Xavier's surgical team was the best in the city, and the wounds on Cynthia's waist had perfectly missed all her vitals, so the operation ended quickly.

Cynthia was then transferred to a private ward right next to Xavier's office.

I pursed my lips. The ward was in a prime location, unavailable to the average citizen no matter how much money they offered.

I retracted my previous praise for him. He wasn't impartial and selfless; other people simply weren't as important as Cynthia in his eyes—including me.

Patty opened the door of the ward, this time with her phone in hand. "Dr. Winston has been keeping the patient alive with the defibrillator for half an hour already, Dr. Goodwin. This is our last chance to save the patient."

With Xavier present, perhaps there was still a chance.

Xavier gently tucked Cynthia in before taking out a handkerchief to wipe away her sweat.

Just as he was about to head down for a look, Cynthia tugged at the hem of his shirt. She happened to wake up right at that moment.

"My head really hurts, Xav!" she whined.

Xavier stopped in his tracks once more, and he instantly placed his hand over Cynthia's forehead to check her temperature with a worried expression on his face.

Patty attempted to urge him again, only to be immediately interrupted by Cynthia's high-pitched scream.

Cynthia was rolling around on the bed as if she were in great pain.

"Save me, Xav! My head really hurts!"

The entire floor exploded into activity again. Xavier personally operated every medical instrument, examining Cynthia's body with each one.

He remained busy even as Lyra collected my body and left.

I lazed on top of the curtain rail, yawning out of boredom.

It was already past midnight, but Cynthia still hadn't calmed down.

According to all the reports, there was obviously nothing wrong with her.

The accompanying nurses were already becoming impatient, as anyone with a discerning eye could tell that she was faking the pain.

Surgery involving patients with her level of injury were usually handed off to the interns to practice with, so how could she be suffering from complications when Xavier himself handled the operation?

One of the nurses finally spoke up about it, unable to hold herself back any longer.

I immediately snapped to attention, fully awake now.

Sure enough, Xavier threw the clipboard in his hand onto the floor immediately afterward, causing a loud clang to ring out.

Everyone present was shocked. Even Cynthia forgot to continue crying, and the tears still sliding down her face looked rather comical.

Xavier's eyes were filled with exhaustion and irritation.

He thought my prejudice toward Cynthia already become common knowledge, to the point that even the nurses believed the rumors.

He said stonily, "It looks like the pleasant and relaxing training you experienced with Elena has caused all of you to forget your place. I'll ask her to apologize to Cynthia personally tomorrow on your behalf."

He then addressed the nurse who had spoken out, Bella Jensen. "As for you, I want to see a 10,000-word apology letter from you by tomorrow morning!"

Besides feeling embarrassed and angry, Bella also had a slightly contemptuous look on her face.

Xavier had never had such a look directed at him before, and he was momentarily stunned.

"You don't spare your own wife a single glance, and yet you're showering an outsider with affection. You're always talking about equality, but in my opinion, there's an issue with your character!"

Just then, Cynthia spoke up feebly. "Ellie is the internship supervisor this year, so it's normal for her to be angry with me. I'm the one who's caused trouble for everyone."

She was basically implying that I was targeting her behind her back.

Xavier immediately drove all the nurses out and personally watched over Cynthia. He remained in the ward for the entire night.

I clenched my fists tightly. Whenever Cynthia was involved, Xavier would believe her unconditionally.

It was always like this!

During a gynecological surgery that I had personally handled, the patient experienced postpartum hemorrhage and was in critical condition.

I immediately arranged for emergency surgery, but Cynthia came up to me then and insisted on entering the operating room to observe the procedure.

"I'll definitely become a leading gynecologist if I follow you around, right, Ellie?" she asked.

I originally refused her request, but she planted herself on the floor and clung to me tightly, crying and begging nonstop.

While this was happening, Xavier hurried over and lectured me for arguing over trivial matters instead of worrying for the patient's wellbeing.

In the end, Cynthia followed me into the operating room.

The operation lasted eight hours, and I was already thoroughly exhausted by that point.

Right after walking out of the delivery room—barely having closed my eyes for two seconds—a nurse rushed in and yelled, "Dr. Livingston! We're missing one piece of gauze! It may have been sutured into the patient's body!"

If that were true, it would be considered major medical malpractice.

But at that time, Cynthia had clearly reported that everything was accounted for!

Without pausing to rest, I resterilized and entered the operating room again.

The gauze was successfully removed, but the patient remained unconscious, and the hospital demanded accountability.

Cynthia and I confronted each other in Hubert's office. All I had to do was call on the scrub nurse who was present at the time, and the truth would come to light.

However, Xavier came forward at that moment and, under my incredulous gaze, admitted my guilt for me while vouching for Cynthia.

In the end, I was suspended from my job.

I questioned him directly in the office, but he simply frowned as if he didn't understand why I was being so emotional.

"You've already achieved fame and success, so suspension is nothing to you, but Cynthia only just joined the industry. How is she going to remain in the hospital if there's a stain on her records?"

