Chapter 3

3: 3

Without a second thought, I bought a one-way ticket far away and handed my resignation to the hospital.

The handover would take a month.

The next day.

Martin came in for treatment again.

"Doctor, I'm really sorry. Troubling you again like this."

He launched into his usual rambling account of how the attack had come on.

"I didn't go home last night, and today my girlfriend's depression flared up again. She won't even take care of the cat."

"She's so demanding, wants me to brush the cat every single day, so I—"

I glanced at the test results without expression.

Every one of his readings had climbed into the danger zone.

"Look, honestly, I get it. Girls need to feel secure. But last night I really had no choice, it was an obligation I couldn't get out of."

I couldn't hold back anymore. My hands shook as I pulled off my mask.

"So being with me counts as an obligation you couldn't get out of?"

"Martin, don't you owe me an explanation?"

In that instant.

Time seemed to freeze.

And every question I'd carried finally came undone.

No wonder Martin had so rarely come back to the place we rented together this past year.

No wonder our wedding date kept getting pushed back, again and again.

"You could have told me sooner, you know."

"Really."

I called a colleague and moved to leave in a rush.

But Martin grabbed me hard from behind.

"Barbara, let me explain. You've got it wrong—"

"Lois and I grew up together, you know that."

"I only did it out of respect for both our families—"

"And calling her my girlfriend, that just meant... a friend who happens to be a woman."

He said it with such righteous conviction.

But it made me sick enough to throw up.

Even after silently reciting medical ethics and professional conduct ten thousand times in my head, in that moment I couldn't stop myself. I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face.

"Martin, don't touch me. You disgust me."

I don't remember how I got out through all the crowds at the hospital.

All I know is that we made an ugly scene, a violent screaming match.

In the end.

I'd clawed Martin's face raw.

And he tore me down to nothing.

"Fine, so I like Lois, so what?!"

"If you hadn't been so paranoid all the time, if that lousy job of yours weren't so busy, always brushing off our dates, would I have gone to Lois for something to hold on to?!"

I couldn't stop shaking.

I clutched the fresh lab report inside my white coat.

Hospital work was demanding to begin with. Going two days and two nights without rest was nothing unusual.

I simply didn't have the energy left, after burning through my body, to go fishing with him too.

And besides...

He was born with an allergic constitution. It wasn't only the cat fur.

Even the old professor had said his was a rare constitution, very hard to cure.

But I refused to believe it.

I'd spent these years buried in the research, and only recently had I finally gotten somewhere.

I'd been thinking that once this batch of the specialized drug passed approval and could go into mass production.

It would be my wedding gift to him.

Not so I could keep a cat.

But so his life could be a little better.

All at once, I didn't even have the strength left to fight.

"Martin, let's break up."