My specialist clinic never had enough slots to go around.

I'd quietly swapped a shift with a colleague so the out-of-town patients wouldn't get turned away.

At the peak of the midday rush, a man burst through the door carrying a bleeding pregnant woman, shouting：

“Doctor! Please, save her! Our appointment's this afternoon, but she started hemorrhaging out of nowhere. She's barely conscious!”

“My wife's never been healthy. It's an ectopic pregnancy—this could kill her! I'm begging you, please save her!”

I frowned hard, set down the chart in my hands, and looked up：

“For emergencies there's a dedicated team outside. Get her to the operating room first. I'll finish with this patient and come in right after——”

The words died in my throat. My eyes met those of the man I'd been married to for nine years.

Jack Delgado went silent instantly. The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

I laughed.

“So this is you on a business trip overseas?”

“You really have been……working hard.”

……

Panic flickered across his eyes for a split second, and he instinctively shifted the woman behind him.

“Viola, let me explain. It's not what you think.”

I pointed at the woman behind him—white as a sheet, doubled over her stomach, whimpering.

“Then what is it?”

“She's an intern at my company. She collapsed out of nowhere, and I happened to be nearby, so I brought her in.”

“I passed myself off as family because I was afraid your hospital wouldn't take it seriously. None of her relatives are local……”

Jack delivered every word with a straight face, but his eyes wouldn't meet mine.

I almost laughed out loud.

“Jack, do you think I'm blind? I'm not senile enough to fall for that.”

“Last night on our video call you told me you were in a meeting in Newport City. What, do they have direct rockets from Newport City now? That's how fast you got back?”

Jack's face cycled between red and white.

His mouth opened, grasping for something more to say.

The woman in his arms let out a muffled groan and grabbed his arm, her voice thin：

“Jack……it hurts……I'm dying, aren't I……”

“Lavinia! Don't scare me like that!”

Jack panicked instantly, pulling her tight against him.

He turned to me, and now there was something pleading in his eyes：

“Viola, please. Save her first, okay? Whatever this is, we'll deal with it at home.”

I folded my arms, my gaze ice-cold：

“Save her? And why would I do that?”

“You just called her your wife. So what does that make me?”

Jack's voice shot up：

“Viola, stop being unreasonable! This is a matter of life and death!”

My smile turned colder：

“You don't need to lecture me about life and death. I'm a doctor. I know more about that than you ever will.”

“She got pregnant by someone else's husband, and now an ectopic pregnancy has her bleeding out. That's divine payback. If she had the nerve to be that shameless, she can live with the consequences.”

The words were still leaving my mouth, but my hand was already reaching for the phone.

He hadn't expected me to be unmoved by threats or pleas. Rage took over and he screamed at me：

“She's hemorrhaging and barely alive, and you're standing there making snide remarks? Is this your idea of professional ethics?!”

I ignored him. My fingers were already dialing the internal line：

“Prep OR three immediately. Patient with ectopic pregnancy, massive hemorrhage, needs emergency surgery. Notify the Department of Anesthesiology and the Blood Bank to stand by.”

I hung up and looked at Jack.

The fury on his face froze mid-expression. For once, he had nothing to say.

“You……”

I didn't spare him another glance. I turned back to the patient I'd been seeing, wrote up her lab orders quickly.

Gave her a few reminders, told her to go get her tests done first.

She glanced between us, took the hint, and slipped out without a word.

On his way out, he shot me one last look of pity.

Then it was just the three of us in the exam room.

The air pressed down until it was hard to breathe.

Jack watched me, something unreadable in his eyes.

“Viola, I know you're angry.”

“But have you ever stopped to think about why we ended up here?”

I froze.

I thought he would apologize. Feel some shred of guilt.

Instead, he turned it around on me.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

His face darkened, his voice cold：

“You really don't get it?”

“These nine years, every single day, you were either at work or pulling overtime. How much of this family did you ever take care of?”

“My birthday—you were in surgery. Our anniversary—you were on night shift. My mother was sick in the hospital and you couldn't even show your face!”

“All you ever think about is your patients, your surgeries. When have you ever cared about me? When have you ever cared about this family?”

“Look at yourself. You live in that white coat, bare face, not even a decent dress to your name—where do you even look like a woman?”

He was getting more worked up with every word, spit nearly hitting my face.

“I'm a normal man too. I need someone to be with me, someone to care about me!”

“Lavinia's different. She's gentle, she's considerate, she understands people. She remembers my birthday. She plans surprises. When I'm tired, she rubs my shoulders.”

“With her, I actually feel like I'm alive!”

My heart—like a dull knife was dragging across it, cut after cut after cut.

Pain that bored straight through my chest.

Nine years of marriage.

I'd gone from a newly graduated young doctor to an associate chief physician.

