“My son,” she gasped, voice cracking. “He needs a kidney. He’s critical. Matteo, you have to save him.”
The blood drained from my face.
Matteo stiffened beside me. “Candice—”
She clutched his hands tighter. “Please,” she begged, her voice breaking. “You can’t let him die.”
I stepped forward, my voice shaking. “The kidney is for Amber, our daughter.”
Candice turned to me, eyes filled with desperation. “But my son is also Matteo’s son.”
"But my son is also Matteo’s son."
The words echoed in my skull, each syllable sharp and merciless.
I stared at Candice, my twin, my own flesh and blood—yet in that moment, she felt like a stranger. My pulse roared in my ears as I turned to Matteo, my voice barely above a whisper.
“What… what is happening?” My hands clenched at my sides. “Matteo, are you cheating on me with my sister?”
His eyes widened. “No! I wasn’t cheating on you, Cassandra. I swear.”
I turned to Candice, my breath shaky. “Then explain. Right now.”
She inhaled sharply, guilt flashing across her face. Then, she spoke, her voice trembling.
“The night before my wedding with Derek… I found out I was pregnant with Matteo’s child.”
Derek. My ex-fiancé. The man I was supposed to marry.
The memories surged forward like a flood, drowning me in a past I had fought so hard to forget.
Years ago, Derek and I had been engaged, our wedding set to be a grand event—one that was supposed to mark the happiest day of my life. But fate had other plans.
On the morning of the wedding, Candice and I had been kidnapped.
I still remembered the suffocating darkness, the rough hands dragging us into an unmarked van. The frantic screams. The ropes biting into my wrists. The chilling laughter of our captors as they taunted us.
We were held for ransom, two identical sisters at the mercy of cruel men.
But our parents—our parents only had enough money to save one. And they chose Candice.
I could still hear the moment they told me. The moment my world shattered.
"We’re sorry, Cassandra. We could only save one."
I had begged. Screamed. Pleaded. But the decision had been made. Candice was released, and I was left behind.
Left to be tortured. Left to suffer in a way no one could imagine.
For weeks, I endured their cruelty—starvation, beatings, pain that still haunted me in my nightmares. Until Matteo found me. Until he rescued me. He was my hero.
But by then, it was too late.