Second Shot: Choosing Silence Over Salvage

Dad ended the call, saying, "Alex had an incident at the library. The teacher said we need to get there immediately."

I pretended to know nothing, following Dad as we rushed out of the house and sped all the way to the hospital downtown.

This hospital was all too familiar to me. Mom was a famous doctor here—a top surgeon in the neurosurgery department.

Family members crowded around the operating room entrance. My paternal grandparents, my maternal grandparents—everyone was there.

My maternal grandma—Grandma Bessie—wiped her tears and pointed at me. Her voice was choked with sobs.

"How dare you show your face here! Something this terrible happened to Alex, but where were you?"

My maternal grandpa said nothing, but his gaze toward me was also full of disappointment and blame.

Grandpa Lewis, my paternal grandpa, held onto his wife's arm. He also stared at me reproachfully.

"Exactly! Why didn't you go with Alex to the library? It's so dangerous for him to be out alone!"

Dad stood to the side, his gaze also filled with blame toward me.

I felt like a target getting pierced by countless arrows. In this life, I chose to step back and avoid it, yet I still became the target of everyone's criticism.

Sure enough, no matter what I did, it was always wrong in their eyes.

I lowered my head and whispered in my defense, "I didn't know Alex would have an accident. Let me go get Mom. She's working overtime right now…"

Upon hearing me suggest finding Mom, Dad's eyes showed a flicker of panic.

He quickly grabbed my arm and said, "Your mother is busy. Don't disturb her."

She was probably busy accompanying Cynthia in Hathford, gathering pearls to make a necklace.

In my previous life, it was at this point I found out that Mom had specifically taken time off to go to Hathford to accompany Cynthia on a trip. The whole family knew she wasn't in the city, but they kept it from me.

Grandma Carol—my paternal grandma—shot Dad a disapproving look. "Can anything be more important than Alex's surgery? Hurry up and call Miranda! Tell her to come immediately!"

"That's right!" Grandma Bessie chimed in from the side. "It's such a big matter, so what could be more important than this? Call her quickly!"

I pretended to be anxious as I took my phone out to make the call. But after more than ten calls in a row, no one answered.

"What's going on with Miranda? Alex is in this state, yet she's not even answering her phone!"

Grandma Carol grew more anxious, and her tone showed her dissatisfaction with Mom.

Dad quickly tried to smooth things over. "Mom, she might be in surgery. You know that once she enters the operating room, she can't focus on anything else."

However, the moment his words fell, the call connected.

"Didn't I tell you before? Don't bother me if it's not important! Cindy, are you mad? Don't you know I'm busy here?" Mom snapped.

I gripped the phone tightly and replied weakly, "Mom, Alex was shot. He's at your hospital. You need to come quickly…"

Before I could finish, she cut me off with a scornful laugh. "Shot? Don't jinx Alex with such nonsense! He's perfectly fine, studying at the library. How could he possibly have been shot? If he doesn't do well on his exam, it'll be because you jinxed him!"

Mom simply didn't believe me. It was exactly the same as what I'd heard in my previous life.

"Mom, it's true! Alex really was shot! He's right outside the operating room of your hospital! There's so much blood…"

The anxious Grandma Bessie, who stood beside me, also shouted into the phone, "It's true! Miranda, come quickly!"

Mom's tone instantly turned cold, carrying obvious displeasure. "Mom, Cindy is being immature and spewing nonsense, and you're joining in too?

"Whatever! I don't have time to argue about this. I'm busy with work, so I'm hanging up now."

The call ended abruptly after that.

"What could she be busy with that it's more important than Alex's life? She's gone completely insane!" Grandma Carol said in a trembling voice as she placed a hand over her chest.

Dad tried explaining, "Mom, Miranda might really have something extremely important…"

Just then, a nurse emerged from the operating room with an anxious expression and said, "You're Dr. Wood's family, right? You need to get her back here immediately. The patient has a severe intracranial hemorrhage, and his condition is critical.

"She's the only one who can perform this surgery, but she's off duty today and not at the hospital!"

Dad instantly panicked, looking helplessly at Grandma Carol and Grandma Bessie.