Changing Fate (Book 3) (Piper Anderson Series)

by Danielle Stewart

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Connie tilted her head and crossed her arms over her chest. She leaned in to read the letter. “What price has gone up?”

  “We can talk about it later. Now isn’t the time,” Marty asserted through gritted teeth, imploring his wife to let it go.

  “It’s okay, Marty,” Piper said, stepping forward and shaking off Bobby’s hand as he tried to stop her. “We already know, and we can help you. You just need to tell us the whole story.”

  Marty hung his head, looking cornered and defeated. “Marty, you tell me right this minute what this is about. What have you done?” Connie took a tone they hadn’t heard from her before. It was different than her trying to quiet Eli or scold Jennipher. It was a firmness she likely didn’t use often, but Marty seemed to understand the weight of it.

  “Connie, you don’t understand. I’m a doctor. I hear about things all the time. I hear about all the patients who don’t make it while they wait. I hear about the companies, the people who sell their organs to the highest bidder. They bypass all the bureaucracy and politics of it. I didn’t realize how it worked though, how bad it was.”

  “Marty, you didn’t? You did not?” Connie said, charging at him, her finger pointing accusingly.

  “I stopped it. When I realized it worked differently than I thought, when I found out this wasn’t a willing party looking for cash, I stopped. When I found out they were drugging people, stealing organs—I called it off. The problem is they are still trying to get the money out of me. This is a threat from them. But I’m telling you, I called it off. That was before Piper, it was before we had this,” Marty said, pulling an envelope from his pocket.

  “What do you mean?” Piper asked, stepping forward. “What is that? What does this have to do with me?”

  “This is your blood work results,” Marty said, waving them in the air.

  “The paternity results?”

  “Yes, but I took your sample and had it tested further.” Marty was almost frantic now, his face red and his words coming too fast. “You are a match. You are what we need.”

  “Wait, so you are caught up in this black market organ crap, and what, you thought you’d use me to make some money? I’m some science experiment for you, a paycheck?”

  “What?” Marty asked, running his hand across the sweat beads forming on his forehead.

  “Excuse me?” Betty bellowed, elbowing her way to Piper’s side. “You will not lay a finger on this child, you monster.”

  “Stop,” Connie shouted, pulling the envelope from Marty’s hand. “Stop this right now. This is not some game. This is our lives and you,” she pointed sternly at her husband, “you have no excuse for what you’ve done. We talked about this and we agreed it was not a viable option.”

  Jules raised her hands in complete disbelief, “Um, yes, obviously luring people into your home and being kind to them in an attempt to steal their organs is not a viable option. You two are some real whack jobs. Come on, let’s get out of here.” She tugged on Michael’s arm.

  “That isn’t what I was doing,” Marty insisted, still too confused to put the pieces together. “This is about Clarissa, I wasn’t trying to steal anyone’s organs. I’m trying to save my daughter.”

  “Piper,” Connie said, shoving Marty out of her way. “Please just hear me out. We have been keeping something from you, and I’m sorry for that, I truly am, but we had our reasons. We have another child.” She moved over to the hutch and opened the door, pulling out a framed photo. “Her name is Clarissa and she is seventeen years old, about to be eighteen. She’s our oldest. She should be finishing up her senior year of high school right now, planning for college.” Her words caught in her throat as the tears began to flow. “Three months ago both our girls started acting lethargic, sleeping all the time. We thought they were on drugs, so we sat them down and had this long talk with them. Come to find out they were actually sick. It started with sore throats and a fever that would come and go. We took them to the doctor, and they both tested positive for strep throat. Jennipher started to get better, but Clarissa’s symptoms didn’t go away with antibiotics. They were stumped at first. The doctor noticed Clarissa’s spleen was enlarged during the physical exam. That, combined with her other symptoms, was a tip-off. They ran a blood test and we found out she had picked up mono. They told us it just needed to run its course, but a month later she still wasn’t acting herself. One day, Marty came home from work and noticed the whites of Clarissa’s eyes were more yellow than white. It was our first clue that we were dealing with something much worse than mono. We took her to the emergency room and she was admitted immediately. More tests were run: blood work and finally a liver biopsy. She was diagnosed with viral hepatitis caused by the mono. We tried several treatments, but the damage to her liver was just too extensive and she’s now in liver failure. Her best shot is a living donor liver transplant, a procedure in which a living person donates a portion of their liver to her. Without the transplant, she’s going to die. She needs one immediately, but we’ve been waiting so long already. All of us have been tested, every cousin, every grandparent. No one is a match for her.” Connie opened up the envelope and handed the paperwork to Piper. “But you are. You can save her life. That’s why we were so afraid to lose you, for you to leave, because you were our last hope.”

