After Rebirth, I Refused My Nephew a Kidney; Family Disowned Me

In my last life, I gave my nephew one of my kidneys.

When I lay down on the operating table, the relatives all praised me for being sensible, devoted to the family, loyal to the people I loved.

They said I'd saved my brother and sister-in-law's only child, that I was the greatest benefactor the Fox family had ever known.

The first year, they brought my nephew and expensive gifts and kowtowed to me, spending every kind word they had, kneeling to thank me for my great kindness.

The second year, they still came with my nephew to bow their thanks for what I'd done.

By the third year, my body had started to weaken. I couldn't lift anything with the slightest weight to it. They said a few words about taking care of myself, set down their gifts, and left.

By the fourth year, I was aging fast, and they looked at me like they'd seen something horrifying. The old gratitude had turned into a thorn, working its way into their hearts.

By the fifth year, they stopped coming at all. They said that every time they saw me, all they could see in my eyes was resentment they couldn't wash away.

In the sixth year, my nephew fell ill again and ended up in the hospital.

My brother and sister-in-law never blamed him for staying up all night gaming after his surgery, for eating and drinking whatever he wanted, for ignoring every instruction the doctors gave.

They insisted it was my kidney. Poor quality, they said.

My sister-in-law showed up at my door again, wailing at the top of her lungs.

"That kidney of yours, was it defective from the start? Otherwise why would Percy be sick all over again?"

My brother stood beside her, his face cold, his voice colder.

"Get yourself healthy and donate again. We're family. You can't just stand there and watch your nephew die."

I only had one kidney left. Donating again meant dying.

I refused.

And just like that, I became the sinner of the whole family.

My parents cursed me as cold-blooded, ungrateful, a wasted lifetime of raising.

Relatives from every branch took turns showing up to lecture me, to lean on me.

Every last one of them stood on the moral high ground and demanded I be the sacrifice.

In the end, they cornered me until there was nowhere left to go, and I couldn't take the torment anymore. I jumped.

Lying in the pool of my own blood, in the last moment before I died, I heard my sister-in-law spitting curses at me.

"Damned worthless thing. You'd rather die than give your nephew a kidney. How can anyone be this vicious, this heartless?"

When I opened my eyes again, my brother was standing in the living room, holding the match report, saying with delight,

"This is wonderful, little Vera. You and Percy are a match. Percy's going to be okay."

This time, I looked at the hope on every face in that family, and I spoke, softly.

"I won't donate."

That "I won't" dropped the living room into dead silence.

The excitement and expectation on their faces froze solid in an instant.

My sister-in-law was the first to snap out of it.

She shot to her feet, staring at me like she couldn't believe her ears, her voice climbing sharply.

"Vera Fox, what did you say? Say it again."

I stayed on the couch, my back straight, none of the timid, soft-hearted girl I'd been in my last life left in me.

"I said, I'm not giving Percy a kidney."

Her face went gray and pinched, her eyes flooding red, tears coming the second she willed them.

"Vera, that's your own nephew. He's only twelve. Can you really stand there and watch him get tortured to death by this illness?"

I kept my head down, said nothing, looked at no one.

When she saw I wasn't moving, she spun and grabbed my mother's hand, sobbing so hard her whole body shook.

"Mom, look at your daughter! How can she be this heartless? Percy's her own nephew, she watched him grow up!

"If she won't donate, Percy's whole life is ruined! How can she just watch him die?"

My mother's face was as ugly as it could get. She turned and glared at me, her eyes full of disappointment.

"You wretched girl. Percy is the Fox family's only bloodline. You're this cold about it, do you want the Fox line to die out?"

"Weren't you always the sensible one? How can you be so muddled now? Can you even face the ancestors of the Fox family?"

My brother stood off to the side, his face dark as still water, his eyes locked on me, his voice pressing down.

"Little Vera, you've always loved Percy the most. We're family, bone broken but still joined at the tendon. You save Percy's life, and our whole family will remember what we owe you for the rest of our lives."

Last life, he'd said he would remember what he owed me too.

But four years in, that debt had turned into a grudge.

By the fifth year, my health was nothing like it had been, and they wouldn't set foot in my house.