And yes, in those nine years, I'd shortchanged this family. I knew that.

But none of it was for myself.

When his startup was bleeding cash, when the whole thing nearly collapsed—

I emptied my savings. I borrowed money from my parents. I got him through it.

He worked until midnight every night.

No matter how late my own shift ran, I left a light on for him. I kept a bowl of soup warm.

When his mother got sick, I pulled every connection I had to get her the best doctor, the best room.

Every day after work, straight to the hospital.

Bedpans and sponge baths, a full month of it.

All he saw was the birthday I missed. The anniversary I wasn't there for.

He couldn't see everything I'd given.

He couldn't see how many lives and deaths I faced every day in that hospital, or how much weight I carried.

I stood there, cold all the way through.

My silence must have looked like surrender to him, because he only got bolder.

“What? Nothing to say?”

“Let me make this clear. This is on you too. If you weren't cold as a board every single day, I never would have cheated.”

“Lavinia is carrying my child, and now something this serious has happened. You're a doctor—saving her is your duty!”

“If you don't save her today, that's settling a personal score! That's having no medical ethics! I'll go straight to the president's office and report you, and then I'll put the whole story online!”

“Forget your specialist clinic—you won't practice medicine again.”

His words drove into me like a blade to the chest.

I looked at the man I had loved for nine years and did not recognize him.

My eyes burned, and I held everything back, refusing to let a single tear fall.

A slow breath. My voice came out raw：

“Fine. I'll save her.”

“But not because you threatened me, and not because I think any of this is my fault.”

“Because I'm a doctor.”

“When I put on this white coat, I don't get to let someone die.”

I turned my back on him and walked out of the exam room. Didn't look at him once.

Outside the operating room, Jack was pacing back and forth, visibly agitated.

I'd already changed into surgical scrubs, mask and cap on, ready to go in.

He called out to me.

I stopped.

He hesitated, a flicker of suspicion in his eyes：

“You……”

“You wouldn't sabotage anything on the operating table, would you?”

I could barely believe what I was hearing. It was almost laughable.

“You really think I'm that kind of person?”

“How would I know? You hate us right now. What if you use this to get back at her?”

“No. I'm not letting you operate on her alone.”

He turned to the director standing nearby：

“Director Lambert, I want a different doctor. Or at least add another doctor in there with her.”

Director Lambert frowned, barely containing his anger：

“Mr. Delgado, Dr. Pruitt is the best OB-GYN in this hospital. She's performed well over a hundred procedures like this without a single complication.”

“Her professional integrity is recognized by every person in this building. If you don't trust her, you're welcome to transfer to another hospital right now.”

He turned and walked away without another word.

Jack's face went white, then gray.

Of course he didn't dare transfer.

Lavinia's condition was already critical. Any more delay and she could die.

All he could do was clench his jaw and watch me walk through those doors.

The operating room doors closed slowly behind me, sealing off everything outside. I took a deep breath, picked up the scalpel.

In that moment, I wasn't Jack Delgado's wife. I was just a doctor.

The surgery took three hours.

When I stepped out, it was already three in the afternoon.

I hadn't had a sip of water since morning.

I pulled my mask down, and the world went black. My legs gave out and I hit the floor.

The last thing I heard before everything disappeared was Jack's voice, frantic：

“Viola, how's Lavinia? Is she okay?”

I couldn't give him any answer at all.

Each passing second chewed through what little patience Jack had left.

Just before he could explode, a nurse came out of the operating room.

She spotted me on the floor immediately and rushed over：

“Dr. Pruitt! Dr. Pruitt, what happened?”

She pulled a piece of candy from her pocket with practiced ease and slipped it into my mouth.

“Oh no, your blood sugar crashed again!”

“You've been working three days straight. Two surgeries last night, and then straight into this one today. Nobody's body can take that.”

Only then did Jack notice how pale I was.

He froze for a second, then frowned.

The nurse answered him flatly：

“Low blood sugar. She passed out.”

He scoffed：

“Whose fault is that but her own?”

“She's faking it. Collapsing right now on purpose so I'll feel guilty. This is her way of getting back at me.”

I'd barely caught my breath when I heard those words.

My heart went dead. Completely, finally dead.

I pushed the nurse's hand away and got to my feet, slowly.

“Lavinia is out of danger.”

“The nurses will take care of her from here. You can go see her now.”

I turned and walked away.

Didn't look at him once.

The next morning.

I'd just reached the door to Lavinia's room when I heard her voice drifting out—saccharine-sweet, dripping with helplessness：

“Jack, my stomach really hurts……”

“Do you think that doctor messed up the surgery?”

“I read a story online about a surgeon who left a scalpel inside a patient during a C-section. And another one who left gauze in there, and the patient got an infection and almost died.”