The girl who slapped me looked delicate but had surprisingly strong arms.

As I tried to clear my head, the crowd of women around me began their barrage of insults.

"Well, well, if it isn't the washed-up ex who can't get a man! Trying to worm your way back in, huh?"

"You seriously think being the ex-wife still gives you any rights? Give me a break!"

"Today, we're gonna teach you what happens to desperate little tramps like you!"

Outside my office, the waiting patients were gathering at the door, drawn to the commotion.

Their curiosity quickly turned into judgmental whispers and pointed fingers.

"I can't believe the doctor's personal life is such a mess!"

"I wouldn't let her treat me now. This is disgusting! I'm canceling my appointment."

The scene escalated as people started demanding refunds and making a fuss.

It was the first day my hospital was open, and the last thing I needed was a scandal.

"Natalie, you're a lowlife who climbed to the top by breaking up marriages. Who do you think you are, making demands here? If you don't want to embarrass yourself even more, apologize and leave!"

I thought this would make her back off, but instead, it seemed to fuel her anger even more.

"You're the one who cheated while you were married, and now you're trying to act like you're innocent? Just because you're the ex-wife, does that give you the right to keep seducing my husband?

"Emily, don't think that because you're pregnant with my husband's child, I'm going to forgive you. Today, I'm going to make sure you pay for everything!"

I frowned and retorted, "This is your last warning. I'm remarried, and this baby is my husband's!"

But Natalie had already set up her sob story in the livestream, and no one was buying my side of things.

[Show us the evidence, Natalie! Put this arrogant homewrecker in her place!]

I braced myself, expecting her to come up empty.

But Natalie's smirk grew as she pulled out her phone, showing me two screenshots.

One was the ultrasound image I'd just posted, and the other was a pregnancy test.

And both had my name on them.

"These photos are from David's phone! How can you deny it's you?"

I was momentarily at a loss for words.

"Maybe you should figure out who's really stealing your husband before you come here and cause a scene!"

Once a cheater, always a cheater.

If David could stray with Natalie, he could easily do it with someone else.

Natalie was just naive enough to believe he was genuinely committed to her.

She didn't seem convinced and glared at me with a mix of anger and disbelief.

"You told me once that you would love David forever, no matter what!"

I let out a laugh, unable to contain it.

"Who hasn't made mistakes when they were young? When you were with David, did you really think he wouldn't find someone else eventually?

"Maybe you should ask your loving husband who he's knocked up again!"

Natalie lost it completely.

"That's ridiculous! After you hurt him, he's only been focused on me! He loves me. There's no way he's seeing anyone else!"

I looked at her with pity.

"Believe what you want. I have zero interest in a scum. He's not even in the same league as my husband."

Natalie's gaze dropped to the wedding ring on my finger, and for a second, she seemed uncertain.

But her friends were not having it.

"Did you hear that? She's remarried and still trying to get with her ex. What a total tramp!"

[Exactly! Women like her need to be put in their place!]

[This is insane! If I were there, I'd make sure she gets what's coming to her!]

[Stop wasting time and deal with her already!]

The livestream chat was flooded with demands for Natalie's crew to take action.

I quickly became the target of everyone's outrage.

"Emily, see this? This is what people really think! You're the mistress who had my husband's baby, and now it's time for me to show you what happens to women like you!

"It's time to take out the trash! If we don't deal with her, none of our marriages are safe!

"Being nice to her is just being cruel to ourselves. Who knows when she'll try to mess with your husbands next!"

Their harsh words and furious stares were almost more than I could handle.

If looks could kill, I'd already be dead.

"I'm warning you, this is a hospital, not your playground!"

But they were too worked up to care.

"Smash everything! Tear up her office and destroy her work!" Natalie ordered.

As soon as she gave the command, they started vandalizing my office.

The brand-new equipment I had just bought was smashed beyond recognition.

I rushed to protect it.

"These are expensive, newly purchased machines! You'll have to pay for all this damage!" I yelled, but it only seemed to make them angrier.

They pushed me to the floor and started kicking and punching me.

"You're just a cheap mistress, living off someone else's husband and now acting all high and mighty in front of us real wives!"

"From the moment you started cheating, you deserved to be in the gutter!"

One particularly loud and aggressive woman added fuel to the fire.

"Ladies, listen to her. She's acting like this is her place. How many men did she have to seduce to afford all this?"

Natalie stopped, pulling out her phone to check the hospital's ownership.

When she saw it was indeed my hospital, her jealousy exploded.

"It's true! How shameless! She's using my husband's money to run this place!

"Let's make sure she's forced to shut it down for good!"

The online uproar was electric.

[Seriously? How does someone like her even get to run a hospital? She must have some serious connections. Anyone want to guess which shady deal she made?]

[Forget it. You wouldn't catch me in that hospital. Who knows how dirty it is!]

The commotion attracted security, who rushed in to control the situation.

But the patients were all backing Natalie.

"This place is a dump! What a waste of time. We want our money back!"