They said that one look at me and my eyes seemed to blame them for taking a kidney from me, and it gave them the creeps.

Even though I'd never once thought that.

I watched them play off each other, watched their practiced misery, their moral blackmail.

And the scar their so-called family love had carved into me last life ached, a dense, crowded ache all across my chest.

Last life, they'd used one phrase, "we're family," to bind up my life.

Used one word, "sensible," to squeeze me dry.

I saved my nephew and destroyed my own life in the process.

And ended up despised for a bad kidney, hounded to death.

Why should I?

I stood up and looked at my brother, calm.

"Zane Fox, donating a kidney wrecks your body. With one gone, I'll never do heavy work again for the rest of my life. I'll be on medication just to keep going."

"I still have a daughter and a home to take care of. So I can't donate."

The words had barely left my mouth when my father's hand shot up and cracked hard across my face.

A sharp, loud smack.

My head snapped to the side, half my face burning, my ear ringing.

His chest heaving with rage, he jabbed a finger at me and let the curses fly.

"You selfish, cold-blooded dog! I raised you all these years, and this is what I got, a selfish, ungrateful ingrate?

"So what if you lose one kidney? You've got a husband, since when is heavy work your job? If your nephew dies, this family's line ends!

"Today that kidney gets donated whether you want to or not! I'm not letting you throw a tantrum over this!"

I held my cheek and slowly raised my head.

My eyes stayed dry, but my heart had gone cold all the way through.

I said,

"Dad, this is a country ruled by law. As long as I don't want to donate, no one has the right to force me."

My father clutched his chest and toppled back onto the couch. I grabbed the emergency heart pills and quickly fed him one.

He caught my wrist, eyes swimming with tears, his voice trembling.

"Vera, sweetheart, listen to your father. Give Percy one of your kidneys. I'm begging you."

I pulled my hand free and shook my head.

That afternoon, every relative was summoned to our house.

My uncle, my three aunts, my sister-in-law's parents and her side of the family too. Everyone who could come, came.

The little apartment was packed wall to wall, loud with voices, and every one of them was aimed at me.

Nobody asked whether I was afraid of the pain. Nobody cared whether the surgery would leave me broken for the rest of my life.

Everyone had the same question: why won't you save your nephew?

My eldest aunt leaned against the door with her arms crossed over her chest, her tone sharp and full of scorn.

"Vera, it's just one kidney. It won't kill you. A few months and you'll be fine."

"Percy is the only grandson the Fox family has. Are you going to stand there and watch him die?"

I twisted my fingers together and held my ground.

My second aunt let out a long sigh.

"Kids these days, honestly, the older they get the more selfish. No sense of family at all."

"If my kidney were a match, I wouldn't say a word. I'd donate it right now."

I lifted my head and looked at her, my voice flat.

"You talk big now, Aunt. But years ago, when your daughter-in-law nearly bled out giving you a grandson, you wouldn't even give a little blood. Why was that?"

"That, that isn't the same thing! Percy is family. Don't you go dragging up old scores to change the subject."

My uncle chimed in.

"Exactly! Vera, you're too cold-hearted. Your parents raised you for twenty years, and when it actually counts you're no use at all."

"If you don't save your nephew, do you think you'll ever have a clear conscience? You'll be punished for this!"

My mother took my hand and pleaded with me earnestly.

"Sweetheart, be good. Donate it. We're all family."

"You help your nephew, and later your brother and his wife will help you. When you're old, Percy will take care of you, treat you like his own mother."

"Think of the bigger picture. Don't give people a reason to point at you behind your back and call you cold and heartless."

I drew my hand back.

"Mom, I'm not afraid of what people say. I have a daughter. And I don't need Percy to take care of me when I'm old."

"All I want is to keep my body intact, live a few more years, and raise my little girl."

In my last life, I believed all of it.

I believed in "family helps family." I believed in "we'll pay you back someday." I believed in "it's just a small injury, no big deal."

And what did I get in the end?

A body full of ailments, endless blame, and one final line, "your kidney was poor quality," before they drove me to my grave.

