My Husband Wanted My Kidney

Janice stood in the quiet sterile room of the hospital, the acrid smell of the hospital disinfectants infesting her nostrils as she stood in the hospital gown, her hands clutched to the consent forms that's awaiting her signature to save a life.

Only her breathing and that of Nelson, struggling for his life could be heard in the silent room.

For the past nine months, her husband, Nelson Smith has been fighting for his life due to kidney failure, and without surgery, he has less than four months to live.

Nobody in his family matched after tests were done. Not even his siblings, parents, or cousins, except one person; Janice Capuno, his wife.

"Mrs. Smith, I know this might be hard on you, but you have to be strong, not just for yourself, but for your husband." Nurse Tiana said calmly, patting her back when she saw the uncertainty in Janice's expression.

"Ms. Smith, you have thirty minutes left to get yourself ready for prep." The surgeon said when he stopped by to check on her.

Even though she had been hoping and praying for this surgery to be successful, her heart never stopped sinking, a mixture of emotions swirled inside her, excitement, fear, and relief.

After the next thirty minutes, she'll have only one kidney to survive on for the rest of her life.

'What if that one fails in the near future and she finds it difficult to get a match?' she thought, but immediately, she shut her eyes closed to dismiss fear and all negative thoughts.

Besides, she has made up her mind already. She's ready to cut open her body to save the man she had promised to love in sickness and in health, and nothing will make her to back down because she can't afford her husband's blood to be on her hands when she knows that she has every opportunity to save him.

Ten minutes later, the nurses came to Prep Nelson. They gave him a mild sedative to relax him before the main amnesia.

Janice held his hands, her eyes on the verge of tears as she whispered words of encouragement and love to her husband, while she watched his gradually failing eyes.

"Babe...my phone... switch it off... battery" Nelson muttered, pointing a finger at his bag before finally falling asleep.

Janice picked up the phone to switch it off, but before she pressed the power button, the screen light flashed as a whatsapp notification popped up. It was from Tricia, Nelson's college sweetheart, the same woman he wanted to marry years back but she abandoned him when he couldn't meet up to her financial standard.

"Babe, has the fool gone into the theatre yet? I can't wait for this to be over. Once you get the kidney, we're done with her." The message read.

Janice blinked, her blood turned ice and her body stiffened up immediately. A sharp pain struck her heart as if being pierced by a double edged sword.

Before she could blink again, another notification popped up, a debit alert from his bank for a transfer done to Tricia.

She tried to unlock the phone, but the password she knew has been changed. Her body began to quiver.

She pressed her thumb, and luckily enough, her thumbprint was still saved in the phone, so it got unlocked instantly.

Without hesitation, she logged into his bank app and scrolled through the recent transactions history, her entire body stiffened.

It all started five months ago. The same month that Nelson began to act cold towards her. The same month that she complained about feeling unloved, but Nelson waved it off with the lame excuse of being under the trauma of kidney failure, and since then, he stopped all forms of intimacy with her. In just five months, the amount of money that Nelson had sent to Tricia was ten times what he had spent on her as his wife of three years.

She quickly scrolled up their WhatsApp chats, her eyes were already sullen with tears and her hands began to tremble that the phone almost fell off.

Date: 3 months ago

Nelson: The doctor said Janice is a match. Thank God, I don't have to spend millions to buy a kidney.

Tricia: Are you sure you can tolerate her? You said you wanted to divorce her next month.

Nelson: I have to pretend babe. I have to be sweet. Once I get the kidney and recover, I will file for a divorce. I can't be with a woman that has only one kidney. I need a complete woman like you.

Date: Last week

Tricia: Hope she doesn't back out.

Nelson: She won't. She's stupidly in love. She's already convinced that I'm buying her a car and as well taking her to Canada for the two weeks vacation as I've promised. She doesn't know that the only thing she's getting is a divorce.

'Hmmmmmm.' Janice breathed deeply, her eyes filled with tears as she looked at her sleeping husband. He looks peaceful and innocent.

For three years, she abandoned her wealthy family identity and her career as an ambitious interior designer in California and willingly relocated to New York after marrying Nelson Smith against her family's wishes.

Instead of happiness, she was treated as a servant by her mother in-law, mocked as a gold-digger by her sister in-law, but amidst all, Nelson never stops loving and defending her.

For that, she ensured to use her connections, secretly working underground to uplift his business and give him a bigger name in the society, from a common struggling business man to the President of the Smiths Enterprise, the largest textile and manufacturing industry in the city.

For nine months, she washed, fed and prayed for him, yet, instead of seeing her as a wife, he only saw her as a foolish organ donor to be discarded like a squeezed orange once he gets what he wants.

Janice squeezed her eyes shut to force back the tears that were threatening to fall when she heard footsteps approaching.