What about me? I had been close to being promoted to the position of head of the Gynecology Department, and a suspension would render all my efforts throughout the past few years useless.

Was my future not important?

All he told me in return was, "Are you done making a fuss?"

From that day onward, we started giving each other the cold shoulder, and the situation lasted for an entire month. During that time, I ignored the various text messages Cynthia sent me.

I knew without even having to look at them that her messages contained photos of Xavier having meals with her three times a day, photos of the two of them doing the rounds together, and photos of them with other patients.

Xavier and I were so busy with work that we rarely got together in the first place. Therefore, even if we weren't giving each other the silent treatment, he and I probably wouldn't have seen each other for a month.

Our marriage had already been coming apart at the seams. Cynthia didn't even need to give it more than a gentle nudge, and our relationship just fell apart.

When the doctor who came to take over Xavier's shift—Bryan Errington—saw him coming out of Cynthia's ward, his face was full of surprise.

Immediately afterward, he recalled my surgery last night. Even if it was a normal death, he still felt guilty at the sight of Xavier, who was my family member.

He said quietly, "We're all very sorry about what happened with Dr. Livingston…"

Xavier frowned slightly as he undid the buttons on his shirt collar.

"Is Elena still clinging onto such a trivial matter?" he asked, looking Bryan up and down with a baffled expression. "She's getting more and more petty as time goes on. Sorry for the trouble last night. I'll tell her off when I go home tomorrow."

After saying that, he turned to leave.

Bryan suddenly raised his voice. "Dr. Goodwin! Aren't you going to see Dr. Livingston now?"

I poked at Xavier's handsome face.

Even if he came to see me now, it was too late!

Xavier simply left without the slightest pause. "I have to change the dressing on Cynthia's wounds later, so tell Elena to go home by herself first."

The nurses behind Xavier gesticulated at him, silently judging his behavior, but Bryan didn't stop them.

"To think Dr. Goodwin was actually so cold and heartless. What a terrible man."

"I heard that Dr. Goodwin flew into a great rage when Bella made one negative comment about Cynthia. He'd probably believe Cynthia even if she told him that rotten food smelled good."

I burst into laughter. That's right. He'd not just believe it but taste it too.

Even someone like you has become the subject of ridicule, Xavier.

Suddenly, there was a loud shout from ahead. The voice sounded quite familiar to me.

I suddenly paused before starting to drift forward quickly.

My soul was bound to the accessory on Xavier's chest—a lucky charm I had gone to great lengths to obtain from a church on the mountain.

Judging from the speed at which my soul was being tugged along, Xavier was likely being dragged along the floor by someone. There was no other explanation for it.

A gloomy-looking young man with messy hair that pretty much covered his entire face was dragging Xavier across the floor. The young man looked like he wanted to kill someone, and his target was Xavier.

The young man looked incredibly angry, but there was an unconcealable sadness on his face.

Feeling distressed, I tried to wipe his tears away, only for my hand to pass through him time and again.

"Don't cry anymore, Elio. You're going to become an adult soon, and you have to take good care of Mom," I thought silently.

"So, you abandoned Ellie for Cynthia?" yelled my younger brother, Elio Livingston. "Do you know that you're basically cheating? Ellie really was blind to have fallen for you! I want you to come back, kneel in front of her, and apologize to her right now!"

Everyone around Elio was scrambling to try and stop him.

Just then, Cynthia suddenly rushed over from out of nowhere and grabbed his arm. "It's a misunderstanding, Elio! Xav was just worried that I got hurt protecting Ellie from the attacker's knife. If Ellie's angry, I'll go and apologize to her right now."

Elio slapped her hand away. "I don't need any of your fake kindness!"

I felt alarm bells going off in my head. Elio was going to fall right into Cynthia's trap.

True to my expectations, Cynthia immediately stumbled back a couple feet and collapsed heavily to the floor. Blood seeped out of the bandages around her abdomen. Her wounds had evidently reopened.

In truth, the pain of death had made it hard for me to recall what happened during the day of the incident.

However, as I watched Cynthia feigning weakness while accurately slamming her own body into a hospital billboard, I couldn't help but start to feel suspicious.

Had Cynthia really been stabbed by the victim's enraged family member?

I had clearly been the one who rushed forward to push the attacker aside, and I had also been the one locked in the cold chain warehouse after sustaining several stab wounds.

Xavier called security before I could think further about the issue.

"Enough!" he bellowed. "You siblings are both so unreasonable!"

Cynthia started to kick up a fuss as well. "I'm going to call the police! This is intentional injury!"

Unexpectedly, Xavier was the first person to stop her. "I'll take full responsibility for your injuries. Just consider it an apology from me on behalf of Elio. He's still young, and I'll make sure to give him a talking-to when I get home."

No matter what, he couldn't allow Elio to end up in the police station. They were family, after all, so even if there were conflicts between them, they could just resolve them behind closed doors.

In the end, Elio was driven away by the hospital security.

I lowered my hand weakly, wishing that I was still alive. If I were alive, at least my family wouldn't have to be falsely accused like this.