  Piper didn’t look down at the papers. She just handed them back to Connie who reluctantly took them. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she shouted, turning toward Marty. “You’ve been hiding a child from me. You took her pictures off the wall, asked your other children not talk about their sister? Who does something like that? The only thing I asked you for was honesty, the only thing I needed saving from was this very moment, and you couldn’t give me that. I would have given you anything, anything you asked of me, but you couldn’t give me this one thing?”

  Marty’s voice was weary now. The reality of what he’d done was suffocating him. “We didn’t want to scare you off before we had the results of the test. We were going to tell you either way, whether you were a match or not, but we didn’t know you well enough, and we didn’t want to lose you.”

  “Oh please, you weren’t afraid to lose me for any other reason than you think I can save your daughter, your real daughter.”

  Connie’s voice filled with panic. “Piper, I know you are upset with us, but please try to understand. We are desperate. We are losing our child. I know that must be hard for you to understand, but—”

  “It’s impossible to understand, Connie, because I’ve never had a family. I’ve never had this.” Piper waved her hands around the room, gesturing to the house, the holiday.

  “Please, Piper, just consider it. Just think about it. You are our last hope for her. This procedure could be curative. She could have a completely normal life if you do this.”

  “A normal life. I wish I could have gotten one of those,” Piper threw back icily, stepping backward and turning toward the door.

  “Piper, please don’t go,” Connie shouted as she collapsed into her husband’s arms. Bobby hurried to catch up to Piper as she stormed out.

  “Wait, Piper, slow down.” Bobby hopped into the passenger seat of the car just before Piper threw it in gear and backed out of the driveway, tires squealing.

  “Don’t tell me to stop, Bobby, I won’t. Don’t tell me I’m wrong, because I’m not.”

  “I won’t,” Bobby promised, reaching his hand across to her leg. “I’m so sorry, Piper.”

  She felt her body erupting with anger, and though Bobby didn’t deserve it, some was about to spill over. “Who the hell does something like that? Who orchestrates hiding their child in order to trick someone else? I thought they really liked me, I thought they actually cared that I was around. Instead they planned to use me for spare parts.” Her voice was thundering now, furious in way he had rarely heard.

  “You don’t need to decide anything right now. You don’t owe them anything. Let’s just get out of here. Clear our
heads.”

  “What about everyone else, we just left them there.”

  “They’ll be fine. Betty is there. She’ll calm everyone down. It will be fine.”

  “Part of me doesn’t want it to be fine. Part of me just wants to drive until I’m back in Edenville and forget I ever came on this stupid trip. New York has never held anything positive for me. I hate it here, nothing good has ever come out of this city, I don’t know why I thought this would be any different.”

  “Things will be different, Piper. Everything is different now, because you aren’t alone anymore.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Connie’s sobs seemed to rise up from her toes and overtake her whole body. Piper had left over ten minutes ago and still no one had spoken. They just listened as Connie crumbled, unable to catch her breath.

  Finally Michael stepped toward Connie who was tucked in Marty’s arms. “She’ll be back,” Michael assured them as he rested a hand on her shoulder.