"It's almost time. You need to come with me." The surgeon said as he entered.

Janice glanced at the watch on her wrist, there's just fifteen minutes left, and the waiting room is flooded already with family and close friends waiting to hear the success of the surgery.

"Ok doctor. But can you please give me a few minutes? I need to use the restroom." She said, her voice calm and frail.

The doctor nodded. " But don't take too long. This is the critical hour."

Janice looked at the consent forms in hands, thankfully, she was yet to endorse her signature.

Without hesitation, she took her phone and slouched to the restroom.

Every word from the conversation flashed her memory, and this time, she couldn't hold her tears back anymore.

The hospital gown she wore was already soaked in tears while she wept and thought of the best way out, but her brain became totally blank.

Suddenly, her phone began to ring.

When she looked at the caller ID, she heaved a sigh of relief.

It was Dian, her best friend–the only person who never mocks her decision.

"Hi Janice, sorry for taking too long to come. I'll be at the hospital in the..." Dian tried to explain when Janice cut in impatiently.

"Dian, don't bother coming to the hospital anymore. I'll text you an address where we can meet."

She looked at her reflection in the mirror, a smug smile washed over her face.

"You want to get my kidney for free while you save your money to have a better life with your mistress...then let me show you a better way to save enough money." Janice thought to herself with a wicked smirk, and without hesitation she logged into his bank app and made a transfer of 99.9 billion out of the 100 billion left in his account.

''You laughed at me for being too foolish, I laugh at you for being so naive.''Janice mumbled as she took off the hospital gown and cleaned her tears, her lips curling up into a wicked smirk while she stood beside Nelson, murmuring her final words of goodbye.

"Mrs. Capuno, are you ready now? We're already running out of time." The surgeon remarked when he returned.

"Sure, doctor. But.." the doctor quickly cut in before she finished her statement when his attention was drawn to her dress.

"What about the medical gown?" He furrowed his brows.

"Emm... That's what I was about to explain before you interrupted." Janice sneered, running her hands over her hair before she continued.

"I'm sorry to say, but the gown is all soaked with tears. It feels..."

"It's okay. I understand." The surgeon cut in.

"Just follow me. The nurse will get you another gown." He instructed.

"Okay." Janice nodded and followed after him.

As they proceeded, the surgeon stopped midway, pointing through a brown wooden door by the left. "There's the pre-operating Bay. The nurses there will give you a change before Porter helps you to the theatre." He explained and proceeded to his office to get a few things before going to the operating room.

As soon as Janice watched his retreating back, she quickly took a different turn through the back door.

"Dian, hope the driver is ready? I'm almost out." She quickly texted her friend.

As soon as she reached the hospital back gate, she hopped into a silk black Jeep that zoomed off immediately.

At the theatre, the surgeons waited endlessly for Janice to be wheeled in. When they saw no sign, they quickly checked what could have gone wrong at the changing room, but the nurses reported not to have set an eye on Janice.

"Mrs. Smith. Did you see Mrs. Capuno? We can't find her and delay is dangerous at this moment." Nelson's doctor asked Virginia, Nelson's mother as he approached the Smith's family and friends who were all seated in the waiting room.

"Wait, You.... you must be joking with this question right?" Virginia sneered, her lips curling up into a wicked smirk.

"Why would I joke with something like this?" The doctor retorted and one of the nurses quickly dashed out to the Ward and checked the rest room, but Janice was still nowhere to be found.

"Ma'am, the surveillance cameras just showed that the woman you're looking for had left the hospital about thirty minutes ago. She left through the backdoor." One of the securities reported.

"What? How could you people be so careless to have allowed her to walk out at this critical hour leaving my son's life at risk?" Mrs. Smith bursted out.

"You know what, I'll burn down this facility if anything dare happen to my son's life. Take this as a warning and better know what to do!" Nelson's mother jerked the nurse by her collar and threatened.

"There's nothing the hospital can do about that, Mrs Smith. We're sorry, but It's either you look for another donor or we keep him on the waiting list. We can only try our best to manage his condition." The surgeon dismissed her threats.

Virginia became restless. Pacing back and forth to the waiting room.

"This lady must be a bastard! I can't believe that she tricked us all!" She cursed.

"I've always warned Nelson! She's nothing but a gold digger! Isn't it obvious that she's only after money that's why she ran off because this one is a sacrifice that demands her free services?" Melissa, Nelson's sister flared up.

"Janice, nobody tries the Smith's family and just go freely as they wish." Virginia cursed under her breath, furrowing her brows with deadly eyes.

****

"Janice!" Dian exclaimed, engulfing her in a tight hug as soon as the car shuts close.

"I'm sorry for everything. But sometimes, that's the sacrifice we do for love. In fact, you should be very proud of yourself instead. Not every woman can donate her kidney to her husband even if they're a match." Dian continued.

