Reclaiming the heart that belongs to me.

"I'll only agree to donate my kidney if you give me what I want," Amy said. Her voice was low but unyielding, her trembling lips barely hiding the fire in her eyes.

Lucas's jaw tightened, his chest heaving with heavy breaths. Rage thudded through his veins like a drumbeat. Her presence, her defiance-it clawed at his patience. He wanted her gone, out of his sight, yet she stood firm.

"Ava, why are you so greedy?" Her mother snapped, voice shaking with suppressed fury. "After everything Mr. Lucas has done for our family-and even for Amy-you still demand more from him?"

Amy froze, her heart plunging. Ava? She scoffed inwardly. Were they so blinded by hatred that even her name was denied her?

Her hands curled into fists. Done for me? "He has given me nothing but cruelty, nothing but hate," she screamed silently, eyes burning as they locked onto Lucas's face-twisted with contempt.

"How much?" Lucas finally ground out, his voice like steel scraping against stone. "Name your price. I'll transfer the money this instant." His fists clenched and unclenched, barely holding back his impatience.

"I don't want your money," Amy rasped, her throat tightening as anger and her mother's words scorched her heart.

Lucas tilted his head slowly, his eyes scanning her from head to toe. A mocking smirk tugged at his lips. "Don't play innocent. You've always been after money. Say it-whatever figure you want, I'll-"

"I want you to marry me, Lucas."

The words cut through the air like a blade, sharp and deliberate, stopping him cold.

"What!" The word rang out from the lips of her mom and dad.

With squinted eyes and a deep frown, Lucas asked in a growl, "What do you mean?"

Rather than cower back at the sight of his dangerous look, Amy stepped forward and leaned towards him, her body almost touching his hot muscular chest before she whispered, "Let's get married, Lucas Tyson, so that I can save Ava." Saying this, she stepped back away from him, her eyes looking straight ahead as she walked back to her seat.

"You thief! How dare you ask to get married to your sister's fiancé?" Her mom screamed, her face flushed in rage as she jumped up from her seat and marched to where Amy had sat.

She raised her hands to hit her, but her eyes widened in shock, and her heart stopped beating for a moment when Amy swiftly grabbed her hand in the air, and with a mean look on her face, she warned, "Don't you dare try to lay a finger on me again. You may be my mother, but I don't regard you as that, and I wouldn't hesitate to hit you back if you dare hit me." She threatened before throwing down her mom's hand and wiping off the invisible dirt on her hand.

Everyone was stunned. Lucas, her mom, and her dad instantly became dumb.

Amy could tell what they were thinking. She knew that they were gobsmacked at her outburst because she had never in her life spoken in that manner to them.

Amy, a young lady of twenty-six, was a daughter disliked by both parents. She was a twin, and while her elder twin sister, Ava, was the apple of her parents' eyes, she was the tears stinging their eyes.

At age seven, she had been apart from her parents and sister; after an incident where she had won her sister in a race and Ava had cried herself till she was sick, her parents, upset that she had made her sister sick, sent her to the countryside to live with her grandma, who played the motherly role in her life by loving her.

At age seven, she was smart and intelligent, and having aspired to become a surgeon, she had focused her attention on watching dramas and cartoons and also reading children's magazines that were related to medicine.

Despite all these, Amy was still lonely, but her loneliness came to an end when, on a certain day, while alone in the woods, Amy saw an unconscious boy lying on the grass. His breathing had stopped, his face was pale, and his lips were turning blue. Amy's heart raced-she remembered seeing on TV how doctors breathed into people to save them. Without thinking, she pinched his nose, covered his mouth with hers, and blew gently.

Once. Twice. Suddenly, the boy coughed, his chest rising again. Relief washed over her just as his parents came running, shouting about the inhaler he had forgotten at home, as he was an asthmatic child. They scooped him up and hurried toward the hospital, while Amy sat frozen, her small hands still shaking.

After that incident, the same boy, whose name was Lucas, became her close friend. Their closeness was palpable, and it also made the boy's parents and her grandma close.

Together, the five of them became a family for six years before the happy family became separated when Ava and her parents came down to the countryside to check if Amy was a compatible blood donor for Ava, as Ava was sick and in need of a blood donor.

For two months, Ava stayed with them and gradually became well after countless bags of blood had been drawn out from Amy. Staying for two months with no friends of hers with her, Ava was jealous of the bond between Amy and Lucas.

One day, Ava had suggested that they all go ice-skating, and Amy, wanting to bond with her twin sister, had agreed, but Lucas was reluctant to go.

"I can't ice-skate," he told them. "The both of you should have fun together. I'll find something fun to do while I wait for Amy to get back." He had said, smiling at Amy, and his softness towards her irritated Ava.

"If you can't do something, you learn to do it. C'mon, I'll hold your hands and never let you go." Amy had promised, blinking sweetly at Lucas, who couldn't say no to her pretty face, and without another word, he agreed, trusting Amy's promise.

They were ice-skating. Lucas holding on to Amy, and Ava on her own. Ava grew jealous of their constant screams and high-pitched laughter. She felt out of place because no one was giving her the attention she had always had, and with angry speed, Ava rushed towards Amy and Lucas and forcefully pulled Amy away from Lucas, who was holding on to her.

Lucas' hold on Amy loosened, and he felt his feet running down the ice with no control. He screamed out for help, but help was far from his reach because Ava was holding Amy, berating her for not wanting to have fun with her.

Before Amy could release herself from Ava and run to save Lucas, he had tumbled over to a farther distance and was lying flat on the broken ice, blood dripping from the side of his head and his eyes closed.

"He could have lost his life if he hadn't been brought here in time. He is alive, but the bleeding in his brain was extreme." The doctor had said.

In a voice that was heavy with fear, Lucas' dad asked, "What do we do now? What's the exact issue with his brain?"

Heaving a deep breath, the doctor had said, "I am sorry to say, there's nothing that can be done for now. Lucas has lost his memory, and there's no assurance that he is going to regain it any time soon." His heartbreaking news shattered everyone, and Amy immediately wanted to die when the accusatory stare of Lucas's mom fell on her.