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.

The next morning, I scrolled through Instagram and saw Victoria's story.

"Had to take care of a certain doctor who drank too much last night. I'm exhausted!"

The picture showed her in her BeaconHill mansion bedroom, with Ethan in just a white T-shirt, sleeping on her bed.

He'd actually gone to Victoria's house and stayed the night. He'd even slept in her bed.

It hurt. I felt like my heart was being cut with a dull knife. But it was better than before. Maybe it was because my heart was already hollow that it stopped hurting as much.

I got up, washed up, changed my clothes, and headed out to the store to buy some storage boxes and tape.

As I carried my bags inside, I opened the door and immediately heard Victoria's soft laughter.

In the living room, Victoria and Ethan were sitting side by side on the couch, both holding a tablet, looking at something.

At the sound of the door, they turned to look.

Ethan glanced at me, then quickly looked away with complete indifference. The way he looked at me was as though he was looking at a stranger.

But Victoria stood up and walked toward me with a gentle smile. "Leah, welcome back. You bought so much stuff. Do you need help carrying it?"

As she said that, she reached out to take my things, but I moved my hands away.

The next moment…

"Ah!"

Victoria lost her balance and "fell" to the floor.

It was the same old trick again.

Ethan shot up and rushed to her. As he helped her up, he glared at me with fury. "Leah, what are you doing? Why did you push Victoria?"

"I didn't." My voice was calm.

"You're still denying it? If you didn't push her, why would she fall?"

Ethan's gaze was full of anger and accusation. "Is this because I went out with her last night? Because I stayed at her place after drinking too much? If you're mad, take it out on me, not her!"

I hadn't even touched Victoria. She just fell on her own.

I looked at Ethan and suddenly felt it was all so ridiculous.

"If you don't believe me, you can check the security footage," I said quietly.

Hearing me suggest we watch the footage, Victoria, who'd been silently teary-eyed, finally spoke. "It's not Leah's fault. I just lost my balance. It hurts…"

Her voice was weak and innocent, like a hurt little animal.

Ethan's face went rigid the moment he realized he'd wrongly accused me. Yet, the apology never came.

He just helped Victoria while looking at her with a face full of concern. "You've scraped your knee. Let me take care of it."

I saw the smug, triumphant glint in Victoria's eyes. I turned away, grabbed my things, and went upstairs.

Victoria probably thought I would lose my mind, cry, or break down like before.

That was the old me. The new me wouldn't make those same mistakes anymore.