"I didn't." Janice cut in, sighing heavily.

"How? What happened?" Dian asked, furrowing her brows.

Janice's lips parted open, as if she wanted to say something, but as she took a deep breath, she began to sob uncontrollably, causing the tears she had been trying to withhold from the hospital to fall freely.

For almost fifteen minutes, she remained in Dian's embrace, soaking her shirt with tears before the car pulled off at a large house with a shiny gold coated gate.

"So, do you mind telling me what happened? Did the doctors later say that you two are not a match? How would Nelson survive at this critical hour?***" Dian asked after she made a cup of coffee for Janice as soon as they entered the house.

Sighing heavily once again, Janice finally opened up.

"The doctors didn't say anything, Dian. But I choose to run away."

"Huh? Why? But you willingly agreed to do this for your husband, Janice. Why back out now?"

"Because he doesn't deserve it, Dian. The only thing that Nelson deserves now is nothing more than endless pains before death." Janice sneered.

Sighing heavily, Dian didn't press further to pressure her for answers because she can feel the pains and anguish laced in her voice, a type that she has never witnessed all through their two decades of friendship, not even when her step mother fabricated destructive lies about her that made her father end up getting her detained in the psychiatric ward for three months.

"You can read this. It'll answer all the questions in your mind, Dian." Janice finally broke the silence while handing out her phone to Dian, showing her the screenshots of Nelson's chats with Tricia.

Before she could even finish reading through the screenshots, her breath began to change, her chest beating faster than usual.

"What the fuck! Janice, you mean that bastard was planning all of this even with the deadly sacrifice you were about to make for him with your life?" Dian flared up.

"Wait, is your father aware of this? Does he even know whose daughter you are before planning to mess around with your life?" Dian snapped.

"I haven't informed my father yet. Besides , even if I do, I'll only get scolded, and my step-mother, she'll only make the situation worse by turning my father against helping me." Janice sneered.

"After all, I brought this upon myself because I was for-warned by my family but I foolishly insisted on the marriage. So, this is my battle to fight." Janice scoffed.

Dian breathed deeply. "So, what do you do from here? Are you divorcing him?" She asked.

"Not so fast. He wanted to get a huge part of me before divorcing me, so since the ball is in my court now, I also must get a huge part of him before filing for a divorce." Janice sighed heavily and continued

"I'm going to the Smiths Enterprise right now. Since Nelson is running away from spending his money on getting a kidney, I'll help him acquire that in a better way."

"What do you mean?" Dian raised her brows.

"He wouldn't have climbed the ladder to wealth so easily if not for my connections. So, I'm taking an emergency loan that is worth 90% of his shares at the company, then I'll give out the Smiths estates in Albany as a collateral." Janice explained, her voice indifferent.

Dian's blood turned cold. She became speechless. Even though she considers the reaction too deadly and extreme, she didn't want to criticize her, because only a victim of betrayal knows how it truly hurts.

"Mrs. Smith, we can't offer you such an amount of loan without your husband's approval." Mr. Leonard, the company's financial controller, said, his voice firm and determined.

Janice lowered her head and pouted her lips.

"Mr. Leonard, hope you know that we're talking about my husband's life here, right? Mr Nelson has shares worth over $100 billion in this company.

And now that he's battling with his life, do you mean to tell me that you'd rather wish him death than offer him a loan that can be compensated with his shares?" Janice asked, raising her brows in a slight frown.

Mr. Leonard remained silent.

"Oh, wait." Janice scoffed.

"You know, I've always heard rumours of how you want to take over my husband's position at the company. Is this now your plan to finally secure it? You're angry that he's gonna survive after getting a transplant, right?"

"Com'on, madam. This is emotional blackmail. And...why would I wish my boss such evil?" Leonard argued.

Janice pressed her lips and nodded.

"Don't worry. I know who to call." She added, her voice barely above a whisper and took out her phone as if she wanted to place a call.

"Madam, please wait." Leonard muttered, his voice laced with fear.

For the many years he has worked at the Smiths Enterprise, he has heard about the silent connection of Janice to the company's affairs aside from being the wife of the president. In recent times, he also heard about how two employees were retrenched immediately due to her underground influence.

"It's possible to give you the loan, but I can't endorse it on my own. I'll need the approval of a few of the board members." He said, his voice trembling in fear.

"Better be fast." Janice snapped.

What Leonard doesn't know is that before she arrived at the building , she had already texted the key board members of the company about the loan request.

***

So, tell me, how did it go? Were you able to secure the exact amount?" Dian asked as soon as Janice dashed out of the building and got into the car.

