Chapter 2

The lights in the operating room were blinding.

I held back my tears and kept my hand steady on the scalpel.

No one could tell that half an hour ago, I had caught my fiancé and my best friend in my bed.

By the time the surgery ended, my wrist was so sore I could barely lift it.

“Dr. Moretti, congratulations,” the anesthesiologist said with a smile while filling out the records.

“I heard you’re taking six months off for your wedding. Everyone in the department is saying Mr. DeLuca, the man who sends you flowers every single day, finally got our ice queen Dr. Moretti to marry him.”

My grip tightened around the paper cup.

For the past few months, I had used up all my saved vacation days for that six-month wedding leave.

I scheduled every surgery I could in advance.

I worked until I passed out from low blood sugar in the changing room, then got up, drank a bottle of glucose, and went right back to work.

One day, Vincent came to pick me up and saw how pale I was. For once, he frowned.

“Can’t you be nicer to yourself?”

I smiled and asked, “Worried about me, Mr. DeLuca?”

He pulled me into his arms.

“Eve, I can’t wait to marry you. I want to spoil you every day.”

Now I realized, by then, those arms had already held someone else.

Everything I had done these past few months was a joke.

“Yeah.”

I only said one word.

I was afraid if I said one more, I would break down.

I went into the changing room.

The moment I locked the door, I slid down against it and sat on the floor.

My shoulders shook hard.

Tears slipped through my fingers, and I couldn’t stop them.

I had never been able to get rid of Vincent since we were kids.

He followed me everywhere like a shadow.

When I was nine, I snapped at him, “Can you stop following me?”

He lowered his head and said, “I want to be your shadow. Wherever you go, I’ll go.”

At eighteen, he handed me a note.

“I don’t want to be your shadow anymore. I want to stand beside you.”

That was when we got together.

From eighteen to twenty-eight, for ten whole years, he kept every promise.

If I worked late, he came to pick me up.

If I got sick, he took leave to take care of me.

He remembered every word I said.

Everyone said this was what love should look like.

And I believed it.

I took out my phone and saw the message Clara had sent two hours ago.

Clara: Evelyn, I know I wronged you. But I really love him. I’ll do anything you want. Please let us be together, okay?

I stared at those words and almost laughed.

Clara must have forgotten how she got out of that chicken coop in the first place.

Back then, her grandmother was seriously ill. She couldn’t afford the medical bills and knelt in the hospital hallway, crying helplessly.

I paid for the surgery.

I arranged everything for her.

I paid her tuition and encouraged her to get her teaching license.

She once said I was the person who changed her life.

She said, “Evelyn, you’re the last person I would ever betray.”

And now?

She was sleeping with my fiancé, asking me to bless their so-called love.

But who was going to give back the ten years I gave him?

My phone screen blurred.

I wiped my tears and was about to stand up.

Just then, I heard nurses talking outside.

“Did you hear? A patient came into the ER. She was pregnant and had heavy bleeding after sex.”

“The baby survived. But her husband looked like someone important. He said if the baby didn’t make it, he’d make sure this hospital shut down.”

“No wonder he’s mafia. So arrogant...”

“That’s not even the point. The point is, that man looked exactly like Dr. Moretti’s fiancé!”

“Oh my God. She’s already pregnant? Then is Dr. Moretti the mistress?”

Their footsteps slowly faded away.

I leaned against the door, my whole body cold.

My nails dug into my palms so hard they drew blood.

Then I shoved the door open and rushed out.