A Debt of Life, Repaid in Blood

The ER waiting room hummed with a familiar, sickly glow.

But tonight, I wasn't the paramedic on call.

I was just Andrew, a guy in a hoodie, staring at my phone.

My fiancée, Jennifer, lay supposedly critical after a hit-and-run.

They said she needed emergency brain surgery.

The nurse demanded payment upfront.

With a cold, practiced mask, I showed them my banking app.

"$17.42."

That's all I had left, I claimed.

It was after a "sophisticated online scam" wiped me out.

Jennifer' s "parents" - two actors she' d hired - wailed.

They begged me to save her.