That night, Ethan didn't come back to our apartment in BackBay.

I didn't call him endlessly or demand to know where he was like I would have done before.

I just sat on the bed, listening to that recording over and over.

Every time I played it, my heart broke a little more.

After Mom died of cancer, I thought I'd found a new anchor—Ethan. He was the youngest candidate for attending physician at Redwood General Hospital and a star lecturer at Hawford Medical School.

It had been four years. Four years of supporting each other through everything.

Ethan had genuinely cared for me. During clinical rotations, whenever senior doctors made things difficult, he was always the first to stand up for me.

He remembered what kind of coffee I liked on night shifts, and he would order takeout for me after I pulled 36-hour shifts.

We were inseparable, like two halves of a whole.

Because of that, people envied us, calling us the "power couple of medicine".

After four years of being so close, I'd grown used to Ethan being a part of my life. I thought I couldn't live without him.

I'd imagined our future together. We would be at the same top hospital, complete our residencies side by side, get married, have kids, and build a warm home together.

I believed there was nothing that could ever come between us.

But that peace ended the day Victoria returned to Estain.

She came back when I was in my fourth year of med school.

Her father, Seth Hartfield, was the chairman of Redwood General Hospital's board. Her mother, Diana Rosales, was a renowned plastic surgeon.

Victoria had finished a master's in public health at Boskary and returned to take a hospital operations role under Seth.

She and Ethan had been engaged once, but they broke up when she went abroad.

Now that she was back, she made it clear that she wanted him again.

The first time Victoria showed up in front of me, I felt the threat immediately.

Poised like a princess, she was in a Chanel suit, Louboutins clicking under her feet. Meanwhile, I was in wrinkled scrubs, my hair in a messy ponytail, with dark circles from sleepless nights.

"So, you're Leah?" Victoria sized me up. "Ethan mentioned you. Thank you for taking care of him all these years."

Her tone was polite but distant, as if I were nothing more than a passing presence in Ethan's life.

"But now I'm back." She smiled and continued, "Ethan needs someone who can support him in social circles and help build his career. You get what I mean, right?"

At that moment, the gap between us hit me like a punch to the gut.

I was a broke student scraping by on scholarships and grants. Victoria, meanwhile, was a high-born heiress, raised in the lap of luxury.

I thought Ethan would stand by me and tell Victoria that we were together, but he didn't.

He simply said, "Victoria, Leah is a very important… friend of mine."

Friend.

He used that word.

Not girlfriend, not partner—friend.

From that day forward, Victoria began to set her plan in motion.

She "accidentally" booked two concert tickets and invited Ethan. She mentioned his research projects at board meetings to get him more resources. She even hosted weekend gatherings for doctors and left me out.

Gradually, Ethan started spending more time with Victoria.

"Her dad's the board chairman," he explained. "I need to maintain that connection. It's important for my career. Besides, Victoria's in the medical field too. We have a lot in common. Don't overthink it. It's just work."

Every time, I chose to believe him.

Every time, I convinced myself it was temporary.

Until the day I discovered that months of my research data had vanished.

Victoria asked to meet me at the rooftop garden of Redwood General Hospital. It was a staff lounge area—open and airy, with a sweeping view of the Estain skyline.

She looked fragile, almost pitiful, as she explained that the data loss had been an accident.

"Leah, I swear I didn't mean to. I just wanted to check on your research progress so I could help you request more funding from the board. I must have pressed the wrong key by mistake…"

As she spoke, her eyes reddened, tears pooling in them.

"I know you and Ethan have been together since you were in the med school. How could I possibly have those kinds of intentions? Please, don't make this a big deal. My dad just had heart surgery. He can't handle any stress right now…"

Her tears finally fell.

I relented and reached out to hold her. "Victoria, don't cry. I get it. It could've been an accident—"

The moment I reached out, she suddenly grabbed my hand, pulled hard, and threw herself backward.

"Ah!"

Her scream drew the attention of several nurses taking a break in the garden.

Victoria sat on the ground, clutching her arm while crying uncontrollably.

I stood frozen.

"What happened?" The nurses rushed over.

"I'm fine… It's nothing…" Victoria said weakly. "I just lost my balance."

But a flicker of triumphant provocation flashed in her eyes as she looked at me.

Within minutes, Ethan arrived after being notified by one of the nurses. The moment he saw Victoria sitting on the ground, he rushed to her side.

"What happened?" He crouched down to examine her arm.

"Did Leah push her?" one nurse whispered. "I saw them arguing, and then Victoria fell."

"I didn't!" I protested immediately. "She grabbed me and—"

"Leah," Ethan cut me off. There was disappointment in his voice as he continued, "Tell me the truth. We can talk this out."

"That is the truth! She pulled my hand and fell on purpose!"

"Leah, her arm is already bruised." His tone turned colder. "Why did you do this? Is it because of the research data?"

He didn't believe me. He believed Victoria.

My head was spinning, and my whole world came crashing down.

"Ethan, Victoria didn't delete my data by accident! She did it on purpose! She wanted to steal my research for her friend." I couldn't hold back my suspicions any longer.

