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I was stupid and naive and that part of my life was supposed to stay dead, along with the part of my soul that withered away.

"Pizza?" He turns back to the table with the cut pizza in hand and smiles at me as if we're old friends.

Nausea tightens my gut. "Why am I here?" I croak out.

Mario sighs and sets the plate down, then he points out the window.

I follow his finger.

Out in the garden, just past the flowering bushes and almond-shaped trees, runs a young girl with warm, chestnut hair and a wide, toothy smile. She runs a few feet and then doubles over as if catching her breath, and she's quickly joined by a woman with black hair who kneels beside her with a smile.

"That is why you are here," Mario says simply. "Illyana needs a kidney transplant, and you, of course, are the only match."

8

SABINA

Illyana.

That's her name.

"Illyana," I repeat softly in a voice that doesn't sound like mine when it reaches my own ears.

"Would you like to meet her? I suppose it is the least I can do." Mario moves around the kitchen behind me, and things clatter and shift.

I can't take my eyes off her and when he returns, he has several napkins in his hand. He loads them up with pizza slices and then holds one out to me.

"Take her lunch to her."

This has to be some kind of cruel, malicious trick, but for some reason, my body acts with a will of its own. I'm on my feet and following Mario out of the kitchen and into the garden before I can fully process what he's asking of me.

Light, happy laughter bursts through the air as Illyana breaks into a run once more, but she doesn't get far. She steps a few feet away, panting, as the black-haired woman catches up to her once more.

"She is in good health," Mario explains as we walk across warm grass toward her. "But her health is teetering in the balance. One bad day and it is all over, so you can understand how excited we were to find you. Illyana needs a transplant. She's lost one kidney and the other is failing quickly.”

His words wash over me with the warm breeze that caresses my bare arms on the way past, carrying the scent of the sea and an overwhelming amount of florals from the garden. When Mario stops walking, I do too. The pizza in my hands warms the napkin and my fingers twitch against the spreading heat, but it's a distant thought.

It's like his words pressed pause inside me.

I can barely breathe. My heart pounds like it's running out of time and the chill in my blood causes a rush of goosebumps up and down my arms and across my back.

"What—” I choke on the word. "What does this have to do with me?"

"Oh, Sabina. Let's not pretend to be dumb about this. It will be easier on all involved if you just accept that this is where we are and this is what we need. You're a perfect match to Illyana. We tested you while you were unconscious. And no one had any doubt because what better match for Illyana than her mother?"

Mother.

The word pierces my chest and steals all air from my lungs.

I'm not her mother.

I'm no one.

She grew for nine months inside me after that brute of a monster, Leo Visconti, raped me all night long. He held me captive for those nine months and they passed in a terrifying, numbing blur until I went into labor. Fourteen hours I spent screaming in agony to bring her into the world, and I barely got to hold her before they ripped her away from me and packaged me up like I had performed some kind of duty.

Then I was discarded.

Dumped in a hospital with some lie about being a drug addict and given a bank account filled with cash. Cast aside and forgotten.