Chapter 1

After I set up the camera, I realized the clients booked for a family portrait were the parents and older brother I'd run from five years earlier.

The moment our eyes met, my mother's smile froze.

Her eyes went red, and she asked uncertainly, "Remy... is that you?"

"You're alive?"

With one finger resting on the shutter, I reminded them, "Keep smiling. Look at the camera."

My father shot to his feet. "Are you really this spiteful? Five years of hiding from us. What grievance in a family takes five years to get over?"

I looked at the dog beside my brother, also named Remy, and couldn't understand what he was angry about.

They were the ones who'd spent my whole childhood telling me I existed for one reason: to be marrow for my brother.

Even the dog got to be in the family portrait I wasn't allowed in as a child.

I gave up on that family a long time ago.

Chapter 1

Victor Weller's gaze moved over the dust covering my work clothes, and his voice mixed pity with contempt.

"I admit I treated you badly back then, but after disappearing so dramatically, how did you still end up living like this?"

I adjusted the lens without interest.

"If you still want the session, please hurry. The deposit isn't refundable."

My mother, Lorraine Weller, wiped her eyes over and over and reached for me.

"A family portrait should have the whole family in it. Remy, come stand with me."

I stepped away from her hand.

"The booking says four family members: three people and one dog. The dog's already in position, so could you please go back to your seat and cooperate?"

My father, Martin Weller's face darkened immediately.

"Disgraceful."

His finger nearly jabbed my forehead.

"You cried for years because you wanted to be in these pictures, and now you think you're important enough to turn us down?"

I was about to call security when Victor stood quickly and tried to calm him.

"Don't get worked up. We still have dinner with the Fairchild family tonight."

He checked his watch, wrote down a phone number, and held it out to me.

"We're in a hurry today. Find a time so we can talk this through properly. Families can survive any misunderstanding."

I didn't take the paper.

"Use the studio phone if you want another appointment. After eighteen years of marrow and stem-cell collections, I don't owe any of you anything. I was never even registered in your household as a child, so stop pretending we're close."

My parents went pale and tried to speak, but Victor checked his watch again and set the paper on the worktable.

"I'm about to marry into the Fairchild family. For the sake of our history, I could still give you a hand. You've been on your own for five years, so think it over."

He steered our parents out, all three of them walking off like they'd won something.

I'd just asked my assistant to throw the paper away when Elena Fairchild called.

"I'm so mad, babe. I've got a business dinner tonight that I've pushed back three times, and now I can't get out of it. We'll have to look at wedding clothes tomorrow instead."

"That's fine. Who are you meeting?"

Elena started complaining right away.

"A supplier we've worked with for years. Their contract's about to renew, and now they suddenly want to renegotiate the whole thing. It's absurd. They're stealing time from my future husband."

That answered it. And the second I said so, Elena caught the change in my voice.

"You sound upset. Did another strange client come into the studio?

"We opened that place because photography makes you happy. Block anyone who ruins it."

I smiled.

"My biological parents and older brother came in for a family portrait.

"And judging from what you just said, they're probably the people you're having dinner with tonight."

Chapter 2

I heard brakes squeal through Elena's phone.

"Stay at the studio. I'll have my secretary cancel dinner and come to you right now."

Elena knew only that things with my biological family were bad and that we'd cut contact years earlier.

She didn't know the rest of it.

Hearing the fear in her voice made me change my mind.

"Don't cancel. I'll go with you tonight."

After the call, I stared at the photo I'd taken by accident when my hand shook.

My mother frowned, my father clenched one fist, and Victor stood with his arms folded.

The dog beside them had its tongue out, wearing the same eager-to-please expression I'd worn as a kid.

They didn't love me. I'd understood that from the beginning.

The sentence my parents repeated most often was, "Your life exists because Victor is suffering."

Victor had a severe inherited marrow-failure disorder, and no compatible donor could be found.

Out of options, my parents conceived me through fertility treatment as an HLA-matched sibling donor.

They planned to use my cord blood and early stem cells and then place me for adoption. They didn't even finish my birth registration in the family household.

The operation finally ended, and the result was devastating.

My donated cells failed to establish normal red-cell production in Victor's marrow.

Victor survived only through continuous transfusions and repeated donor-cell boosts from me, under an experimental private program.

My mother held the small body of her older son and sobbed over the suffering he'd face for the rest of his life.

My father hit the wall until his knuckles bled and demanded to know why fate tortured his precious boy.

Nobody noticed that I was severely dehydrated in the other hospital bed and no longer able to cry.

That's my earliest memory.

That feeling of unbearable thirst followed me through the first half of my life.

My parents decided that because I'd stayed in their house, I'd somehow caused Victor's transplant to fail.

To punish me, they registered me separately from the family.

They named me Remy because, to them, I was only the remainder left over after Victor's treatment.

I had no bedroom and slept in the living room. My clothes were whatever Victor had outgrown.

Sometimes my mother softened and slipped me a cookie when she divided up the snacks.

