Blindsided by Karma: The Heiress's Sweet Revenge

Tags: Cornea destruction, sweet revenge through the truth, manipulative childhood friend, karma. After waiting in line for three whole years, a matched pair of donor corneas finally became available. Yet just because his childhood best friend whined that she “wanted to see what corneas look like,” my fiancé went behind my back, intercepted them, and had them moved from the hospital. Naturally, his precious little friend clumsily dropped the transport cooler. The preservation fluid leaked, the vials shattered, and the corneas were completely ruined. Furious, I lashed out at him for being so utterly reckless. He just shrugged it off with complete indifference. “Whatever. The blind person who needs them is your mom anyway. What does that have to do with me?” I laughed. I had completely forgotten to mention that the person currently blind and desperately waiting for that transplant was actually his own mother—the very woman he had sworn on his life to take care of. Three years ago, I registered on the transplant list at the hospital. After waiting over a thousand days, I finally got the call. “Miss Vance, a donor cornea match has cleared. We can schedule the transplant surgery for next Monday.” Thrilled, I immediately called my fiancé, Mark. Every single call went straight to voicemail. I thought he was just swamped with work, but when I opened Instagram, I saw he had just posted two new photos. *Heading back to our childhood memories.* *Back to the green hills where we grew up. The view hasn't changed, and neither has the person by my side.* Attached were cozy photos of him and his childhood friend, Rachel. Unable to hold back, I sent him a text. *Too busy to pick up my calls because you're out playing with her?* Thirty minutes later, Mark finally texted back. *Chloe, could you not be so petty? Rachel and I haven't seen each other in forever. What's wrong with catching up? Keep bugging me and I'll block your number right now.* I quickly sent another message. *The hospital just called. The corneas are finally here.* A few seconds ticked by before his reply popped up. *Stop bothering me. Rachel and I have things to do.* This wasn't the first time Mark had picked a fight with me over Rachel. He had blocked me plenty of times before. Sometimes it was because I accidentally chipped a souvenir Rachel had bought him; other times it was just because I pointed out one little flaw about her. “Throwing another tantrum, is he?” My best friend, Hannah, patted my shoulder. “Mark is absolute trash as a boyfriend. Throwing a fit at you over another woman just proves he doesn't love you enough. Chloe, stop walking on eggshells for him.” I let out a helpless sigh. “My grandfather is breathing down my neck to get married. If I don't finalize the engagement by the end of this month, I'm cut off.” Right now, besides Mark, I didn't have anyone else ready to walk down the aisle. We had been dating for three years, and marriage was just one step away. “Didn't you say you need to head to the hospital? Get in. I'll drive you,” Hannah offered. Just as she finished speaking, my phone rang. When I answered, it was a familiar doctor from the hospital. “Miss Vance, has there been a change in plans regarding the cornea transplant? I'm calling to remind you that corneas are extremely delicate during transit. Even the slightest bump can ruin them and make the surgery impossible.” I froze. Since when had the corneas been moved without my knowledge? “Your boyfriend came in person and checked them out. All the paperwork has already been processed.” So when Mark said on Snapchat that he had “things to do,” he meant cutting me off and stealing the donor tissue! Without thinking, I bombarded Mark's phone with calls. After a dozen attempts, he finally answered, barking into the receiver, “Chloe Vance, are you insane? Do you have any idea how annoying you are!” “Where are the corneas? Do you have any idea how fragile they are? Any impact can destroy them! Send me your location right now. I'm coming to get them.” “Oh, really?” Mark's tone suddenly turned light and dismissive. “Too bad you're late. Rachel bumped the case by accident, and it dropped. The glass broke and even gave Rachel a tiny cut on her hand. Come clean up the mess if you've got time. I'm taking Rachel to urgent care right now to get a bandage.” Pure rage flared in my chest. How could he treat something so serious like a joke? “Mark, do you have any idea whose corneas those were—?” “Yeah, I know. They're for your blind mother,” Mark cut me off. “You've already waited three years. Waiting another five or ten won't kill her.” His voice dripped with mockery. “Besides, I hate nagging old women breathing down my neck anyway. It's better that your mom stays blind. At least now she won't be around to boss me around.” “Whatever, I'm hanging up.” My knuckles turned white as my fists clenched, veins pulsing at my temples. I could barely catch my breath from the sheer anger. I spent a full minute calming myself down, and then a strange sense of relief washed over me. What did this have to do with me anyway? When the dust settled, Mark would be the one labeled a monster. After all, the person lying in that hospital bed waiting for the transplant was his own mother.Mark assumed, just like he always had, that my mother was the one whose vision deteriorated three years ago and needed a transplant. What he didn't know were two crucial facts. First, my family's financial situation was the complete opposite of the “modest, ordinary” background I had told him about. Three years ago, my father had used his private connections to fly my mother abroad for a successful transplant, and her eyesight had fully recovered