I looked at the crowd of hateful faces. My voice wasn't loud, but every one of them heard it clearly.

"Donating a kidney means permanent damage. I'll die young. So whoever wants to donate can donate. I won't."

That sentence set every one of them off.

My sister-in-law dropped straight to the floor and threw a screaming fit, wailing.

"Why is my life so cursed! My boy is perfectly good, and now he has to sit here and wait to die, all because he has a heartless aunt!"

"Heaven has no eyes! Why won't it let me suffer in his place, why does my son have to go through this!"

Her mother suddenly knelt down in front of me, sobbing and begging.

"Good girl, please, help your sister-in-law. I'll kowtow to you if that's what it takes."

I turned my body away and clenched my fists.

"There's no reason for any of this. Instead of wearing yourselves out on me, you'd be better off looking for another way."

My brother's face was ashen. He stared at me, his voice cold enough to frighten.

"Vera, I'm asking you one last time. Are you going to donate or not?"

I looked him straight in the eye and didn't give an inch.

"No."

I had become the sinner of the whole family.

From that day on, everyone shut me out, closed ranks against me, spat on me.

My parents turned cold. The silent treatment, the verbal jabs, day after day without a break.

My mother sighed and slammed things around the house all day long.

"How did I raise a heartless brat like you? Cold, unfeeling, ready to disown your own blood!"

"The whole neighborhood is laughing at us! Saying we raised a daughter with no conscience!"

My father wouldn't so much as look at me. I wasn't allowed to sit at the table, wasn't allowed to open my mouth.

The moment I dared say one word back, it was a screaming fit, sometimes his fists.

My nephew's illness, all of it, they laid at my feet.

As if the second I refused to donate my kidney, the boy was doomed, and that made me his killer.

The relatives went around spreading poison about me.

Told anyone who'd listen that I was selfish, cold-blooded, vicious, ungrateful.

I couldn't even go out to buy groceries without hearing them point and whisper.

"That's her. Wouldn't save her own nephew. Just stood by and watched her own flesh and blood die."

"Cold as ice, that heart. A girl that spiteful, who'd ever count on her later?"

No one knew what donating that kidney had cost me in my last life.

No one cared that with one kidney gone, the rest of my life would be nothing but sickness.

My daughter needed a healthy mother to raise her, too.

They only recognized one truth: I could save my nephew, I chose not to, so I was the sinner.

They carried on for three days, and when I still wouldn't budge, they got so furious they threatened to run away from home.

My mother said to me:

"If you won't give Percy your kidney, we'll go out there and die!"

They'd spent ten years at my brother's place, raising his child. Now that they were old and no longer useful, his wife shipped them off to me.

Dressed it up nicely, too: since my parents had lived at her house ten years, it was only my turn to take care of them now.

They ate and drank under my roof, and yet every month their five-thousand pension went straight to my sister-in-law, right on schedule. I never once complained.

I closed my eyes, drew a deep breath:

"Mom, Dad, I'm your daughter too. Couldn't you think about me, even a little?"

"If my body gives out from donating a kidney and I go down, will my brother and his wife take care of you in your old age?"

"Don't bother running away. I'll take you to a retirement home. Let's see if you can last a single month there."

In my last life, after I fell to my death, my sister-in-law put them in a retirement home.

Barely two days in, they couldn't stand it, wailing on the phone to my brother, accusing the aides of abusing the elderly.

And what did my brother say?

He said:

"I don't believe the aides would hit you if you'd just behave! You two get more impossible the older you get!"

My parents looked at how set my face was and argued back through gritted teeth.

"Your brother would never abandon us. Bad enough you won't donate a kidney to save Percy, now you're sowing discord too. Your conscience must've been eaten by dogs!"

With that, they walked out, not a look back.

I sat on the couch in a daze, until the preschool teacher called to ask why I hadn't come to pick up my daughter.

When she saw it was me coming for her, she lit right up.

"Mommy, can you buy me a candied fruit skewer? I want one so bad. Grandma buys them for Percy but won't let me have any."

Something twisted in my chest.

All their lives my parents favored boys over girls. As a child it was my brother they doted on, now it was my nephew.