Victor would cry until he struggled to breathe while our parents swore that every part of their love belonged to him alone.

Only then would he stop.

I tried crying too. It got me a slap.

I learned fast that any affection I got depended entirely on Victor's mood.

So I threw myself into pleasing him.

When elementary school started, Victor demanded that I, two years younger, be moved up into his grade.

He told the other kids I was the servant our parents had made for him.

I carried his backpack, ran his errands, and did his classroom chores.

I did all of it without complaining.

I even let him use me as a punching bag whenever he was in a mood, and I hid the bruises without a sound.

I wanted our parents to see me. I wanted to be treated like someone who belonged in that house.

The monthly collection day was the date I looked forward to most.

My parents would stay right beside me, watching blood and donor cells move through the lines before they carried the bags to Victor like treasure.

Thirty minutes of being completely seen was enough to carry me through every other day of being invisible in that house.

I thought my life would go on that way forever, until something changed.

Against everyone's expectations, I earned the highest score in the district and a place in Brindleford Academy's advanced program.

On results day, another parent clapped my father on the shoulder and congratulated him.

"Your younger boy's remarkable. Getting into the advanced academy at his age is something else."

My father looked confused. "Younger boy?"

It took him a second to come up with my name. "Remy?"

My mother pointed at the banner outside the school. "That says Remy Weller ranked first?"

For the first time, they looked at me without seeing a criminal, a medical supply, or a burden.

My father even touched my head and told me I'd done well.

Something went through me like a shock, and none of it felt real.

I forgot to look at Victor's reaction.

My parents kept smiling the whole way home, and it wasn't until dinner that we realized Victor was gone.

Chapter 3

He wasn't hiding. He was lying in the bathtub with a shallow cut across his wrist that had already started closing.

A note sat beside him.

It said, "Remy called me stupid, weak, and useless. He said I don't deserve to inherit the Weller family and that I should die."

My father scooped Victor up and ran outside, his legs going so weak he nearly went down twice.

My mother lost all the color in her face. She pressed both hands over Victor's wrist and screamed for help as they rushed for the hospital.

They were so frantic that they knocked into me on the way past and sent me down the stairs without noticing.

The pain nearly kept me from standing, but terror carried me to the hospital on one bad leg.

The second my mother saw me, she crossed the hall and hit my face again and again.

The blows left me unable to breathe.

"If Victor had never gotten sick, you'd have had no reason to exist.

"How dare you say something like that to my son?"

Her voice drove into my ringing ears like a needle.

My father grabbed the back of my neck and dragged me into a treatment room.

A cold needle went into my arm, and the look on his face was terrifying.

"We made you to save my son. We fed you and clothed you all these years, and this is how you pay him back?"

What they drew through the line left me too dizzy to speak.

My mouth opened, but I couldn't get out either sentence sitting inside me.

I didn't hurt Victor. I'm your son too.

When it was over, my parents left without looking back.

The stress and blood loss brought on a high fever, and the terrible thirst came back.

A night nurse named Delia Roarke found me and started shouting after one look.

"Whose kid is this? His fever's dangerously high. Where are his parents?"

I pointed weakly toward the next room, but when she tried to lift me, I went down.

The noise finally brought my parents out, and Delia laid into them.

"What kind of parents leave a child with a fever this high and a broken leg?"

Only then did they notice my right leg twisted out of place below the knee and the blood soaking my pants.

For one second, something like pain crossed my mother's face. She took my burning body from Delia.

It was the first time I'd ever leaned against her.

I breathed in the smell of her coat greedily, and then Victor started crying from the other room.

"Mom, Dad, don't worry about me.

"Every time you pay attention to me, Remy hurts himself on purpose. He's healthy. I'm just a sick burden. Let me go."

My father threw me down on the floor.

He looked at me with heartbreak and disgust.

"Remy, how did you get this calculating?

"Victor's so kind. Why couldn't you have been the sick one?"

The little bit of guilt in my mother's eyes disappeared and turned into contempt.

"Having you nearly killed me.

"The embryo testing showed a perfect match, and your cells still failed to rebuild Victor's marrow. Now he'll depend on you for the rest of his life.

"And now you want him dead so you can take his place. Remy, we can't afford what your donor cells cost this family. Get out."

Everything in me went cold, and I forgot how to breathe.

I dropped to my knees, grabbed my mother's hand, and hit my own face with it.

"Mom, please don't get rid of me.

"I was wrong to compete with Victor. I deserve to be punished for not curing him. I'm the guilty one. Please don't send me away."

I didn't remember how long I stayed on my knees. I only remembered waking up after crying myself unconscious, and learning that because I'd walked so far on the fracture before anyone treated it, my leg had healed with a permanent limp.

Chapter 4

To keep from being thrown out, and to stop Victor from coming after me, I tore up my Brindleford Academy acceptance letter in front of our parents.

I enrolled at the vocational school Victor went to instead, and went back to taking care of him.