in no time. Second, late last month, Mark's mother had been rummaging through construction debris on her walk home from the grocery store and suffered severe chemical burns from quicklime, blinding her completely. When she was rushed to the hospital, the staff had called my number first. “Chloe, please don't tell Mark about this. He works so hard at his job every day. I don't want him wasting his precious energy taking care of an old woman like me.” A child had the right to know about their own parent's health, so I had fully intended to tell Mark that very day. Yet during that entire stretch of time, he was out day and night partying with his precious childhood bestie. Whenever he stumbled back, it was the dead of night, and the next morning he'd sleep like a rock until noon. I never even got a chance to speak to him. Then the hospital notified me that donor tissue had cleared ahead of schedule, so I figured I might as well wait until the surgery date was locked in before breaking the news to him. Who could have guessed things would play out like this? Poetic justice at its finest. “Chloe, didn't you say the corneas would be ready soon? Why did the nurse tell me today that the hospital doesn't have any available?” Looking at the old woman sitting blind on the hospital bed, I replied flatly, “Well, they were ready. But Mark decided to check them out of the clinic to let Rachel play with them like a toy, and they shattered. You'll just have to wait your turn again.” I thought she would scold her son for being an irresponsible idiot. Instead, she shrieked my name and whipped her head toward the sound of my voice. “How could you be so wicked! This is all your fault for being so stingy! If you weren't such a miserable nag, they never would have taken the cooler out of the clinic! You're the one who kept me from seeing again! You murderer!” “Was there something unclear about what I just said?” I had initially planned to explain the situation calmly, but seeing her unreasonable, hysterical tantrum, I realized she wasn't worth another second of my time. I turned to leave. Remembering that she had previously been looking into engagement jewelry for us, I tossed over my shoulder, “By the way, I'm calling off the engagement. You don't need to waste your time scouring discount pawn shops for cheap gold anymore.” As I clicked the hospital door shut, the sound of items smashing echoed from inside the room. Along with a barrage of vile curses. “Who the hell do you think you are, you ungrateful little bitch? My son is a senior corporate executive! Your family should be thanking God every day for the honor! Otherwise, I'd never let a woman like you into our family!” “You think having a master's degree makes you special? You aren't even worthy of washing Rachel's feet!”By the time Mark and Rachel returned from their little road trip, I had already packed my bags and moved out of our shared rental. He called me, screaming before I could even say hello. “Chloe, haven't you thrown your tantrum long enough? We're about to get married and you're pulling this runaway routine? Get back here and cook dinner right now. Rachel and I have been driving for hours and we're exhausted.” “So you expect me to come back and cook for you and your mistress?” “Do you have to make everything sound so disgusting?” Mark yelled louder. “It was just a set of corneas! It's not the end of the world! Rachel even went out of her way to buy you a bubble tea to apologize today. Can't you grow up for once?” Before I could answer, he added, “I just texted my mom to tell her to come over for dinner. On your way back, stop by the market and grab some of those blue crabs she likes.” That caught my attention. “You told your mother to come over by herself? Do you have any idea that her eyes—” Before I could finish, Mark hung up on me. Sitting across from me, Hannah rolled her eyes so hard they nearly fell out of her head. “You wasted two whole years on a scumbag like that? Chloe, you're giving me an aneurysm!” Hannah paused and looked at me seriously. “So, now that you've dumped that loser, what are you going to tell your grandfather? Didn't he say that if you don't get married this year, he's handing the family trust over to your cousin?” I smiled and patted her shoulder. “Already handled. There are plenty of men lining up to marry me. Mark wasn't my only option.” While Hannah and I finished our coffee, my phone buzzed incessantly with Mark's Snapchat messages. *Where the hell are you? Rachel is starving. Is this how you treat a guest?* *Stop by the bakery and pick up a mango crepe cake for Rachel. The one on West Street. She only likes the ones from that shop.* *Chloe, are you dead? Get your ass back here right now.* … I glanced at the screen, tapped the top right corner, and blocked his account entirely. Thirty minutes later, an unknown number flashed on my screen. “Chloe! You're a monster!” It was Rachel's voice. She sounded furious, choked with sobs. “You knew his mother was blind! Why didn't you tell us? Do you have any idea that she just got hit by a car?!” Listening to her sobbing, I calmly asked, “Did I hit her?” Rachel choked on her words. “Since it had nothing to do with me, calling to lecture me is entirely pointless.” I hung up on her immediately. After treating myself to a few relaxing days out of town, I finally drove to my newly purchased penthouse. Yet as soon as I pulled up to the gated community entrance, I saw a crowd of people dressed in traditional white mourning clothes, wailing and throwing a massive scene, drawing a huge crowd of onlookers. At the front of the mob, holding a framed funeral portrait, was Mark! “Chloe Vance, you cold-blooded murderess! You killed my mother! Pay with your life!”