"You don't expect my mission to fail, do you?" Janice chuckled softly, and they both bursted out into rounds of laughter, but Dian suddenly went mute, her eyes fixed on Janice as if she's looking for something missing.

"Any problem?" Janice asked, furrowing her brows as she placed her hands on Dian's cheeks to feel her temperature.

"Janice. What if....what if you get caught after all of this? What if that deadly Virginia comes looking for you?" Dian asked, her voice trembling in fear.

"There's nothing she can do about that. Besides, I didn't steal." Janice replied, her voice indifferent.

"Huh? Like seriously, Janice? I'm afraid for your life but look how confident you are as if nothing's wrong?" Dian bursted out.

"First, I only got this money because it's my entitlement for the wasted years. I would have made more than this if I were still in California pursuing my career, so I need it to get back on my feet. After all, they have no history of my family, so I'm leaving for California immediately to rebuild my life."

By the way, it's only those that have money that can win a fight, right? So, where will the Smiths get the money to fight me? Except if they're ready to go completely bankrupt." She added.

"That reminds me." She paused and pulled out her phone to place a call.

"Hello Mr. Romero. I need you to prepare divorce papers for me and Nelson as soon as possible. I'll text you an address where we can meet up and you'll give me the papers. And for that, I also want to let you know that from this minute, I am nullifying everything concerning my previous will." She instructed and hung up the call.

"Janice," Dian wanted to speak when Janice's phone suddenly started to ring again.

When she looked at the caller ID, she hissed bitterly and returned the phone to her bag.

It was Virginia Smith, her mother in-law.

But the call persisted for almost an hour. This time around, more than a hundred missed calls from her in-laws and husband's friends.

"Janice, I swear to God, you'll live to regret ditching my son on that hospital bed for the rest of your life. Just know that wherever you are, the Smith's family must find you!" Virginia sent a threatening voice note, followed by several others from Melissa and Nelson, but Janice remained unfazed.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Dian asked.

"Just a chill drink to cool down my head." Janice replied casually.

The ride to the Veritas lounge took only fifteen minutes.

"Welcome to the Veritas lounge bar ladies, how may I serve you?" A lady in white apron asked as she approached with an enigmatic smile.

"A glass of champagne would do." Dian scoffed.

"Yeah. Same here." Janice nodded when the lady's gaze shifted to her side.

"Wow! Wow!! Wow!!! Look who we have here! Now I have no doubt that this world is just a small place." A familiar masculine voice roared from an angle.

Janice turned.

"Mr. Lucas?" She raised her brows, a faint smile spreading across her lips to conceal the fear in her.

"Relax–Miss Capuno. Everything of the past has slid. Isn't it? Besides, you never imagined seeing me again in this life, do you?" He asked, curling up his lips in a wicked smirk.

"I don't care how you see it, Mr Lucas. But I never ran away from you! I was also innocent of the allegations. I tried everything to counter the evidence against and get you out of prison but I failed." She paused and took a deep breath.

"Do you think I can just easily win over my father even if I have every evidence to set you free?" Janice argued with a flinch.

"Who's this man, Janice?" Dian was starting to get irritated by his unwelcome presence, but Janice immediately winked an eye for her, asking her to cool her temper.

Soon, Janice's phone started to ring. She looked at the caller ID and heaved a huge sigh of relief.

It was Barr. Romero.

'Finally. I have a reason to get out of Luca's sight' she thought.

She quickly stood up. "You know what Mr Lucas, we can still talk over the phone some other time. I have somewhere important to go." She explained and began taking steps away.

Immediately, Lucas grabbed her wrist tightly, digging his nails into her flesh.

"Auch! You're hurting me!" Janice screamed, but Lucas remained adamant.

Dian's face got sullen with anger. She clenched her fist to her palms to reject the rising urge of slapping him, even though she's still afraid of his intimidating physique.

The last time she allowed her emotions to control her to hit a man with a physique like Lucas, she ended up spending two weeks in the hospital after just one slap that nearly shifted her brain.

"Janice, you dare not walk out on me when I'm talking." He threatened, fixing his deadly eyes on her without a blink.

"Well, I don't have your time today, because I'm here for something more important. In case you care to know, I have a multi-billion dollar business deal to close with the Smiths enterprise today. I know that you and your wicked goddamn father never expected I'll reach this level one day, right?" He let out a wicked smirk.

'Damn it Lucas! I'll make sure I do everything possible for you not to sign this deal with the Smiths Enterprise!" Janice cursed inwardly.

*****

"Ahhhh." Dian exhaled heavily, leaning her two hands on her waist. "Babe, that guy is horrible! Thank God for my past experience, if not, I would have foolishly allowed my anger to get my face disfigured today." She remarked, and they both burst out into laughter.

"So, did you really intend to call him once you get home, or you just gave him your contact out of fear?" Dian asked