ready to face a world without my son.

"Ms. Jenkins, your son could have been saved, but why did you...?"

The doctor' s voice was hesitant, laced with confusion.

Sarah' s response was not the one a grieving mother would give. It was sharp, cold, and utterly devoid of emotion. She cut him off instantly.

"Liam Miller' s son, from the day he was born, was meant to save Alex' s daughter."

Alex? Who was Alex? The name was a foreign object in the landscape of my life.

The doctor was silent for a beat.

"If he lived," Sarah continued, her voice like ice, "how could I legitimately take his organs? I' ve supported Liam and his son for years; now it' s their turn to repay me."

The words hit me harder than the truck. They were a poison that seeped into every cell, every memory. The private island. The Fortress of Solitude. The doting looks, the loving touches. All of it, a lie. A long, calculated investment. My son wasn't her stepson. He was a resource. His life wasn't a gift she cherished; it was a debt she had come to collect.

The grief didn't vanish. It transformed. It froze into something solid and heavy in my chest. A cold, hard resolve. My body was broken, but my mind had never been clearer. The fog was gone, replaced by a terrible, burning light.

She wanted repayment.

Fine, I thought, as I lay there, motionless, letting the darkness of my new reality wash over me.

Since that' s the case, I' ll give her what she wants.