Toxic Bloodline

The day I got my cancer diagnosis, Pierce didn't hesitate. My boyfriend was ready to drain his bank accounts and sell everything he owned just to cover my treatments.

My own sister, Kennedy, had a different plan.

She crossed her arms, fixing him with a deadly serious look. "If it were me, I'd never drag anyone down with me. "The medical bills are a bottomless pit.

Even if you don't care about ruining your own life, you have to think about your parents. You need to be realistic, Pierce." Pierce stayed silent, a hard line forming at his jaw.

Across the room, Kennedy's fiancé, Connor, rubbed his chin. A calculating gleam flickered in his eyes. Kennedy caught Pierce's silence.

The corner of her mouth hitched up into a smirk. She thought she'd gotten through to him. But there was one crucial detail she didn't know. My diagnosis was a complete fabrication.

It was a desperate lie spun by our parents to shield her from reality. The one actually dying of cancer wasn't me. It was Kennedy.

Chapter 1 I was in the middle of a shift when my phone screen lit up with my parents' number. When I answered, Gregory's voice was thick, practically choking on the words. "Sage.

It's your sister. "Kennedy has terminal cancer. You need to come home right now. The three of us have to figure this out." The air punched out of my lungs.

My grip tightened on the plastic casing of my phone. Kennedy and I weren't exactly texting every day, but she was still my sister.

Blood was blood. "Okay," I said, forcing my voice to stay level. "Mom, Dad, don't panic. I've got a little over twenty grand saved up.

That should cover her treatments for a while." It was the money Pierce and I had been scraping together for a down payment on a house. But the house could wait. Cancer wouldn't.

Gregory shot that down immediately. "No. We have enough." My brows pulled together. Between the two of them, my parents maybe had a few thousand in their retirement fund.

That was nowhere near enough to fight terminal cancer. Gregory let out a shaky, relieved breath on the other end of the line. "It's Connor.

He's paying for it. "He's draining the entire wedding fund, the money for the rings, and his own personal savings accounts to pay for her treatments.

He even picked up two extra shifts. Told us he'd sell the shirt off his back to keep your sister alive." A lump formed in my throat. Connor was stepping up.

He wasn't running for the hills; he was bankrupting himself to save her. You didn't see that kind of loyalty every day.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek for a second. "Connor's a good guy. But we can't just bleed him dry. "We need to carry our own weight.

My savings go straight to Kennedy's medical bills. We are not letting him foot this entire thing alone." "Okay. We'll do it your way," Gregory agreed, sounding exhausted. "Alright.

I'm hanging up so I can book a flight home right now." I just wanted to pack a bag and get to my sister. But Gregory and Donna hesitated.

There was a long, suffocating silence on the line.

I had to press them three times before they finally cracked. "Here's the thing, Sage," Gregory started, his voice dropping dangerously low. "We haven't told Kennedy she has cancer." I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

Families hiding terminal diagnoses to protect the patient wasn't exactly unheard of. "Got it," I said smoothly. "My lips are sealed.

I won't say a word to her." "No," Gregory interrupted. "What we mean is… we told Kennedy you were the one with cancer." "Your aunt came over and accidentally let it slip that one of our daughters had cancer.

Kennedy overheard." Donna chimed in, her voice thin and desperate. "To cover our tracks… we had to tell her it was you.

We know it's not fair to you, Sage, but we had no other choice." My brain stalled out.

I stood there, phone pressed to my ear, the background noise of my office completely fading into a dull roar. I rubbed my temples, exhaling a long, slow breath.

Having my family tell everyone I was dying of a terminal illness wasn't exactly a great feeling. It felt like walking under a ladder and breaking a mirror at the same time.

But I understood. If Kennedy knew the truth, the stress alone could accelerate the disease. "It's fine. I get it," I finally said. "I'll play along. I'm not superstitious anyway.

A few words aren't going to curse me." Chapter 2 Gregory and Donna breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The second the call ended, I opened my browser and started hunting for a flight. But it was the middle of the backtoschool rush.

