Husband Plots with Widowed Sister-in-Law to Kill Our Son

“The match is confirmed. Thank you, Mark. Toby is saved.” A text from the contact saved as “Sister-in-law” flashed across my husband’s phone screen. Mark’s expression froze. He snatched the phone out of my hand. I stared at him, the blood in my veins slowing to a crawl. Our son was lying in a hospital bed, comatose after a hit-and-run, and here he was, busy taking care of someone else’s child. After a long moment, he finally stammered, “It’s my nephew. He has end-stage kidney disease. He desperately needs a kidney.” A sickening premonition washed over me. “Whose kidney? Mark, whose kidney did you use for the tissue matching?” He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Mark! Whose kidney?” After a long, suffocating silence, he choked out the answer: “…Our son’s.”

1 The world began to spin. I staggered backward, my body giving way beneath me. “Alina!” Mark lunged forward, grabbing me, his arms digging painfully into my flesh. “Listen to me, my nephew is on the brink of death!” he pleaded. “His creatinine levels are through the roof, even dialysis isn’t working anymore…” His voice was a desperate rush of excuses. “After my brother died, she had to raise the kids all by herself, with no help from her family. She’s had it so hard, Alina, she’s so pitiful…” He held me, but his words were just a buzzing in my ears. Hard? Who wasn’t having it hard? I shoved him away, planting my feet on the ground. “She’s pitiful? What about our son? Mark! What about our Eric? Isn’t he pitiful?!” My voice broke. “He was a brilliant student! He was sleeping four hours a night, cramming for his college entrance exams. He wanted to get into the best medical school, to save lives…” Tears I had held back for so long finally broke free. “And then, just three days before his final exams…” The despair was a physical weight, crushing me. “Now he’s just lying in that hospital, kept alive by machines! And the bastard who hit him is still out there!” I grabbed the front of his shirt, my nails digging into the fabric. “And you? His father? While he’s lying there unconscious, what have you been doing?” My voice rose to a scream. “You’ve been busy playing savior to someone else, busy trying to carve up your own son!” Mark’s face was ashen. He looked away, ashamed. I let him go, stumbling back against the sofa. I took a few deep breaths, forcing a sliver of calm into my shattered mind. “The surgery hasn’t happened yet, right?” My voice was eerily steady. “Call them. Right now. Cancel it.” I stared at him, my eyes burning. “Tell the hospital that the donor’s family does not consent. Tell them the procedure is illegal.” Mark flinched. He swallowed hard, hesitating. “But… it’s so hard to find a match… and the surgery is scheduled for tomorrow… My sister-in-law, she…” “Mark!” I cut him off, my voice like a whip. “That is a part of my son! No one touches him without my permission!” Just then, the phone he was clutching lit up again. The buzzing vibration was deafening in the silent living room. The screen was facing up. I could clearly see the messages popping up, one after another. The words were intimate, desperate, and cloying. They read like a private conversation between a family fighting for survival, and I, along with my son in his hospital bed, was nothing more than a footnote. 【Mark, I know I wronged you in the past, and with my situation now, I shouldn’t be getting so close to you.】 【But Toby just woke up… he was delirious, but he kept asking for you…】 【If it’s not too much trouble, could you come see him one more time? Think of it as… granting a child’s last wish…】

