Have a Heart? Never. Novel by Avery Moore _ Novel




Have a Heart? Never. Chapter 01

Outside the UCLA Medical Center ER, Evangeline Floyd—the institution's top cardiothoracic surgeon—faced a nightmare: her daughter and her husband's childhood sweetheart both needed a heart transplant to survive.
A heart had just arrived, but it had only an hour of peak viability left.
Since her daughter, Annette Burke, had arrived first, Evangeline immediately began preparing to schedule her surgery.
But her husband, Christopher Burke, blocked her path, his expression grim.
"Save Mira first."
Evangeline froze, disbelief washing over her.
"Annie is your daughter! How can you—"
Christopher cut her off coldly.
"I promised Mira I'd always keep her safe. Lina, just do as I say. Let Mira have this heart. Another one will be here in ten minutes."
Tears streamed down Evangeline's face. "What if Annie can't hold on for those ten minutes? I'm begging you—please, save our daughter first!"
Just then, two bodyguards suddenly appeared, pushing forward her brother, Enrique Floyd, who was battling leukemia and relied entirely on a ventilator to stay alive.
One guard hovered his hand over the power switch, while his other hand pried off Enrique's oxygen mask.
Instantly, Enrique struggled to breathe, his face turning purple. Evangeline dug her nails into her palms, a sharp pain twisting in her chest.
Her voice trembled uncontrollably.
"Chris, Annie is our daughter. Would you really do this to us for Miranda?"
***
There wasn't a flicker of emotion on Christopher's face. He looked at Evangeline with a chilling apathy.
"You have three minutes to decide, Lina. If Enrique's ventilator stops, even if he survives, the oxygen deprivation could leave him brain-damaged. Can you live with that? Watching him live like a vegetable?"
His cruel words hit Evangeline hard, sending tremors of fear through her body.
"Chris, please don't do this. There has to be a way to save both Mira and Annie."
The top-tier surgeon, once unshakable in the face of death, now looked utterly helpless—like a frightened child.
But Christopher, cold and heartless, had made up his mind. He shook his head, his face void of emotion.
"I won't let Mira take any risks."
Evangeline looked up at him, her eyes filled with pain and despair.
"So her life is worth more to you than our daughter's? Than my brother's? Tell me, Christopher—what do we even matter to you?"
The question didn't faze him. He simply gestured to the bodyguards.
One of them moved to pull the plug on the ventilator.
Enrique's face turned a deeper shade of purple, his gasps for air barely audible, like a kitten's weak cry. A wave of excruciating pain crashed over Evangeline.
With his last bit of strength, Enrique forced a weak smile at her.
"Lina, save Annie... Don't worry about me."
Each labored breath from him cut through Evangeline's heart like a sharp blade. The anguish was simply too much to bear.
"Fine. I'll save Miranda first."
Christopher cast her a satisfied glance, then withdrew his hand, signaling the bodyguard to take Enrique away.
Evangeline wiped away her tears, took a deep breath, and turned toward the operating room.
With the two operations timed so closely together, she could oversee both at the same time.
Technically, she was more than capable of doing a rapid closure on Miranda Burnett and then rushing straight to Annette.
If she moved fast enough, Annette could survive the ten minutes.
With her mind clear again, Evangeline steeled herself, ready to step into the operating room.
At that critical moment, however, Miranda emerged, one hand pressed to her chest.
"Chris, I'm scared to have surgery alone. Will you stay with me?"
Christopher immediately went to her side and took her arm. Remembering that he was also a surgeon, Evangeline chose to stay by Annette's side.
But no sooner had she entered Annette's ward than the door swung open and Christopher strode in.
"You're the best," he said coldly. "You perform Mira's surgery. I'll handle Annie's."
"You can't! You've never done any pediatric cardiac surgery..."
But he'd already pushed her out the door. "Just focus on Mira's surgery. I'll keep our daughter safe."
Choking back her sobs, Evangeline finished the operation on Miranda.
She rushed to Annette's OR immediately afterward, only to see the heart monitor begin wailing its frantic alarm.
"Mommy... It hurts..."
Annette's faint voice drifted from inside the room. Evangeline pounded on the door in desperation. "Christopher, let me in!"
Inside, Christopher was issuing orders to the nurses with chilling composure. "Get the defibrillator ready."
The new heart had been involved in a car accident on the way. It was contaminated.
And Annette stopped breathing.
Evangeline collapsed outside the OR, the image of Annette's heartbeat flatlining seared into her mind.
Blood surged up from her throat.
She grabbed Christopher's pant leg, begging, "Just let me see her. One look..."
He coldly pushed her hand away. "She's gone. Seeing her will only break your heart. I'll make sure she's taken care of."
He turned and walked off, ignoring Evangeline screaming after him.
"Why wouldn't you let me in? I could have saved her!"
She never got an answer. Grief and rage swallowed her whole, and everything went dark.
Through the haze of her fading consciousness, she heard people whispering at the end of the hall.
"Dr. Burke, since you've always loved Miranda, why did you marry Dr. Floyd in the first place? Why have a child with her?"
A long pause followed. Then came Christopher's voice, calm and detached. "In my position, I'm under constant scrutiny. I needed Evangeline out in the open to take the heat. Mira's too fragile to handle that."
The person ventured carefully, "What about Annie? She's your daughter. Did you feel nothing for her either?"
Lying in the hospital bed, Evangeline felt her heart twist. She needed to hear the answer, too.
The next words from Christopher shattered whatever hope she still clung to.
"You've heard the expression, right? Love me, love my dog. Anyway, I'll get her pregnant again. That's fair, isn't it?"
Tears ran silently down Evangeline's face, and a wave of anger and despair consumed her.
Poor Annette—how she wished she weren't her daughter!
Christopher didn't love Evangeline. So he didn't love her child with him. That was why he'd traded Annette's life for Miranda's without a second thought.
Intense pain tore through Evangeline, finally jolting her awake.
She forced herself up from the bed and made her way to the hospital rooftop alone. There, she dialed the number she knew by heart but hadn't called in a long, long time.
"I'll agree to your terms on three conditions. First, get to the bottom of that car accident involving the donor heart. Second, make Christopher and Miranda pay for what they've done. Third..."
Pain gnawed at her heart. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the phone, but her voice was steady.
"Get me my daughter's body. I want to see her, alive or dead."
The line went silent for a moment. Then a deep voice came through.
"Agreed. A month from now, I'll come for you myself."
Evangeline hung up, drained. Then she had her lawyer draw up divorce papers.
Knowing Christopher felt nothing for her, she saw no reason to stay in a marriage full of deceit.

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