The screen was an endless sea of glowing red "Sold Out" banners. Every flight out of the city was booked solid, and the train schedules looked exactly the same.

Staring at the dead ends on my monitor, my vision blurred. A hot tear broke free, tracking a line down my cheek. I gripped the edge of my desk, my knuckles turning white.

Why was the universe ripping her apart like this? Kennedy and I were both fiercely competitive. We were straightA students, locked in a silent, lifelong rivalry.

But I was always just a little bit luckier. When we took the entrance exams for the elite magnet high school in our district, I scraped by the cutoff by a single point.

Kennedy missed it. She had to settle for the public high school down the road. She worked herself to the bone to keep up with me, and our GPAs were practically identical.

Then came the SATs. We both suffered from brutal, debilitating cramps, but her cycle came a week early, hitting her right on test day. She bombed it.

Her score tanked, landing her in a mediocre state college. I aced mine and got into an Ivy League.

I slid right into a fullyfunded grad program at the same university, while Kennedy spent two years grinding through grad school applications, only to get hit with rejection letters.

After that, a thick wall went up between us. Our texts trickled to a halt. It wasn't until six months ago, when she met Connor, that the ice finally started to thaw.

He worshipped the ground she walked on. He chipped away at her insecurities until she finally started to smile again. They just got engaged.

They were supposed to be picking out floral arrangements and cake flavors. Now, the universe was pulling the rug out from under her.

Just when she finally grasped a sliver of happiness, her clock was running out. A hollow ache settled deep in my chest.

I forwarded a waitlist link for a flight to Pierce, asking him to keep an eye on it. My phone buzzed in my hand seconds later.

He wanted to know why I was suddenly scrambling for a ticket home.

I pressed the heel of my hand against my eyes, choking out the whole story. "Pierce, my family needs me, and I'm stuck here. I don't know what to do." "I've got you," Pierce said.

The steady anchor in his voice immediately grounded me. He dropped everything, called out of work, and pulled his car around to pick me up. He drove like a man possessed.

He hammered the gas pedal down the interstate, refusing to pull over for a break until he finally killed the engine in my parents' driveway just as the sun dipped below the horizon.

They say a man's most attractive trait is his ability to fix things when the world is falling apart. I used to roll my eyes at that.

Now, sitting in his passenger seat, I felt it deep in my bones. Without him, I would have been completely paralyzed.

The crunch of tires on gravel brought everyone spilling out the front door. Gregory, Donna, and Connor stepped out first. Deep, heavy lines of exhaustion dragged their faces down.

Then Kennedy stepped onto the porch. She was glowing. Her makeup was flawless, her energy vibrant and electric. She didn't look like a woman with terminal cancer.

Then, her eyes locked onto the Porsche crest on the hood of Pierce's car. Her teeth clamped down on her lower lip.

The muscles in her jaw tightened, and that familiar, icy darkness clouded her eyes. It was the exact same look she gave me every time I brought home a better report card.

The look that was always followed by some passiveaggressive, cutting remark. Over the years, that look had conditioned me to shrink myself. I stopped sharing my wins with her.

I only ever brought her my failures and my heartbreaks, because that was the only time she looked at me like a real sister.

Seeing that cold glint in her eyes now, my stomach twisted into a hard knot. Chapter 3 Fortunately, that look only lasted a second.

A moment later, a genuine, blinding smile broke across her face, like she'd just remembered an inside joke. My brow furrowed. Mom and Dad told her I was dying.

Why was she grinning at me? Was she actually gloating? I swallowed hard, pushing the thought away. We had our issues, but we were still sisters. She wouldn't wish death on me.

Maybe she was just relieved I was home. I forced myself to believe that. The second my feet hit the driveway, Kennedy marched right up to me.

She immediately looped her arm through mine, pressing close. My shoulders stiffened. We had never been the touchyfeely type.

She was probably clinging to me because she thought my days were numbered. A sharp ache flared in my chest. The cruel irony was that her clock was the one ticking down.

