Chapter 156 Kidney Transplant
That evening, Celia’s apartment felt suffocating.
The silence wasn’t peaceful, it was heavy, thick, and oppressive, pressing in on her from every corner of the room, wrapping tightly around her chest and making it harder to breathe.
It was only broken by the faint, repetitive sound of the television still playing in the background. The same clip had been looping for the past three hours, replaying Derek’s press conference over and over again, as if the universe had decided she needed to hear every single word he said until it carved itself permanently into her mind.
"She is part of my past… and that is exactly where she remains."
The words echoed again, sharp and unforgiving. At this point, Celia couldn’t even remember how many times she had heard that exact line. It had replayed so often that she was certain she could recite everything he had said, word for word, tone for tone without missing a single detail.
In her anger, she hurled the remote across the room. It slammed violently against the wall before dropping to the ground with a sharp, echoing crack that cut through the silence.
"How dare you," she snapped, her voice breaking through the stillness as she began pacing the room, her heels striking the floor with sharp, uneven clicks. "How dare you stand there and reduce me to nothing like that… like I was just some mistake you outgrew."
Her chest rose and fell unevenly, her breathing growing heavier and more erratic with each step she took, her emotions spiraling further out of control.
"And apologizing to her?" she scoffed bitterly, shaking her head as disbelief mixed with anger. "Publicly? Like I’m the villain in your story?"
She let out a sharp, humorless laugh that didn’t reach her eyes.
"As if you weren’t the one who came back… as if you weren’t the one who kept showing up."
Yes, she had approached him first, but who came running every time she called? Who showed up at her apartment late at night without hesitation? Who kept choosing her, over and over again, even while he had a wife waiting for him at home?
It was Derek. He was the one who kept coming and kept helping.
What was she supposed to do?
Her steps slowed gradually until she came to a complete stop, her body going still in the middle of the room.
For a brief moment, the anger flickered.
And something else surfaced.
Her hand moved unconsciously to her side, pressing lightly against it as she felt a faint pain.
Her expression faltered almost instantly as the memory came rushing back before she could stop it.
The hospital room.
The sterile smell.
The quiet beeping of machines.
The decision she had made without fully understanding the consequences.
The man she thought she loved… and the one she believed had loved her just as much. The one she had given up Derek for.
The sacrifice she had made for him.
Her fingers pressed harder against her side as her breathing slowed, her thoughts turning darker, heavier.
"I gave up a part of myself for you…" she whispered, her voice softer now, hollow and distant. "And you just… disappeared."
Her jaw tightened again.
Her eyes hardened, the softness vanishing as quickly as it came.
"And now I’m the one paying for it."
The doctor’s voice echoed clearly in her mind, as sharp and unforgiving as reality itself.
"Your remaining kidney is under severe strain and dialysis won't be enough to keep you. If this continues… You will need a transplant. And soon."
Celia swallowed hard, shaking her head as if trying to physically push the memory away, to deny what she already knew was true.
She'd given one of her kidneys to that man only to discover he didn't love her as much as she did.
"No," she muttered under her breath. "No, I’m not going to end like this… not because of a stupid mistake I made."
Slowly, her gaze lifted back to the television screen.
Derek’s face stared back at her. He looked calm, confident and determined.
"I’m not giving up on us… I will pursue my wife again."
Her lips curled slowly.
A cold, calculated, and dangerous smile, lit up her face.
"You don’t get to make that decision," she said quietly, her voice dropping into something darker, something far more controlled and deliberate. "Not when I still need you."
Her eyes darkened, her thoughts sharpening, becoming more focused, more dangerous with every passing second.
"Do you think I went through all that just to walk away empty-handed?" she murmured. "Do you think I’ll sit back and watch you give everything to someone else?"
Her fingers curled slowly into a tight fist.
"I need your money," she admitted bluntly now, without shame, without hesitation. "I need your name. Your access. Your life."
A pause.
Her expression hardened completely.
"And I will have it."
Although he'd come out to publicly humiliate her, she won't let it or anything people were saying to stop her from getting what she wanted.
She needed Derek's name, his money and his love. Whether or not Derek liked it, she was going to get it and nothing, absolutely nothing was going to stop her.
Without another second of hesitation, she grabbed her bag and keys, her movements quick, restless, driven by something far stronger than anger alone.
She needed to get out. She needed to get a drink. She needed noise. She needed something, anything to drown the chaos in her head.
And the best place she can get all of these was in a club. That's where she'd go. She thought as she drove off.