Prologue
Ellie.
I had a strong distaste for James Abbott for years. We attended the same private school together as teenagers and he was my brother’s rival, the reason my brother didn’t get to participate in the football team’s season for his senior year. He was the enemy, a complete jerk with no care for anyone but himself and his fancy family. Even after 8 years, James and Gavin were still at odds. Two grown men being twenty-six years of age still hated one another. They always wanted the same things. The same girls, the same careers, the same position in football; but not everyone could be quarterback.
Naturally, James was the school’s top pick because his family invested so much into the programs there, so Gavin lost out on the opportunity regardless of his talents. Now, they both work for the same law firm and regularly fight over the big cases that are handed to them.
No one in the world could understand the hatred that the two had for one another, except me. I witnessed it all. I was the punchline of many of James’ jokes because he knew it bothered Gavin that his younger sister was getting picked on for being on the heavier side. Turns out I had major thyroid issues that impacted my weight drastically for the larger part of high school.
Luckily for me, I was accepted for an incredible internship in New York fresh out of school and I fled Colorado as soon as the opportunity was given to me. I didn’t look back except for Christmas and Thanksgiving, with an occasional trip during the summer, but during those time I never had to see James Abbott.
Until now.
“What happened?” I asked my mom as I rushed into the hospital room, frantic and terrified.
I was in New York when I received the call about Gavin’s accident. I wasn’t given much information about it but my mom had been sobbing on the phone and it sounded bad. She spent the last two days at the hospital at Gavin’s side until I could manage to fly home to be there with her.
“Drunk driver,” She said softly, sitting next to my brother and holding his hand gently, “He was driving home from the office late at night and the other driver was driving into oncoming traffic, hit him head on.”
I covered my mouth as I looked at my brother on the hospital bed. He was pale and had many things hooked up to him, it was a scary sight and didn’t look promising. He looked in rough shape.
Finally, I found myself a seat and stared at Gavin in the bed before clearing my throat, “Is he going to pull through?”
“I don’t know, Elizabeth,” My mom fumbled with her words and it was clear that she was emotional, “He needs a blood transfusion... The hospital has no O negative donors and without the transfusion there’s a big chance that he won’t pull through.”
Blood types were never my strong suit. I knew that Gavin was a are blood type but we’re siblings, so couldn’t I help him somehow?
It was almost as though my mother heard me and replied to my thoughts, “The only match for Gavin was your father... You and I are both A positive.”
“Well we need to find a donor,” I demanded, standing up and running my fingers through my hair in frustration, “Doesn’t the hospital have a list of O negative residence here? There has to be someone. What about extended family? Friends? We’ll ask everyone.”
My mom sighed, shaking her head before covering her face and sobbing softly, “I’ve asked everyone I could possibly think of. Everyone, Elizabeth. The hospital can’t release records of people in the area with his blood type. It’s confidential.”
I stood in silence for longer than I could fathom. There has to be options, we couldn’t just let my brother die. He had so much more in life to do and this wasn’t how it would end. I couldn’t let this be the end of his story.
Without a second thought I hurried out of the room and to the nearest nurses station, looking at the brunette nurse behind the desk with an inquisitive look, “Hi, I’m Elizabeth Paige, my bother Gavin Paige is in room 319. My mother was telling me about him needing a blood transfusion and my Uncle Frank said that he could be a potential match. Would you be able to look him up on the blood type database or whatever you use? He hasn’t had his blood work done since he was in his thirties living here in Colorado.”
“Sure thing, sweetheart. Let me just take a look at our list,” She began to type on the computer and scrolled slowly which was killing me. I tapped my fingers on the desk quietly and looked around for a potential distraction, anything at all to get the nurse away from her computer. She looked up from the screen, “What’s your uncle’s last name?”
I raised my brows, quickly thinking of a potential last name for my fake Uncle Frank, “Uh... Silver. Frank Silver.”
The nurse clicked her tongue and the silence was deafening. My eyes landed on the fire alarm in the hallway and walked over slowly while the nurse continued to look. I was never a rebellious person, I followed the rules and I respected authority, but following the rules wouldn’t save my brother’s life.
Once I approached the fire alarm, I looked around to make sure no one was looking before finally pulling it and hearing the alarm sounding throughout the hospital which sent everyone into a frenzy. When I looked back at the nurse’s desk it was empty as I had hoped and I rushed back to the computer, looking at the screen for any name of someone I could find and convince to donate to my bother.
The last name Silver was typed at the top of the search bar and there were no matches, but suggestions on similar names. My eyes landed at the top name and I stared at the name in shock, knowing that if there were any person in this world that I needed help from, he wouldn’t be the one to give it to me.
James Abbott. O negative.
