I stayed in the bathroom until breathing became difficult.

Then I unlocked the door.

Teresa was waiting outside.

The moment she saw my swollen face, her expression changed.

“What happened to you?”

I leaned against the wall.

“Celery…”

For one second, panic flashed across her face.

Then she grabbed my arm.

“Stop pretending.”

Camila sat up in bed.

“Mrs. Cruz, she really doesn’t look well.”

Teresa tightened her grip.

“You ate three bites. Nobody has such a dramatic reaction from three bites.”

My vision blurred.

Perfect.

I needed witnesses.

I needed records.

Most importantly, I needed to stay conscious long enough for Nora to arrive.

Teresa suddenly pressed the call button.

A nurse entered.

“Take her downstairs.”

“Emergency?” the nurse asked.

Teresa hesitated.

Then she said the words I had been waiting for.

“No. Transplant preparation.”

Camila’s face changed.

“What?”

The nurse froze.

At that exact moment, the door opened.

Nora entered with an emergency team.

She took one look at me.

“She’s having a severe allergic reaction. Emergency treatment now.”

Teresa stepped forward.

“She’s already scheduled for another procedure.”

Nora turned.

“What procedure?”

Silence.

I almost smiled despite the panic rising inside me.

In my first life, everything had happened behind closed doors.

This time, Teresa had just exposed the plan herself.

Nora ordered the team to treat me immediately.

My blood pressure was dropping.

My breathing was worsening.

But I remained conscious.

A nurse removed the lunch container from the table.

Nora pointed toward it.

“Seal that. Document everything inside.”

Teresa’s face went white.

“Why?”

“Because the patient says she has a known celery allergy.”

“That’s nonsense.”

Nora looked at my hospital record.

“No. It’s documented.”

Then she turned the screen.

There it was.

ALLERGY: CELERY — SEVERE.

Teresa stopped speaking.

Camila stared at her.

“You knew?”

Before Teresa could answer, footsteps sounded outside.

Gabriel rushed into the room.

He didn’t come to me first.

He went directly to Camila.

“Are you alright?”

That tiny detail hurt less than I expected.

Perhaps dying once cured certain kinds of heartbreak.

Camila nodded.

“I’m fine. Valeria isn’t.”

Gabriel finally looked at me.

Then at Nora.

“What happened?”

Nora answered calmly.

“Your wife ate food containing an allergen documented in her medical history.”

Gabriel’s face hardened.

“Who brought the food?”

Nobody spoke.

His eyes moved toward the lunch container.

Then toward his mother.

“Mom?”

Teresa immediately defended herself.

“I didn’t know she was really allergic! She always complains about food.”

“You knew.”

My voice was weak, but everyone heard it.

“You were there when my allergy was diagnosed.”

Gabriel stared at her.

Teresa’s lips trembled.

“I forgot.”

“No,” I whispered.

“You said three minutes ago that nobody reacts this badly from three bites.”

The room became silent.

Gabriel’s expression changed.

Not because he suddenly cared about me.

I knew him better now.

He was calculating.

Camila needed a kidney.

I was the planned donor.

And Teresa had just made me medically unsuitable for whatever they intended to do tonight.

Gabriel grabbed his mother’s arm.

“What exactly did you put in that food?”

Teresa looked shocked by his anger.

“Gabriel, I’m your mother.”

“Answer me.”

“Celery.”

His fingers tightened.

“You knew tonight was important.”

There it was.

Nora heard it too.

Her eyes moved toward me.

“Why is tonight important?”

Gabriel released Teresa immediately.

“Family matter.”

Nora didn’t argue.

She simply turned to a nurse.

“Request security. Nobody moves the patient without my authorization.”

Gabriel looked at her sharply.

“You work for my family’s hospital.”

“Today I’m treating your wife.”

“No.”

I corrected her.

“Not for long.”

Gabriel stared at me.

“What does that mean?”

I closed my eyes.

“Ask my lawyer tomorrow.”

His face changed.

But before he could respond, Camila suddenly began crying.

“This is my fault.”

Gabriel went to her immediately.

“No.”

“If I weren’t sick, none of this would happen.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I don’t want Valeria hurt because of me.”

Gabriel held her shoulders.

“Nothing is going to happen to you.”

I watched them.

The same promise.

In my first life, I had heard him make it after they took my kidney.

As long as Camila lives, the rest doesn’t matter.

This time, I finally understood exactly what “the rest” meant.

Me.

Later that night, Nora transferred me to another floor.

She closed the door and placed a folder beside my bed.

“I found something.”

My heartbeat accelerated.

“What?”

“The transplant request.”

I opened the folder.

My name appeared as donor.

Camila’s as recipient.