Ethan let out a long sigh, disappointment written all over his face. "Leah, listen, I get that you're stressed, but you can't go around accusing people like this. That's not you."

He told me that just a few days ago, Victoria had come to him first, saying she felt like I was hostile toward her.

And to avoid interfering with my relationship with Ethan, Seth had even offered to excuse himself from any board decisions regarding Ethan's promotion.

"Mr. Hartfield asked me if there was some misunderstanding between you two," Ethan said, his voice sharp with accusation.

"Victoria even said that if she's making you uncomfortable, she'd request a transfer to the Oscein branch. Leah, did you say something behind Victoria's back? Is that why she wants to leave?"

I had no words to argue.

The way Ethan saw it, Victoria and Seth's "compromise" was goodwill, but my pointing out Victoria's scheming was jealousy and slander.

He didn't believe me.

In the end, Victoria only suffered a minor scrape on her arm, but that incident changed the way Ethan looked at me forever.

In his eyes, I became the petty, jealous woman who couldn't tolerate others, and Victoria became the gracious, innocent victim.

I wasn't willing to accept it. I tried everything to prove my innocence and make Ethan see Victoria for who she really was.

But she was too cunning.

Instead of exposing her, I kept getting played, again and again.

My lab key went "missing", and I lost a critical experimental window because of it.

When the security footage was reviewed, Victoria just so happened to have captured someone lingering near my locker, subtly implying I'd misplaced it myself.

The night prior to my presentation at an important academic conference, my laptop suddenly crashed. Every single PowerPoint file was corrupted.

Victoria generously offered to lend me her laptop.

The next day, I discovered she'd already forwarded my research highlights to her best friend.

I was no match for someone as calculating as Victoria. Her schemes were meticulous, with layer upon layer.

No matter how I tried to explain, Ethan always chose to believe her.

One day, I found out Victoria had stolen the only necklace Mom left me. It was a cheap silver chain. Victoria had thrown it into a biohazard waste bin at the hospital.

It was the last gift Mom bought for me as a Nurses' Day present with her final paycheck. It was the only thing I had left of her in this world.

I lost control. I stormed toward Victoria and slapped her across the face.

The sharp sound echoed through the corridor.

Victoria covered her cheek, tears flooding her eyes instantly.

Ethan, who'd just walked out of surgery, saw everything.

He rushed forward and stood protectively in front of Victoria, glaring at me. "Leah, have you lost your mind?"

"It was her! She threw away my mom's necklace!" My voice broke as I pointed at Victoria. "That was the only—"

"Enough!" Ethan cut me off. "Leah, I'm truly disappointed in you."

He helped Victoria away and left me standing alone in the hallway.

That was the moment my heart shattered completely.

After that, Ethan brought up breaking up again and again because of Victoria.

And I backed down every time to make peace.

I wanted to find flaws in Victoria's mask and make Ethan see who she really was, but she was too good at pretending.

When she learned that Ethan and I had agreed to try to stay at Redwood General Hospital together, she even tried to sabotage my residency application.

While I was on a night shift, she used her master key to enter my office and attempted to alter my submitted Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) application.

Fortunately, a nurse on duty saw her before she could cause irreparable damage.

Victoria was shameless.

In private, she used every dirty trick imaginable against me. But in public, she was flawless.

She would cry delicately at the slightest provocation, mention Seth's heart condition, and talk about how much she'd sacrificed for Ethan's career.

I didn't know whether Ethan had truly fallen for her or whether he was simply leveraging her connections.

All I knew was that he hurt me again and again for her sake.

And I humiliated myself again and again trying to win him back.

I couldn't bear to leave him.

For four years, Ethan had guided and supported me. He'd become an irreplaceable part of my life. Tearing myself away from him felt like ripping out my own heart.

So whenever he turned cold and threatened to leave me because of Victoria, I retreated and apologized.

But this time, after hearing the impatience and indifference in his voice on that recording, I finally realized how pathetic I'd become.

It turned out that Ethan's distrust in me wasn't because Victoria was clever. It was because he'd already grown tired of me.

He wanted to get rid of me. That was why he always stood on the opposite side.

That night, I sat alone in my room and played the recording over and over again. Eventually, my tears dried, and my heart went numb.

Fine, then. I would give Ethan exactly what he wanted.

I was done backing down and begging for him to stay with me.

As for the research project they destroyed, I wasn't going to save it anymore.

I picked up the phone and called Dr. Adam Vance, the residency director at Northview Memorial Hospital in Fedria, who'd once offered me a position.

"Dr. Vance, I've made up my mind. I accept your offer to join Northview Memorial Hospital's internal medicine residency program."

Relief warmed his voice. "That's great, Leah. Given your circumstances, we'll provide you with a generous living stipend. You won't need to worry about financial pressure."

I opened my inbox and sent a formal acceptance email to Northview Memorial Hospital. Then, I withdrew my application to Redwood General Hospital.

When it was done, I lay back on my bed.

That night, I slept peacefully.

I didn't stay up late worrying about why Ethan wasn't home, nor did I bother calling to ask where he was.

The shackles that held me for four years had finally been cast off.