In the end, Ted still received the medication. Because treatment was given in time, his condition stabilized.

The hospital director, Isaiah Clem, stepped in to calm the family down, then asked to speak with me privately.

"The situation is clear now, and the patient is out of danger. The family realizes they got emotional and said some things they shouldn't have. They would like to apologize to you."

I lowered my head and didn't respond.

In my previous life, I had also insisted on using the medication. Ted had survived then, too. But what I got in return was even worse insults and false accusations.

Thinking of that, I looked up. "Dr. Clem, there's no need for an apology. I only did what a doctor should do. But I'd like to request that Sonya no longer be involved in any of my cases."

Sonya's unpredictable inner thoughts were something I couldn't afford to take lightly.

Isaiah looked a little surprised, but he nodded anyway. "Alright. She's still an intern. Being cautious is probably for the best."

When I returned to the ER, the patients and families who had just accused me were now looking at me with clear embarrassment. Olivia and Cheryl hurried over to apologize.

"Dr. Strickland, we're sorry. We weren't thinking straight and believed the nurse's nonsense. Please forgive us."

I nodded in acknowledgment.

Just then, light footsteps sounded at the door.

Sonya appeared in the doorway. Her eyes were red, as if she had just been crying. When she saw me, the hatred in her gaze was impossible to hide.

"You've got some nerve showing up here!"

Olivia snapped the moment she saw Sonya and lunged forward, grabbing Sonya by the hair.

"You knew damn well the pain medication was life-saving! Why did you deliberately lie to us and say it was addictive? Were you trying to get my husband killed?"

Cheryl's eyes were brimming with tears as she screamed at Sonya. "You've got a poisonous mouth! What was your real motive? Do you hate Dr. Strickland that much that you'd use my dad's life to ruin her?"

With her hair being yanked, Sonya cried in pain, tears streaming down her face. "I don't know what you're talking about! Let go of me!"

"Stop pretending!" Cheryl shouted even louder.

"I heard you last week, hiding in the stairwell on the phone, complaining that Dr. Strickland was always holding you back and giving you all the heavy work. After what happened today, I'm sure you did it on purpose!"

The moment she said that, the entire ward exploded.

"No wonder! I knew something felt off about her. An intern who doesn't focus on learning medicine, always whispering around the ward and running her mouth about the attending. What was she even trying to do?"

"Exactly! I kept thinking, there's no way a respected doctor like Dr. Strickland would suddenly pull something like this. Turns out it was this intern with bad intentions, jealous of someone more capable and deliberately smearing her."

Hearing that only made Olivia angrier. She was about to rush forward again.

Sonya trembled all over, her face going pale, then flushed, then pale again. She looked at me, humiliation and resentment burning in her eyes.

I sneered inwardly.

She felt humiliated already? Compared to everything I went through in my previous life, this didn't even count as a warm-up.

After this incident, no one questioned my diagnoses anymore. Even the most difficult patients became noticeably more polite, and Sonya was transferred out of the ER.

A few days later, I had just finished a surgery and was heading back to my office when John Walker, a middle-aged man, stopped me.

John looked frantic as he blocked my path.

"Dr. Strickland, my mom still won't cooperate. Please go take a look at her. Just don't let anything slip. Please say it's only regular gastritis. I'm begging you."

In my previous life, I had agreed to hide the truth.

Sonya exposed it through her inner thoughts, and that very night, the patient, Roberta Walker, jumped off the hospital building so she wouldn't drag her family down.

Afterward, her family mistakenly believed I had deliberately revealed her condition. They reported me straight to Isaiah, and I was stripped of my position as department head.

Seeing the pleading look in John's eyes, I couldn't bring myself to refuse. I still went to the ward.

I never expected Sonya to appear at the doorway when I had barely said a few sentences.

The next second, Roberta heard her inner thoughts again.

[Heh! Here they go again, teaming up to lie to Roberta, who's about to die. She's clearly in late-stage stomach cancer with barely any time left, and they're still putting on a show, saying it's just gastritis. She's just after Roberta’s generous pension and wealthy kids, trying to squeeze out every last dollar. Disgusting!]

The faint color Roberta had been holding onto drained from her face in an instant. Her lips trembled, and her voice shook so badly that it barely sounded like her own.

"S-Stomach cancer? Am I really…about to die?"

Just then, John came back from paying the bill. When he saw her like this, he rushed over in a panic, his voice cracking. "Mom, what's wrong?"

Roberta grabbed his arm tightly, tears streaming down her face.

"The doctor said I'm in late-stage cancer… There's no hope left… Is that true?"

Hearing that, John froze as if struck by lightning. Then he suddenly whipped his head around and glared at me, his eyes bloodshot.

"What the hell did you say to my mom? Didn't I tell you not to tell her? Are you trying to scare her to death?"

Noticing the confused looks around us and realizing that Sonya's thoughts had only been heard by Roberta this time, I forced myself to calm down.

"Mr. Walker, I didn't say anything. You can ask anyone in this room. From the moment I walked in, I haven't said a single word about her condition."

A middle-aged man in the next bed hesitated, then nodded. "Yes. Dr. Strickland just came in and told your mom to relax and cooperate with treatment. She didn't say anything else."

Another family member nearby chimed in quietly, sounding puzzled, "That's right. We really didn't hear Dr. Strickland mention cancer at all. Could there be some kind of misunderstanding?"

