Chapter 5

By evening, just as I changed out of my white coat to go home, Dr. Carter stormed into the locker room, furious.

"Paige Sterling! Get your ass out here!"

He crumpled a few torn pieces of paper and threw them at my face.

"Are you sick in the head?"

"You forged a lab report and slipped it into a patient's chart? What are you trying to pull?"

I looked at the shredded paper on the floor. I could make out the words "Mifepristone."

Victor’s mother, Eleanor, was standing behind Dr. Carter, her hands on her hips.

"Dr. Carter, is this how you train your residents?"

"Using fake reports to terrify my daughter-in-law! You're trying to kill us!"

"If you don't fire her today, I will sue this entire hospital!"

Dr. Carter pointed a trembling finger at my face.

"Paige, you’ve deeply disappointed me."

"To get revenge on a patient, you resort to such disgusting, underhanded tricks."

"You are suspended. Effective immediately."

"And I will make sure your residency certificate is never signed. You will never practice medicine in this lifetime!"

I looked at them coldly.

"Dr. Carter, if you want to know if that report is forged, you can easily verify it with the pathology lab."

Dr. Carter’s expression shifted, his eyes darting away guiltily.

"Verify what? Haven’t you embarrassed us enough?"

"Pack your things and get the hell out of my department!"

I understood then.

Dr. Carter didn’t care about the truth.

He only cared about the Lindemann Group’s donations and his end-of-year bonus.

I took off my white coat and tossed it into the trash can.

"Fine."

I looked at the smug Eleanor, a cold smile playing on my lips.

"I hope your family gets exactly what you deserve."

Carrying my box of belongings, I walked out of the hospital doors. The night air was freezing.

I touched the voice recorder in my pocket. It held the audio and video of Victor and Amber from the parking garage.

Now was not the time to flip the table. I had to wait for the most brutal consequence to run its course.

Three days after I was suspended, late at night.

I was in my rented apartment, putting together clues about Victor buying illegal drugs on the black market.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated violently.

It was the landline from the OB-GYN ward. I picked up, and Nurse Mia's panicked, crying voice came through.

"Dr. Sterling, you need to come back right now!"

"Chloe's water broke! She’s hemorrhaging!"

"Dr. Carter is out of town for a conference, and we only have two junior residents on duty tonight. They can't handle this!"

I stood up instantly.

"Where is Victor?"

"Mr. Vance signed the consent form to save the mother."

"But Chloe is refusing! She’s screaming to save the baby at all costs!"

I grabbed my jacket and rushed out the door. In my ears, that weak, tiny baby voice echoed.

"Auntie..."

"I'm so cold."

At 2:00 AM, the delivery room smelled heavily of iron and blood.

I threw on sterile scrubs and burst in. Chloe’s blood pressure had plummeted to sixty.

The heart monitor was letting out sharp, warning beeps.

"Dr. Sterling! Thank God you're here!"

Mia’s hands were covered in blood, sweat pouring down her face.

"Her contractions are too weak, and the baby's heart rate is disappearing!"

I quickly moved to the operating table.

Chloe was deathly pale, her sweaty hair plastered to her forehead.

When she saw me, a desperate surge of survival instinct flared in her hollow eyes. She grabbed my sleeve tightly.

"Paige... save my baby."

"Victor said to save me, but I won't let him. I want my baby."

Looking at the pool of blood beneath her, my expression remained cold.

"Save your energy, Chloe. Push."

I pressed the Doppler probe onto her abdomen.

The voice from inside was barely a whisper.

"Auntie..."

"I don't want to die."

"But my hands and feet feel so weird..."

"I can't get out."