I scooped my daughter up and let her pick the one she loved best, strawberry.

Knowing her grandparents weren't home, she was extra happy.

While I cooked in the kitchen, she'd run over one minute to call, "Mommy, is dinner almost ready?"

and the next minute run over to say, "Mommy, I love you so much."

Before, with my parents in the house, she'd sit quiet and good with her picture books, her building blocks.

Because if she got the least bit lively, my mother would say the girl made her dizzy with all that moving around, gave her a headache with the noise.

Only now did it hit me: their being here had been slowly smothering the child right out of my daughter.

At dinner, my husband, who had stayed silent through all of this, never once weighing in, suddenly spoke up:

"Honey, why don't you just give Percy one of your kidneys."

My body went stiff. I lifted my head and looked straight at him.

"Les, I thought you'd be on my side."

He said, "I just don't want to see you fall out with your family and turn them into enemies."

"Do you want to know what happens to me if I donate a kidney?"

He shrugged it off. "It's just doing a little less housework, staying up a little less at night, isn't it? Isn't that exactly what you want?"

I remembered how cold and final he'd been in my last life, and I slammed my chopsticks down on the table.

"It is not that simple!"

"After the donation, I won't just be unable to do heavy work or stay up late. My body will break down. I'll have chronic back pain, I'll be on medication all year round just to hold myself together, I'll get depression, and no one will be there to take care of our daughter. You"

Before I could finish, my phone rang.

It was my nephew, Percy Fox.

I hesitated, then tapped to answer.

"Aunt Vera, are you really not going to save me?"

"I'm only twelve. I don't want to die. I want to grow up and see the world."

"Aunt Vera, please, give me a kidney. When I grow up I'll be good to you, I'll take care of you in your old age, I'll pay you back."

I looked at the phone and said nothing.

In my last life, I gave everything to save him.

After the surgery he ignored the doctor's orders, kept staying up all night gaming, kept overeating and drinking with no limits, and in the end he turned around and blamed my kidney for being bad.

I answered him with one line.

"Percy, my life is a life too. This time, I have no obligation to pay for the way you live yours."

My nephew hung up, then turned around and posted the recording to the family group chat.

The chat exploded in an instant.

The relatives came at me in waves again, every message cursing me out.

"Vera is so cold-blooded. She's beyond saving."

"Saying that kind of thing to a child. Are you trying to drive him to his death?"

"Poor Percy, stuck with an aunt like that."

My parents heard the recording and sent voice messages ripping into me.

"Your nephew is dying! What is it going to cost you to save him?! Why do you have to be this heartless!"

"Are you trying to make us drop dead from the stress?"

The next second, my brother called, saying Percy had suddenly taken a turn for the worse and was in the emergency room right now.

Our whole family rushed to the hospital. Everyone outside the emergency room was white in the face, the air so heavy it was hard to breathe.

I don't know how long it was before the doctor came out of the emergency room, looked at my brother, and told him Percy was out of immediate danger for now,

but his condition was still critical, and he needed a kidney transplant as soon as possible. There was no time left to wait.

In an instant, every eye fixed on me at once.

My brother's wife lunged first, eyes red, and clamped both hands onto my arm, her nails digging into my flesh.

"This is all you, Vera! You were too heartless to donate, you set Percy off on purpose, and now his condition's flared up and he nearly died!"

"If you'd just agreed to donate, how could he have ended up like this!"

My brother shoved a sheet of paper into my hands, his voice low and heavy.

"If anything really happens to Percy, you're a murderer, and you'll never wash it off for the rest of your life!"

"Sign this organ donation agreement right now, and we'll still treat you as family!"

My parents and the crowd of relatives closed in, pinning me against the hallway wall.

"It's because you're so stubborn and cold-blooded that you pushed Percy's condition over the edge!"

"Hurry up and sign, save him, stop putting the boy through this!"

Percy's mother pressed the agreement down flat, jammed the pen into my hand, and screamed at me to hurry.

"Sign it! You are signing this today, and you are saving my son!"

Every one of them was forcing me to sign away the rest of my life, forcing me to repeat the same ruin as my last life.

But what I said next shut every one of them up.