  “Why would she come back? After what she’s been through, after what we’ve done to her.” Connie’s words were so filled with emotion they were hard to understand.

  “She’ll come back because that is who Piper is. She doesn’t ever do the easy thing, she doesn’t run. Even when we were all begging her to leave something alone and mind her own business, she didn’t. It might not be tonight, but if someone needs her, even in the face of some serious hurt, she’ll come back.” Connie reached up and squeezed Michael’s hand, the only thank you she could muster as she sat up and Marty released her. She wiped the tears from her cheeks, and steadied herself.

  “I can’t imagine what you all must think of us. I know you love Piper dearly, and I’m sorry we hurt her.”

  Betty stepped toward Connie and with a stern, stoic look began to speak. “You have hurt someone I love, someone who’s had more hurt than everyone in this room combined. You lied when the truth was right there in front of you ready to be told.” She turned her glance to Marty, “You risked your career, other people’s lives.” Betty shook her head and stared down at the floor. “And frankly, I’da done the same or worse if my baby needed it. There are some things in life that I will never understand, but loving a child more than life itself is something I can relate to. I wish you’d done it differently, I wish Piper wasn’t hurting right now, but all I really hope is that your baby is okay. The rest will work itself out.”

  “So what do we do now?” Marty asked, the exhaustion weighing down his face.

  Michael knew the answer. “We can’t do anything to try to convince Piper, I think she’ll need to decide that on her own. But we do need to deal with Rueben. I have a contact in the FBI. I can make some phone calls and leave your name out of it for now.”

  “I plan to just pay them. The note they left said one hundred twenty-five thousand. I already took out the first hundred thousand before their little message raised the price again. We’ll just pay it.”

  “They’re extorting money from you. The way they operate, they are likely to keep coming back no matter how much you pay them. As long as you have something to lose they’ll keep making threats. It’s best if you can all stay together here.”

  “I’m not staying here,” Connie huffed, clearly still furious with her husband. “Spending most of Christmas Day away from Clarissa was painful enough, I’m going back to the hospital now.”

  “Then all go together. You’re much less likely to have them give you any problems that way. I’ll take Betty and Jules with me, and start making some phone calls. Marty, can you write down everything you know about these guys? Any information at all would be helpful.”

  “I’d like to go with y’all to the hospital, actually, if that’s no trouble,” Betty interjected, her eyes full of sincerity and concern. “I’d love to meet your daughter. Wish her a Merry Christmas.”

  Connie was unable to speak over the tremble of emotion filling her. All she could do was nod gratefully and continue to wipe away the endless tears.

  “I’ll go, too,” Jules smiled, and patted Connie’s shoulder. “I can’t imagine what y’all have been through these past months. Let us sit with you today.”

  “I appreciate this,” Marty stuttered, shaken by the reality of what he had gotten his family into. He disappeared into his office and reemerged holding a folder full of papers.

  “This is everything I know about these guys. Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.” He handed the heavy file over to Michael and shook his hand. Michael gave Betty a quick squeeze and then kissed Jules, lightly patting her belly before leaving.

  As he put his car in reverse he dialed the number on the business card in his hand. He blew out an exasperated breath as the phone rang and he tried to ready himself. He hated calling in favors, especially ones he hadn’t technically earned, but he wasn’t sure where else to turn.

  “Agent Stanley,” the voice on the other end of the phone announced flatly, and Michael immediately remembered how dry and unwelcoming the FBI agent was. He didn’t seem like a man who would ever break a rule, but he had assisted Piper and expedited the release of the letter that Carlson had wanted her to have. And, technically, Michael wasn’t asking for any laws to be broken, he just needed advice.

  “Hello, Agent Stanley, this is Michael Cooper, we met in Edenville last month. I’m a friend of Piper Anderson. I am so sorry to bother you on Christmas,” Michael said in his polished courtroom voice.

