The Billionaire's Daughter They Tried to Harvest

The app I built just sold to Dolby. One billion dollars.

I'd only just walked out of the meeting, ready to share the news with my wife and daughter, when I found out my wife had taken our daughter in for tissue matching.

I rushed to the hospital and learned that her brother's son had kidney disease, and my daughter was a match.

Her whole family was there, pressuring my daughter to donate a kidney, threats and bribes both.

I wanted to take my daughter home. Instead my wife led the charge, calling me heartless and threatening divorce.

1.

"Alma Pruitt? Where are you? Why is it so loud there?"

I couldn't keep the joy out of my voice. It came out light and quick. "I've got huge news for you. We're never going to have to worry about money again—"

"My nephew, Harvey Acevedo. He's in late-stage kidney failure. He needs a living-donor transplant, and they can't find a match."

Alma cut in, flat as anything. "I brought Daisy Abbott in to get tested. She and Harvey are a perfect match. I've agreed to give Harvey her kidney."

I froze for a second. How could she say something like that in a voice that calm?

When I didn't answer, Alma let out a cold laugh. "One less kidney won't kill her. And Harvey is the only boy in the Pruitt family."

Was that something a mother could say?

Alma's patience was already thinning. "Just get over here and sign. Don't make me angry."

Then she hung up.

I laughed, the kind of laugh that comes from pure fury. I never would have guessed that in Alma's heart, her own daughter ranked below a nephew.

Before long I reached the hospital, and the room was packed with her family.

Alma sat by the bed. Eight-year-old Daisy was curled into a chair in the corner, her eyes red and raw, her little hands twisting the hem of her shirt, her shoulders shaking.

On the bed, Harvey, wasted down to skin and bone, snapped at her, "Quit your crying. You're just a money-losing girl, and you're giving me that kidney whether you like it or not!"

Daisy flinched hard. Alma said nothing.

My mother-in-law, Angelica Lambert, chimed in, just as impatient. "Daisy, Harvey is your brother. You won't even save your own brother? What kind of person are you?"

Daisy shook her head timidly, whimpering, "Grandma, I'm scared of the pain…"

"Scared of the pain? You think a little pain's going to kill you?"

Wayne Pruitt jabbed a finger at her and shouted, "If you don't save Harvey, I'll beat you every single day from now on!"

Wayne's wife, Patsy Lawrence, piled on. "Daisy, a good person has a kind heart. If you don't save Harvey, that makes you a bad person."

Face cold, I crossed the room and pulled Daisy into my arms. She was already crying.

"Daddy, I'm scared. They said if I don't save my brother, I'm a bad person…"

I soothed her, then lifted my head and swept my eyes over the Pruitts, ending on Alma.

She stood off to the side, unmoved. She was even frowning, like Daisy's crying was an embarrassment, a child too silly to understand.

"Alma, we're going home."

I held the anger down, keeping my voice as even as I could.

Alma snatched Daisy right out of my arms. "Home? The match came back positive, the doctors have the surgery all planned out, and now you want to leave? The donation consent form gets signed today."

"My daughter is eight. She's a minor. She isn't legally allowed to consent to donating an organ, and as her guardian, I am flatly refusing."

I closed my arms tighter around her. "Living-organ donation is strictly regulated by law. Children are barred from donating a kidney. Don't waste your energy."

Angelica pointed at my face and screamed, "Jacob Fox, when our Alma married you, you had nothing, and this family never once looked down on you. Now we ask your daughter to save her own cousin and you fight us at every turn. Did a dog eat your conscience?"

"You're just heartless!"

Fury filled Alma's face. "Over one kidney, you'd throw away every bond this family has. Daisy is my daughter too, and I get a say. If you insist on taking her today, then we're getting divorced. Right now."