The surgery date was tonight.

But the document that made my hands turn cold was the consent form.

My signature was already there.

I had never signed it.

Exactly like my first life.

“They prepared it before I arrived.”

Nora nodded.

“And there’s more.”

She showed me the electronic history.

According to the system, I had undergone psychological counseling and voluntarily agreed to donate.

Three appointments.

All fabricated.

“I wasn’t even in the city on two of those dates.”

“I know.”

Nora sat beside me.

“I checked your employment records.”

I looked at her.

“Why are you helping me?”

Her expression became complicated.

“Because this isn’t the first suspicious transplant connected to this hospital.”

My skin went cold.

“How many?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Before she could continue, someone knocked.

Two police officers entered.

Nora had called them when my condition stabilized.

I gave my statement.

I gave them permission to photograph the forged consent.

I told them about the transplant plan.

But I said nothing about my previous life.

Nobody needed to believe something impossible.

The evidence in this life was enough.

At 2:13 a.m., Gabriel appeared outside my room.

Security wouldn’t let him enter.

He called me.

I answered through the glass.

“Withdraw the complaint.”

No greeting.

No apology.

Of course.

“Why?”

“You know what an investigation would do to my family.”

“What would removing my kidney have done to me?”

His jaw tightened.

“We weren’t going to hurt you.”

I laughed softly.

“You forged my signature.”

“That wasn’t my decision.”

“Whose was it?”

He stopped.

I already knew.

But I wanted him to say it.

Then Camila appeared behind him.

She was wearing her hospital gown.

Her face was wet with tears.

“Gabriel, tell her.”

He turned.

“Go back to your room.”

“Tell her the truth.”

“Camila.”

She looked at me through the glass.

“Valeria, your marriage wasn’t supposed to last.”

Gabriel went pale.

My fingers tightened around the phone.

“What?”

Camila continued.

“He married you because your medical records showed you were compatible.”

“Stop!” Gabriel snapped.

But she didn’t.

“His mother found you through the hospital database.”

The world became very quiet.

Even though I had suspected it, hearing the words was different.

Four years.

Every anniversary.

Every kiss.

Every time Gabriel told me fate had brought us together.

A compatibility search had brought us together.

Not fate.

I looked at him.

“Is that true?”

Gabriel’s silence was my answer.

I ended the call.

The next morning, I filed for divorce.

The investigation widened quickly.

Hospital administrators began preserving records.

The original lunch container remained evidence.

The forged transplant documents were secured.

For the first time, the Cruz family couldn’t simply make paperwork disappear.

Three days later, Gabriel’s father came to see me.

He was chairman of San Gabriel Hospital.

Unlike Teresa, he didn’t shout.

He placed a check on the table.

The amount had seven zeros.

“Withdraw your statement.”

I pushed it back.

He added another document.

“Then perhaps this will interest you.”

I looked down.

It was my original compatibility report.

The date was five years before I met Gabriel.

My heart stopped.

“Why did your hospital test me five years before I knew your family?”

He didn’t answer.

I turned the page.

The test hadn’t originally been ordered for Camila.

Recipient identification had been changed later.

The original recipient was hidden behind a numerical code.

I looked at Gabriel’s father.

“Who was the first recipient?”

For the first time, the powerful chairman seemed uncomfortable.

“That information is irrelevant.”

“Then why hide it?”

He stood.

“You should take the money, Valeria.”

I stared at him.

“No.”

His expression hardened.

“You have no idea what you’re uncovering.”

After he left, I immediately called Nora.

She arrived an hour later.

We compared the old compatibility code with archived hospital records.

At first, nothing appeared.

Then Nora stopped typing.

Her face lost all color.

“What?”

She turned the screen toward me.

The recipient code belonged to a patient who had supposedly died six years ago.

I read the name.

Then read it again.

Impossible.

My hands began shaking.

Because I knew that name.

Everyone did.

The patient wasn’t Camila.

It wasn’t Teresa.

And it wasn’t Gabriel.

It was my mother.

The same woman I had been told died in another hospital after an accident when I was nineteen.

Nora opened the archived record.

There was no death certificate attached.

Instead, there was a transfer order.

Destination:

San Gabriel Hospital — Restricted Transplant Wing.

I couldn’t breathe.

At the bottom of the record was the physician who had authorized the transfer.

Dr. Gabriel Cruz.

I stared at the signature.

The date was years before Gabriel had ever introduced himself to me.

Which meant my husband hadn’t first seen my name when his family searched for a kidney donor for Camila.

He had known exactly who I was long before our supposed first meeting.

And somewhere inside the hospital that had killed me in my first life was the answer to what the Cruz family had done to my mother.