The security guards were overwhelmed, unable to get close to me with the crowd blocking their way.

I signaled to a nurse to call the police, but before she could, someone snatched her phone and smashed it.

"Figures that people like this stick together. Let's show her what happens when you mess with us!"

As the crowd went wild, I watched in horror as the brand-new equipment, which my husband Ronan Hayes and I had worked so hard to bring in, was being destroyed.

"Stop! These machines are top-of-the-line technology! You can't just break them!" I yelled, but my pleas only seemed to fuel their rage.

Natalie pulled me into the center of the chaos and made me the center of attention.

"Alright, everyone, and to everyone watching the livestream, what should we do with this shameless mistress?"

The crowd eagerly chimed in with their suggestions.

"First, we should make sure she loses the baby! Let's see if she dares to be a mistress again after that!"

"And don't forget to scar her face! Mark her as a mistress so that wherever she goes, everyone will know what she is!"

Just as they were about to break into the MRI room, it hit me that my first heart patient was inside getting an exam.

Ignoring Natalie's attempts to hold me back, I screamed at the gang, "Stop! There's a patient in there who can't handle this chaos!"

My desperate warning only seemed to intensify their frenzy.

"Imagine if the patient gets hurt because of this mess. Wouldn't that be just perfect?"

As the mob barreled toward the MRI room, some patients tried to protest, but their voices were drowned out by Natalie's screeching followers.

"Don't worry, folks! Our husbands are successful and rich. This is nothing!"

At this point, it was clear Natalie had assembled a group of truly unhinged people.

The control room doctor barely had a chance to react before being roughly yanked out and thrown onto the floor.

Just then, a patient who had finished her exam emerged and turned off her live stream.

She confronted Natalie, looking stern.

"Hey, you keep claiming David is your husband. Got any real proof?

"And what gives you the right to go after Emily?"

Natalie's face twisted with fury. She slapped the patient hard, her anger spilling over.

"So that's why this bitch is sticking up for you! You're all in this together!"

Seeing David's mother, Beatrice Mitchell, getting slapped and struggling to breathe, I rushed to her side.

"Beatrice, are you alright?"

Beatrice was clutching her chest, her face turning pale as she glared at Natalie.

"How could my son be with such a vile woman!"

The room went silent for a moment, but Natalie's mocking laugh soon filled the air.

"Oh, look at you, old lady, thinking you're so clever. David's mother lives abroad. You think you can just impersonate her?"

Beatrice, fuming, tried to pull out her phone to call David, but Natalie grabbed it out of her hand.

"Think you're gonna call the cops or get help? Not gonna happen!"

I knew from doctors abroad that Beatrice couldn't handle any more stress after my divorce from David.

Despite everything, she had been kind to me, and we had a decent relationship.

She'd come back specifically because she knew my hospital had advanced equipment and a higher success rate for heart surgeries.

What she never anticipated was running into her son's nasty wife right in the middle of her examination.

Seeing Beatrice's condition worsening, I panicked and immediately called for an emergency team to get her to the ER.

But Natalie blocked our way.

"Stop pretending! If you want to get out of here, you'll have to get past us first!"

In the midst of the chaos, Beatrice and I were clearly seen as allies.

Natalie shoved Beatrice lightly, and she collapsed to the floor, unmoving.

My heart raced, and I was on the brink of tears.

"Natalie, that's really David's mother! Are you trying to kill her?"

Natalie simply laughed off my panic.

"Oh, you're really putting on a show, aren't you?

"Don't let her trick you! I was her best friend for years, and she could fool anyone. Her acting skills are unreal!"

I continued to administer first aid to Beatrice while shouting to the security guards, "Get her to the ER now!"

As the scene spiraled out of control, David's sister, Olivia Mitchell, who had just returned from paying, saw Beatrice on the ground.

Realizing what was happening, she stepped in to protect me from Natalie.

"Natalie, if you touch my mother, you'll never marry my brother!"

Natalie erupted in laughter, as if she'd heard the best joke ever.

"Wow, Emily, where do you find these actors? First, someone to play David's mom, then someone to be his sister. Hilarious! If they were really back in the country, my husband would have told me."

Unconvinced, Natalie still claimed to be David's wife and dialed his number.

"Honey, Emily hired people to pretend to be your mom and sister to harass me. Get over here and back me up!"

I didn't have time for her antics. If David showed up, the drama would only escalate.

As security struggled to push through the crowd and get Beatrice onto a stretcher, it became clear she had no pulse.

I was frantic, my desperation palpable.

"Move faster, or she'll die!"

To everyone else, my urgency looked like part of the act.

Natalie yanked my hair and threw me to the floor.

Just as a knife was about to stab into my abdomen, Olivia shielded me.

The knife missed me but sliced through her neck, eventually landing on my arm.

Blood sprayed everywhere, and the chaos froze in shock.

"Someone's been stabbed!"

"Someone's been stabbed!"

The crowd scattered in terror, and David, sweating and panicked, rushed into the room.