When The Doctor Falls to His Knees

After leaving the ER, another spasm seized my stomach, feeling like someone was twisting a white-hot poker in my guts.

In my last life, I had developed pancreatitis around this same time. Back then, I had called Julian, who was on duty, and he immediately dropped his work and drove home to take me to the hospital.

But then, Chloe—the woman he'd never gotten over—committed suicide during a depressive episode.

Later, Julian learned that Chloe had used her connection with the hospital director to protect him and save him from disciplinary action. Sure enough, the hospital dropped all disciplinary action against Julian the next day.

Chloe had loved Julian madly, and she was still murmuring his name as she died.

The day Chloe died, Julian locked himself in his study and smoked two packs of cigarettes. However, when he came out, he seemed no different than usual, laughing and talking with me as always. He drove me to and from work and prepared dinner for me just like before.

His disguise led me to mistakenly believe he had moved on, that he had finally realized grieving excessively for an ex-girlfriend was disrespectful to his wife.

It wasn't until the night of my father's retirement party that Julian offered to barbecue for everyone. But he calmly orchestrated a gas leak. He tied me to a chair, pierced my vein with a cold needle, and slowly injected a lethal dose of potassium chloride. "Spare them? And what would that do? Would that bring Chloe back?" he snarled. "Ava, you deserve this! Why did you have to cling to me that night? Were you just waiting for her to die?"

I wanted to argue. I wasn't a god; I couldn't have foreseen that Chloe would kill herself. I was dead drunk that night because I wanted to help Julian. The person who had filed the complaint against him was the New York billionaire Garrett Sterling, one of the hospital's main donors.

It was a critical time for his promotion to attending physician, and this complaint was enough to derail his entire career. I felt guilty, so at the charity gala, I had taken the initiative to approach Mr. Sterling and drank with him until he finally agreed to withdraw the complaint.

Tears streamed down my face as I tried to tell Julian the truth, but he had completely lost his mind and wouldn't listen.

He roared as he sliced my lips with a scalpel, "It's all because of this mouth! If it weren't for you, Chloe wouldn't have died! It's your parents' fault for raising such a selfish woman. Your whole family can be buried with her!"

My entire body trembled from the excruciating pain as tears mixed with blood, stinging the cuts on my lips. After he was done torturing me, Julian tossed the scalpel aside and opened the gas valve, a single match held between his fingers.

"Chloe, I'm coming for you."

It was only when I saw the deep affection in his eyes, an affection never meant for me, that I felt like a complete and utter fool. It was while drinking with Mr. Sterling that I had learned the reason for Julian's conflict with that patient. The patient had cursed at Chloe for her bad attitude. When Julian found out, he rushed over and punched the man without a second thought.

A vicious spasm ripped me from my memories, and I fought to stand up straight. I knew I was running out of time and couldn't delay any longer.

It took a great deal of effort to get to the entrance, intending to go to a different hospital. But the blizzard had choked the roads, the swirling snow threatening to swallow the entire city.

I waited, staring at my phone for over ten minutes, but couldn't find a single available car. I could only endure the pain and walk back to the nurse's station, hoping to ask if there were any other doctors on duty.

When the nurse saw me, the smile on her face vanished instantly. She waved her hand to shoo me away. "Our doctors are all very busy."

"But I saw two examination rooms with no patients—"

The nurse shot me a warning look, and the rest of my words got stuck in my throat. Finally, I could only beg her, "I'm in unbearable pain. If there are no doctors in the ER, could you please help me find a doctor from another department?"

"No." The nurse waved her hand at me impatiently. "Stop faking it. Dr. Thorne already gave the order. No one is going to help you."