As the years of paying for his treatment went on, my parents worked longer and longer hours.

Most of the housework became mine.

I did laundry, scrubbed floors, bought groceries, and cooked to everyone else's taste.

Their resistance to me wore down a little at a time under the weight of routine.

Even when they slipped and praised me for being responsible, they'd check Victor's face right after.

Three years in, Victor had steadied a little and no longer threatened to die every time our parents complimented me in passing.

Because of his illness, the family sat for a formal portrait every year on his birthday.

I never asked to be in one again.

Victor still got suspicious. One day, while our parents were out, he stood over me and demanded an answer.

"What's your angle? I don't believe you'll spend your whole life happily waiting on me.

"Are you planning to hang around here until you're grown so Mom and Dad decide they raised me helpless and you're the only one they can count on?"

I paused, gave him nothing, and just reminded him to take his medication.

Victor laughed, furious.

"I won't let you win, Remy. Everything in the Weller family has always been mine. At most, you're one of my dogs."

Strangely, after Victor said that, our parents started treating me better.

My father began asking about my classes.

My mother even bought me a few new outfits, the first I'd ever had.

When she saw me in clothes that actually fit, she reached out and touched my head.

"Our Remy's gotten so tall."

I held still under her hand, almost afraid to breathe, trying to get my body to unlock.

Her eyes dropped to my right leg.

"It's just a shame about your legs."

I stood up immediately.

"I put a lift in the heel of every right shoe. If I walk slowly, nobody notices the limp."

The words came faster.

"I haven't embarrassed you or Dad."

My mother hesitated, then gave me a smile.

"Tomorrow's your eighteenth birthday. Let's all get a family portrait together."

My eyes went red on the spot.

After eighteen years, my parents had finally accepted me as part of the family.

I was too excited to sleep, and after midnight I heard them arguing in their bedroom.

I couldn't make out the words.

The next morning I dressed early, trembling with anticipation.

But instead of heading for the portrait studio, the car turned toward a hospital.

I looked around uneasily while my father held my wrist like he was afraid I'd run.

"Aren't we taking a portrait? Why are we at a hospital?"

My heartbeat picked up, and dread rose through me.

The driver stopped hard, and my mother pressed a damp cloth over my nose and mouth.

My arms and legs went weak, and my thoughts started to blur.

Two men I'd never seen got into the car and looked me over.

"Your family understands the long-term consequences, right? Taking one kidney usually isn't fatal, but it can affect his health permanently."

My father nodded fast. "We understand. Once he gives you the kidney, your people arrange the matched stem-cell donor for our older son right away, correct?"

It hit me all at once. The family portrait had been bait. They'd brought me to an illegal organ broker who'd promised access to a compatible donor for Victor in exchange for my kidney.

I bit my tongue hard, using the pain to stay conscious, and started fighting.

When I tried to get away, my mother pressed both hands over my face and begged through tears.

"Remy... I'm begging you.

"Victor finally has access to a compatible donor, but the broker wants a kidney. Your father has to stay healthy enough to support this family, so it has to be you.

"Help Victor one last time. Help this family one last time.

"Once Victor gets his treatment, you're completely free. You won't owe him anything. You can go to college, do whatever you want."

My voice had almost given out.

"Mom, all I ever wanted was for you to love me. I'm your son too.

"Please don't do this to me."

My mother went silent.

The men reached for me.

I fought, kicked, bit, and clawed with everything I had, and none of it mattered.

When I wouldn't cooperate, one of them pulled out a baseball bat and got ready to knock me out.

My mother started forward, and my father caught her.

"Don't forget why you had Remy in the first place."

My mother went down on her knees.

"Remy, without Victor you'd never have existed. It's one kidney. Give it to him, and I'll take care of you for the rest of your life."

I looked at my furious father, my kneeling mother, and the men waiting to tie me up and carry me inside.

I closed my eyes.

The moment they thought I'd given up, I threw the door open and went headfirst into the rushing water of Alder Run.

"I don't want this life. I'm giving it back to you."

Wind roared past my ears, and somewhere behind me somebody screamed like it was being torn out of them.

"Remy!"

...

"What are you thinking about so hard?"

Elena pushed the door open and folded into my arms the way she always did.

I came back to the present and smiled a little. "Just remembering when I was a kid."

"If you don't want to see them, don't force it. I'll cancel."

I brushed my thumb across her cheek.

"We'll go. After all these years, it's time to finish it, and now I've got you with me."

Outside the private dining room, I took a breath.

Elena threaded her fingers through mine and moved her thumb gently over the back of my hand.

A server opened the door. When my parents saw Elena, they hurried over with wineglasses in hand.

Victor got up too and put on that practiced smile of his.

Elena spoke calmly. "Thanks for waiting."

She lifted our joined hands slightly. "Let me introduce my fiance, Miles Weller."

The fire off Elena's ring flashed across every face.

Every face in the room went blank with disbelief.

Victor shouted, "Remy?"