After settling Cynthia back in her ward, Xavier returned to his office alone and tapped on the pinned chat in his messaging app.

He had listed the contact down as "Lena".

His hand tightened around the phone.

There were no new messages in the chat, and the latest messages were from one month ago.

"You have the nerve to blame medical malpractice of this severity on me! We might as well get divorced so you two can get together, Xavier Goodwin!"

"Can't you just be more understanding of Cynthia? She indeed lacked experience, considering it was her first actual participation in an operation, but this clearly could have been avoided if you had just been more careful. As the team leader, don't you need to take responsibility?"

His message was marked as sent but not delivered.

That's right. I had already blocked Xavier's number a month ago.

I watched as Xavier searched everywhere for a way to contact me until he finally started writing an email.

"Let's stop this petty squabbling, Elena. I was just too worried about Cynthia being stabbed last night. It's a good thing that the criminal was already under control at that time, so nothing serious happened."

After thinking for a while, he deleted the message word by word.

Forget it. Since Elena didn't like Cynthia, he probably shouldn't mention her anymore.

He started writing a new message.

"I went to the church on the mountain to get a lucky charm identical to mine as a birthday present for you, Elena. After the next few days of work, I'll apply for leave so that I can keep you company, so stop throwing a tantrum, alright?

"Elio caused a scene at the hospital today, so we'll have to teach him a lesson when we go home. You should also stop complaining about matters regarding the hospital in front of him."

Then, Xavier ordered a bouquet of flowers, after which he contacted my favorite cake shop.

"My wife doesn't like strawberries, so please swap them for mangoes. Also, just write 'happy birthday, honey' on top," he instructed.

After hanging up, he took a dark blue gift box out of his briefcase. Judging from the shape of the box, it probably contained a necklace.

The office was very quiet early in the morning. Xavier walked into my office and hid the gift box behind my pen holder.

He wore a gentle smile on his face the entire time he was doing this.

I felt my heart ache, accompanied by slight anger.

If we didn't really love each other, how could we have remained together for eight years?

A new day had begun, and the wreaths ordered by the hospital management had already arrived. When was Xavier going to realize that I was already gone?

Bryan carefully opened the office door. "The interns are already waiting, Dr. Goodwin, but I still need to confirm if you're sure you're going to use the body as a teaching instrument."

There was a huge shortage of cadavers used for dissection in anatomy classes, and there was no hospital that wasn't hard-pressed to obtain a sufficient number of them. Therefore, by the time the cadavers were divided between departments, there was even less available for each class of interns.

Xavier and I had signed a donation agreement on the day of our wedding. If either of us passed away, our body would be handed over to the other party's department for safekeeping.

Back then, I even joked that Xavier must remember to dress me up nicely so as not to scare the new interns.

I didn't expect my words to come true in such a morbid way.

Xavier walked toward the operating room while rolling up his sleeves. "I'm sure you're aware that it's most effective to use a real cadaver in the very first teaching session. By the way, I remember that you're also in charge of some interns. Do you want to have them observe together?"

Bryan shook his head vigorously. In his eyes, Xavier must be acting this way because he was still in a great shock, and he would rather avoid being near him for the time being.

Xavier cast Bryan's fleeing figure a strange look.

I could understand how Bryan felt quite well, though. After all, it was rare to find someone who would expressionlessly invite someone else to watch them dissect their own wife's body.

The atmosphere in the operating room was strange when Xavier walked in.

There was a masked female cadaver on the operating table. The multiple stab wounds on the body had already been sutured, and the most conspicuous thing about it was the large vertical scar over the stomach.

All three stab wounds had landed accurately on the lower abdomen, leaving the emergency doctor no choice but to stitch all three wounds together in the hopes of minimizing secondary damage.

The scar looked particularly hideous, such that even Xavier couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

However, he quickly calmed down and asked, "Why are all of you still in a daze? Have the preoperative preparations been completed? Even if it's just a simulation, it must be done perfectly."

The interns looked at each other before one of the ladies replied hesitantly, "We didn't dare to touch her casually."

When Xavier heard this, he frowned heavily and sternly chided the group of young interns, "What if it's an actual patient lying in front of you? Are you going to be too afraid to touch them too? Are you just going to watch them die?"

The interns' faces turned red with shame at the scolding, and everyone started to busy themselves with their tasks.

Xavier's surgical knife sliced open my body bit by bit, but then he suddenly froze.

I curiously craned my head to see what he was doing.

I realized that a corner of the surgical drape had shifted due to his actions, revealing a small mole as red as a drop of fresh blood on the waist.

The sight in front of him instantly rendered Xavier speechless. He stood there blankly as if he were being held in place by an invisible force, his body trembling involuntarily.

Due to excessive blood loss, I had not been able to close my mouth at the time of my death, but Bryan had cleaned my body up well. As a result, it was now lying very serenely on the operating table.

However, Xavier took off his white coat and covered my body with it as if he had gone mad. "Impossible! This isn't Elena! I don't believe it!"