  “Yes, Mr. Cooper, you’re a lawyer, correct?”

  “I am, but I’m hoping you won’t hold that against me,” Michael quipped. The joke was met with complete silence on the other end of the line.

  “What can I do for you today, Mr. Cooper?”

  “I’m going to level with you, Agent Stanley. I have a friend who is in a bit of trouble.”

  “That seems to be a recurring theme for you. Perhaps a better selection process will help you, going forward.”

  Michael chuckled though he wasn’t sure if Stanley was trying to be funny or not. “You’re probably right. I’m going to work on that. I’m really just looking for some advice here. Do you know much about the black market sale of human organs?”

  The pause on the other end of the phone meant Michael had played the correct card. If Agent Stanley thought Michael was about to ask for a parking ticket to be waived or a DUI overlooked, he now knew that wasn’t the case. At the end of the day, an agent’s career is made by the cases they are involved in, and the busts they make. He’d be motivated to learn more now.

  “I wish I could say I didn’t, but it’s a growing problem. You have a friend involved with an organ ring?”

  “I suppose now is where I start throwing in the word hypothetically. So, hypothetically, I may know someone with a very ill child, someone who also happens to be a very prominent surgeon, and who felt like he was out of options. He started poking around and considering purchasing the organ for his child since the odds of her surviving in time for a donor are slim. When he realized the extreme practices these folks were using, including drugging and forcibly taking organs from people, he severed ties with them. However, these men feel as though he still owes them the money. The cost has increased multiple times and now it has escalated to imminent threats against him and his family. He is willing to pay the latest price they’ve given him, but I’m not sure that will solve the problem.”

  “Likely it will not. If he pays they will ask for more. Once they know he is willing to cross that line, they won’t stop until they have all his money. I would suggest he come in and discuss this with me. We can offer him and his family protection in exchange for any information he may have.”

  “I’m afraid that isn’t really a viable option. He is a well-established heart surgeon with an ill child in need of surgery to save her life. They can’t pack a couple of suitcases and disappear into the night. I was hoping for something more creative.” Michael knew that Agent Stanley didn’t seem like a very spontaneous man. Asking for a creative soluti
on to this problem was a risk, but one he felt he needed to take.

  The pause on the other end of the line was long, and twice Michael considered asking if Stanley was still there.

  “I’ll need some time, Mr. Cooper,” Stanley finally said. That was a good sign. Agent Stanley continued in a quiet tone. “I’m not usually an advocate for unconventional methods, but I can see how this case might be unique. I’ll give you a call back once I work out a few details.”

  Michael began to say thank you when he heard the line disconnect. That was okay, though. He needed help from Agent Stanley, not cordial conversation.

  Chapter Twenty

  “Jules, I know what you’re here for, and I’m not ready to talk about it.” Piper had returned to the Stoneybrook Home for Women the day after Christmas. She told everyone she wasn’t ready to talk—not to Connie and Marty and not to anyone. Bobby was the only one who was occasionally allowed to call or visit, though the nuns monitored that closely.

  There was one familiar friend she was happy to cuddle with though. Bruno had become popular here, moving from apartment to apartment, making friends and finding new snacks to enjoyed. The nuns said he added a feeling of security, and his relaxed demeanor was a comfort for many of them. Now he was sitting on the floor by Piper’s feet, staring up at Jules, looking as though he was wondering what all the fuss was about.

  “I don’t care,” Jules said, brushing past Piper and Bruno to sit on the couch. “I think this period of pouting has run its course. It’s time for some tough love.” Jules patted the couch and motioned for Piper to come sit next to her.

  “You are seriously here to tell me to give up part of an organ to a bunch of people who lied to me and used me?”

  “No,” Jules persisted, hitting the couch even harder. “I am here to tell you to stop acting like an idiot and talk to them, or us, or somebody. You can’t sit up here all by yourself and just wish this all hadn’t happened. You have to face it.”