2 “Wronged you? How did she wrong you?” Mark flinched as if struck, his lips pressed into a thin, white line. “Answer me! What did she do that was so terrible you have to pay her back with our son’s life?” Blood rushed to my head, my vision swimming. His silence was his answer. A guilt-ridden, deafening silence that was worse than any lie. “Fine,” I spat. “If you won’t tell me, I’ll ask her myself.” I spun around, grabbed my keys, and ran for the door. “Alina! Let me explain!” I didn’t listen. The elevator doors slid shut, cutting off the sight of his panicked face. To hell with his explanations. I was going to get the truth from the woman who sent that text. I raced to the hospital, stumbling my way to the pediatric ward. I threw open the door to the room and found her there. Cora. She was sitting by the bed, gently helping the small boy drink some water. She looked up, startled, then quickly composed her face into its usual soft smile. “Alina? What are you doing here…?” She stood, instinctively blocking the bed from my view. I stared at her, my voice low and shaking with rage. “Cora, have you no shame?” “What gives you the right to send those kinds of messages to my husband? And what gives you the right to my son’s kidney?” Cora’s eyes instantly filled with tears. “Alina, please don’t misunderstand. I was just so desperate. Mark has helped us so much, I only wanted to thank him.” She was the perfect victim. “I know I shouldn’t bother him so much, but I have no one else…” A single, perfect tear rolled down her cheek. “If something happens to Toby, how will I ever face his father…?” There it was again. That look. As if she were the most pitiful, innocent person in the world. “Thank him? You thank him by preying on my husband? By trying to take an organ from my comatose son?!” I was shaking, wanting nothing more than to rip that phony mask of sorrow from her face. “Alina!” A sharp voice cut through the air. Mark stood in the doorway, panting, his forehead slick with sweat. He rushed into the room and planted himself directly in front of Cora. “Why are you yelling at Co—at my sister-in-law!” he snapped. “If you have a problem, take it up with me! Toby is sick, do you have to make a scene in here?!” He’d almost said her name. Cora. Not “sister-in-law.” My own husband was shielding another woman from me. The pain was a physical blow to my chest. “Take it up with you? Fine.” A bitter smile twisted my lips. “Tell me why you speak to her so intimately. What, exactly, is she to you?” Mark froze. Behind him, Cora began to sob softly. “I’m sorry, it’s all my fault, I shouldn’t have…” “It’s not your fault!” Mark’s voice was thick with a tenderness that was meant for me, for our family. He took a deep breath and finally turned to face me. “Fine! Cora… she was someone I used to love, okay?!” he burst out. “But that was a long time ago! My brother is gone now, and she and her son have no one. I’m just helping them out for my brother’s sake!” He glared at me, his voice filled with righteous indignation. “Can’t you be less narrow-minded? Why do you always have to assume the worst?” A roar filled my ears, and the world went silent. So that was it. In his eyes, I was “narrow-minded” for trying to protect my own son. I was “assuming the worst” for questioning their sordid affair. And his past love, his current over-the-top “help,” that was noble. That was a tragedy. Memories flooded back, sharp and painful. Ten years ago, he’d held my face in his hands. “Alina, I never knew what love was until I met you. You’re the first and only person I’ve ever truly loved.” Five years ago, when Eric was born, he’d held our son, his voice thick with emotion. “Thank you, my love. The three of us, together forever.” But now, all those vows, all that tenderness, was tainted. Was his love for me always second best to the one that got away? Were his promises to our family always conditional, ready to be discarded for another woman and her child? His so-called devotion might have been a lie from the very beginning. The sharp pain in my chest slowly faded, replaced by a cold, hollow emptiness. I looked at the man in front of me and realized none of it mattered anymore. I took a deep breath. “Mark,” I said, my voice perfectly calm. “Let’s get a divorce.”

3 “Alina, don’t say things you don’t mean.” He reached for my hand, his eyes pleading. “There’s nothing going on between me and Cora! I’m only helping her because my brother asked me to, right before he died.” He was still trying to justify himself. “The doctors said donating one kidney doesn’t have a major impact on a person’s health. Eric is young, he’ll recover quickly, it won’t…” CRACK. I slapped him with all the strength I had left. His head snapped to the side. He stared at me, his eyes wide with disbelief. Cora gasped. “Mark,” I said, my voice shaking with rage, “that was for my son. For being the soulless bastard that you are!” I was screaming now. “No major impact? It won’t endanger his life? How dare you say that! I’m telling you, as long as I am breathing, no one will lay a single finger on my son!” I turned and ran from the room. I had to see Eric. I had to hold his hand and tell him that his mother was here, that I would protect him no matter what. But when I reached his room, I skidded to a halt. The door was wide open. The room was empty. Where was my Eric? Where was my son? “Nurse! Nurse!” I sprinted to the nurses’ station, grabbing the arm of the nearest person. “My son, Eric! Where is he?!” The nurse looked startled. “Mrs. Evans? You didn’t know? About half an hour ago, your husband and another family member came by. They said they had arranged for a transfer to a better hospital. All the paperwork was in order. They’ve already left with him.” My husband… and another family member… Mark! Cora! My vision went black. A wave of pure, cold terror washed over me, threatening to pull me under. They had taken my son. Where were they taking him?