A year at most. Maybe just a few months. Then, the illusion shattered. "By the way, Sage," she said, her voice pitching up a few decibels.

She shot a deliberate, sideways glance at Pierce. "Does your boyfriend know about your terminal cancer?" My breath hitched. I just stared at her, completely thrown.

Pierce didn't miss a beat. He stepped up beside me. "I know. Sage told me." Kennedy's smile cracked. The muscles around her eyes tightened.

She tilted her head, pressing harder. "So, when's the breakup happening? I mean, you have cancer. You can't just latch onto him and drag him down with you.

Are you just using him as an ATM?" A few feet away, the devoted, lovesick expression wiped clean off Connor's face. Gregory and Donna froze.

They shot a panicked, unreadable look at Connor before whipping their heads back to Kennedy. "Kennedy, what the hell are you talking about?" Gregory snapped, stepping forward. "He's not an ATM, he's a loyal partner! "Don't listen to her," he added, throwing an apologetic look at Pierce. "She's spoiled.

Half the time her mouth moves before her brain catches up." Kennedy opened her mouth to argue, but Donna shot her a lethal glare.

Kennedy snapped her jaw shut. "You guys always play favorites," she muttered under her breath. She thought they were defending me. She was dead wrong. They were defending her.

They were terrified that Kennedy's rant about dragging partners down would send Connor—the real ATM in this scenario—running for the hills.

Under the threat of our parents' glares, Kennedy backed off. She kept her mouth shut, offering nothing but stiff, polite small talk.

That is, until Gregory and Donna grabbed their keys and headed out to the grocery store. The second the front door clicked shut, the predatory gleam returned to Kennedy's eyes.

A sly smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth.

She turned her body entirely toward Pierce. "Handsome, you aren't really planning on wasting your life on her, are you?" she asked, her tone light and venomous. "Just a headsup, it's stage four.

It's a death sentence. You could burn through a million dollars and it won't save her." Pierce's jaw tightened. The implication hung heavy and toxic in the air.

She was actively trying to drive a wedge right down the middle of us. Chapter 4 A cold, jagged rock settled in the pit of my stomach.

When I thought she was dying, I was ready to empty my bank accounts without a second thought. But the second she thought I was the one with the expiration date?

She practically tripped over herself trying to blow up my relationship. A bitter taste coated the back of my throat.

Pierce's fingers laced through mine, his grip solid and grounding. The warmth of his palm bled into my freezing skin.

When he looked up at Kennedy, his jaw was set, his eyes flat and hard. "I love Sage," he stated, his voice dangerously even. "I'll sell everything I own to keep her alive. "But you?

You're her own sister, standing here trying to poison her relationship when she's at her lowest.

That's a special kind of twisted." A flush crept up Kennedy's neck, but she jutted her chin out. "It's not twisted, it's called being objective," she shot back. "I know you don't want to hear it, but someone has to live in the real world. "Even if you want to ruin your own life, what about your parents?" she pressed, crossing her arms. "They worked their entire lives to build their savings.

Are you really going to burn through their retirement fund for a lost cause? "You're going to leave them with nothing.

While their friends are spoiling their grandkids and taking cruises, your parents are going to be bankrupt just so you can play the tragic hero.

You need a reality check." She was weaponizing his parents against him.

She was trying to pin him in a corner where choosing me meant he was a garbage son destroying his family's future. Pierce didn't even blink. He just stared at her.

But out of the corner of my eye, I saw Connor. All the color drained from his face. Kennedy, completely oblivious, didn't even glance at her fiancé.

Mistaking Pierce's silence for submission, the smug smirk crawled right back onto her face. She leaned in. "Your parents gave up a lot for you.

All they want is for you to marry a healthy woman and give them grandkids. Are you really going to rob them of that?" A dry, hollow laugh scraped its way up my throat.

She wasn't playing the saint for his parents' sake. She was just enjoying the power trip.

I cut her off. "Kennedy, are you just dying for me to drop dead?" Her eyes darted away for a fraction of a second. She swallowed hard. "What?

