Chapter 4

"Aileen Cooley, say something!"

Luther Sanchez's urging voice came from beside me.

I bit my lip hard, and just as I was about to force out a word—

A brick suddenly came flying at me.

Luther instinctively shielded me, but Sara Delgado screamed and shoved me forward.

I fell hard to the ground, the pain knocking me out for a few seconds.

"You say she's the woman involved, so she's the woman involved?!"

"These are obviously actors your hospital hired!"

The crowd hemming us in shouted in anger.

The trash in their hands rained down onto me.

"Enough!"

"Everyone stop!"

Luther anxiously helped me up, panic in his eyes.

"Aileen, are you all right?"

"Why is your face so pale?"

"Hurry and speak up to clear this up, I'll take you to get checked..."

I leaned weakly against him, a wave of nausea rising in me.

"This doctor has no conscience, no decency at all!"

"My wife and daughter were killed by heartless doctors like you!"

"Today I'll avenge them!"

From the crowd, a man shouted in fury and rushed out with a knife in his hand.

Sara hid behind Luther in fear.

Luther let go of me, turned, and shielded her tightly.

With nothing to hold me up, I stumbled a step and only just got to my feet by gripping the rooftop railing.

Sara suddenly ran to my side, grabbed me, and shouted.

"She really is the pregnant woman who was bitten by the rabid dog yesterday!"

"If you don't believe me, compare her to the video!"

"I've already gotten her forgiveness. If you don't believe me, ask her!"

Shoved out in front of Sara again, I could barely force out the words through the pain.

"I'm the person from yesterday..."

Before I could finish, someone frowned and cut in.

"That woman yesterday was pregnant, but your belly is flat. You don't look pregnant at all!"

Luther, who had subdued the man with the knife, suddenly went stiff.

His eyes went to my stomach, and panic flickered across them.

I pressed my lips together, forcing down the pain in my whole body, and spoke word by word.

"Because today I just had a miscar—"

"Because her pregnancy was fake!"

"She has a mental illness, she likes to pretend she's pregnant. Everyone, don't be fooled by the videos!"

Sara shouted from behind me, then looked at Luther in a panic.

"She's Dr. Sanchez's fiancée. Dr. Sanchez can vouch for it!"

Luther's face froze, and he didn't dare look at me.

"Yes."

"My fiancée has a mental illness..."

My body went rigid in disbelief as Sara forced me forward a few steps.

Face to face with the enraged crowd.

"I'm innocent. Dr. Sanchez's fiancée is jealous and resentful of me. She's always picking fights on purpose."

"I only said that on purpose so that more people who really need it could get access to medical resources."

Sara's aggrieved, choked-up voice rang out.

The crowd went still for a few seconds.

When they looked at me again, their eyes burned with even greater rage.

"We were all played by this crazy woman?!"

"And here I took time off work just to stand up for her. Damn it!"

"Going crazy with jealousy over a man and pulling something like this—what a disgrace to us women!"

Countless curses filled my ears.

Sara let go of me, smug.

Just then, the female doctor who had performed my miscarriage pushed her way in, her face drenched in sweat.

"What nonsense are you spouting?!"

"I performed her miscarriage myself, and she nearly bled out and didn't make it!"

"Can you afford the cost of opening your mouth to spread lies?!"