4 “A transfer? Where? Which hospital?” The young nurse quickly checked the records. “Your husband, Mark Evans, signed the papers himself. The destination is the Organ Transplant Center! The ambulance just left…” The Organ Transplant Center! The words were like daggers in my heart. This wasn’t a transfer for better treatment. They were taking him straight to the operating room! For Cora’s son! “You bastard! You absolute monster!” I ran out of the hospital and threw myself in front of a taxi. “The Organ Transplant Center! Go! Please, hurry! They’re going to kill my son!” The terrified driver floored it. My hands were shaking so hard I could barely dial, but I called Mark’s number again and again. Once, twice, ten times… Straight to voicemail. I called Cora. No answer. They were intentionally avoiding me, trying to get the surgery done before I could stop them. Outside the operating room, a red light glowed ominously. Mark and Cora were sitting on a bench, side by side. She was leaning against him, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. He had his arm around her, patting her back, whispering words of comfort. They looked like a husband and wife, facing a crisis together. “Mark!” I screamed, launching myself at him. “You bastard! Stop this surgery! Now!” He stumbled, his face a mixture of panic and grim determination. “Alina, calm down! Eric’s already in there. They had to move the surgery up. It’s for Toby’s sake!” “Move it up? Who gave you permission?! I’m his mother! I didn’t sign anything! This is murder! This is organ theft!” I raised my hand to slap him again, but this time, he caught my wrist. “Alina, stop making a scene! The surgery has started. It’s too late!” “It’s not too late!” I struggled against his grip, screaming at the closed doors. “Stop the surgery! It’s illegal! I do not consent!” Tears streamed down my face. “My son has hemolytic anemia! He can’t survive a major operation like this! He’ll die!” “Hemolytic anemia?” Mark froze, his brow furrowed in confusion. But before he could process what I’d said, Cora clutched her chest, fresh tears streaming down her face. “Mark, my heart… I can’t breathe. If they stop the surgery… does that mean Toby won’t make it?” She looked up at him, her eyes wide with manufactured grief. “And if something happens to Eric because of this… I could never live with myself…” Her voice broke. “But Toby… he’s only twelve…” Her performance was flawless, a direct hit to Mark’s wavering conscience. He took a deep breath and turned to me, his voice devoid of all warmth. “Alina, I know you’re worried about Eric. But the doctors said the chances of him waking from this coma are almost zero.” He was pleading, but his words were monstrous. “He’s already gone, but Toby is still alive! He still has a chance! Isn’t it more meaningful to trade a hopeless situation for a life that can be saved?” He even had the audacity to reach for me, to soften his voice. “Alina, we’re still young. We can have another child…” He was trying to soothe me, as if I were a hysterical child. “I promise, I’ll be better to you. We’ll give all our love to the new baby, okay? Just think of Eric as a hero, saving a life…” CRACK. Another slap, delivered with every last ounce of my strength. “You are not human,” I hissed, my eyes filled with a hatred so pure it burned. I shoved his hand away and threw myself at the operating room doors. I beat on them with my fists, my body. “Open the door! Stop the surgery! OPEN THE DOOR!” Cora let out a faint cry. Mark, his face a mask of fury, grabbed me, trying to pull me away. And then, from the other end of the corridor, came the sound of urgent, rhythmic footsteps. “Police! Nobody move!”