No. "I'm your sister, obviously I don't want you to die. I just don't want to watch you drag an innocent guy down with you." Incredible.

She was backed into a corner and still doubling down. I tilted my head, locking eyes with her. "Oh, I see.

Since you care so much about keeping me alive, and you're so worried about Pierce's bank account, how about you pay for my treatments?" I asked, keeping my voice deadpan. "You've been touring open houses for the last month.

You must have a few hundred thousand sitting in savings, right?" The blood vanished from Kennedy's face. "Absolutely not!" she blurted out. "Why would I give you my money?" The air in the room stalled.

She realized exactly how that sounded. She scrambled to backpedal. "No, I mean—I don't have any money. I was just looking at houses for fun.

I can't actually afford one." She refused to meet my gaze, staring intensely at a spot on the wall over my shoulder. I let the silence hang, not bothering to call her out.

Chapter 5 "Oh, got it," I said, keeping my tone perfectly conversational. "Well, if you don't have any savings, what about the wedding money?

I heard Connor set aside twenty grand for the wedding and another five for the rings. That should be enough to cover my treatments for a little bit." Kennedy's face darkened.

She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing a frown. "Sage, you know I want to help you, but I can't," she sighed, shaking her head. "That money is technically from Connor's family.

Even if I wanted to give it to you, Connor and his parents would never allow it." "I allow it." Connor's voice sliced through the room. Kennedy froze.

She turned to look at him, her eyes wide, like her brain couldn't process the words. "What?" Connor met her gaze, his expression unreadable.

He didn't blink. "I said, I agree to use the wedding money for her medical bills." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a debit card, and extended it toward me. "Sage.

There's twentyfive grand on this. "It's the wedding and ring fund. Take it. Use it for your treatments." Kennedy lost her mind.

She lunged forward, snatching the card out of his hand. Any pretense of being a caring sister vanished. She rounded on Connor. "Connor! Did I say you could give that away?

Who gave you the right to hand over my wedding money to someone else?" She whipped back to face me, her features twisted into something ugly and vicious. "Let me tell you the truth, Sage.

I am not giving you a single dime for your medical bills. Even if I had millions sitting in the bank, you wouldn't see a penny of it!

You spent your entire life trying to step on me. "You brought this on yourself.

Getting cancer is just karma finally catching up to you!" Even though I knew exactly who she was, the words still hit like a physical blow. A sharp sting registered in my chest.

We really didn't mean anything to each other. But as the sting faded, a cold clarity washed over me. It was liberating, honestly.

If she refused to spend a cent to save my life, then my conscience was completely clear. I could keep my savings right where they were. Kennedy wasn't finished.

She wanted to twist the knife. "And I'm not just keeping my money. I won't let Mom and Dad spend their money on you either!" she spat. "I'll tell them right now.

If they drain their savings for your treatments, I will cut them off. "I won't pay for their retirement. I won't take care of them when they're old.

You're going to rot all by yourself." A bitter, humorless smile touched my lips. She was practically vibrating with malice. She wanted to sever every lifeline I had.

She wanted to block Pierce from paying, refused to contribute her own money, and was blackmailing our parents into leaving me to die. She wasn't my sister. She was an enemy.

I held her gaze, dropping my voice to a deadpan drawl. "What if you were the one with cancer? "Would you be able to refuse Connor's money? Would you refuse Mom and Dad's money?

My money?" Kennedy didn't miss a beat. She jutted her chin out, looking down her nose at me. "Of course I would. I'm not selfish like you.

If it were me, I wouldn't drag anyone down.

I'd break up with my boyfriend so he could find a healthy girl to spend his life with. "I'd leave all my savings to Mom and Dad for their retirement.

Then I'd just go find a bridge and jump off it. I wouldn't waste a single dollar on medical bills." Incredible. The absolute pinnacle of selfsacrifice. I nodded slowly. "Wow.

Well, on behalf of the family, I'd like to thank you." "Because you're the one with cancer." Kennedy stopped breathing