At that moment, Sonya's inner voice rang out again, perfectly timed, carrying a tone that fanned the flames.

[Well, Dr. Strickland didn't say it out loud, but I saw her deliberately flip the medical chart to the diagnosis page and hold it right in front of Roberta. Wasn't that obviously meant to let her see it herself? And now she's pretending to be innocent? Give me a break!]

This time, when the inner voice stopped, everyone in the room looked at me differently.

The next second, murmurs of suspicion and accusation spread through the ward.

"She did that? I can't believe we almost got fooled by her. That's really messed up."

"She promised the family she would keep it quiet, then pulled something like this behind their backs. That's so unethical!"

"She looks so proper, but her heart is so cruel."

Hearing the nearly one-sided chatter, John became even more convinced that I had deliberately revealed the truth to Roberta. His emotions spiraled out of control, and the finger he pointed at me trembled violently.

"What do you have to say now?! I knew it. You doctors never have good intentions. You just scare patients so you can squeeze more money out of them. I'm gonna make you pay!"

As I stood there, drowned in accusations and unable to get a word in, Sonya stood behind the crowd. The corner of her mouth twitched upward for just a split second, a flash of smug satisfaction crossing her face.

Just as John, burning with rage, pulled his fist back and lunged toward me, a furious shout suddenly rang out from the doorway.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

With a sharp shout from Conrad Clark, a fellow department head, the ward fell dead silent. John's fist froze halfway through the air.

In the next second, Conrad strode to the middle of the room and shoved his phone screen right in front of John's face.

"Look carefully! The security footage is crystal clear. From the moment Dr. Strickland entered the room to when your mother broke down, she never even touched the bedside table."

He suddenly turned his head, his gaze locking onto Sonya, who was shrinking into the corner.

"But you, Sonya. The cameras clearly show that you deliberately opened the medical chart while things were chaotic!"

The moment John heard that, his eyes turned bloodshot as he stared viciously at Sonya.

"So it was you! I'll kill you!" he roared, spittle spraying across Sonya's face as he clenched his fist and swung toward her.

"N-No, it wasn't me! This has nothing to do with me…"

Sonya, who had never faced anything like this, panicked instantly.

She screamed while clutching her head and bolted out of the ward, even losing one of her shoes along the way.

The incident ended with Sonya being suspended from her internship, issuing an apology to Roberta and her family, and undergoing an internal investigation.

I thought I would finally be free from having to guard against Sonya's deadly inner thoughts.

But just a few quiet days later, on the night of the fall holiday, I was lowering my head in the on-call room, sorting patient charts, when a nurse rushed in, her face pale with panic.

"Dr. Strickland, there's a pregnant woman in the ER with suspected amniotic fluid embolism. Dr. Quinn wants you in the operating room immediately!"

When I heard that, my stomach fell.

In my last life, it was this very surgery that led to me being attacked online, fired, and eventually stabbed to death.

I bit down hard on the tip of my tongue. The sharp pain snapped me fully awake. Taking a deep breath, I stood up and hurried toward the operating room.

The atmosphere inside was suffocatingly tense.

The pregnant woman's face was ashen, her breathing faint. The numbers on the monitor jumped wildly, setting off piercing alarms.

Justine Quinn, the OB attending, spoke at lightning speed. "Thirty-two weeks pregnant. Sudden respiratory and circulatory failure. High suspicion of amniotic fluid embolism. We need an immediate C-section. There's a high chance we'll have to remove the uterus to save her life."

I took a deep breath and forced myself to stay calm. Bloody lessons from my previous life surged through my mind. After a few seconds of thought, I spoke up.

"Dr. Quinn, I have a proposal I'd like to request."

After more than two hours of emergency surgery, the operating light finally went out.

I walked out of the operating room, preparing to explain the situation to the family.

Ford Stokes, the man who had killed me in my previous life, immediately rushed over and grabbed my white coat.

"How's my wife? How's the baby?"

I answered calmly, "The surgery was successful. Both mother and daughter are safe. But because the amniotic fluid embolism was life-threatening, we had no choice but to remove the uterus to save her."

"Remove her uterus?!" Ford's eyes instantly turned red. "Who gave you the right to do that? We still want a son!"

I was about to explain when, at that moment, Sonya appeared out of nowhere, standing not far away. The next second, her vicious inner voice rang out again.

[What amniotic fluid embolism? It was a total misdiagnosis! She was clearly distracted and sneaking looks at her phone earlier, which delayed her judgment. Now she's cut out the woman's uterus. This baby's a girl. This family wanted a son, and now they'll never get one. Gosh, I feel sorry for them.]

Ford's face twisted with rage. He shoved me hard, slamming me against the wall.

"You quack! You were messing with your phone, misdiagnosed her, and you still dared to take out my wife’s uterus? You think we’re poor and can be pushed around like nothing? Our dream of having a son—you destroyed it completely! I’ll kill you!"

As he swung his fist down, the operating room doors suddenly flew open. Isaiah and Justine strode out.

"What do you think you're doing?" Isaiah barked, stepping in front of me.

"This surgery was personally performed by several other specialists and me. Dr. Strickland didn't participate in the operation at all. If we hadn't removed the uterus in time, your wife would already be dead!"