Chapter 2

After I left the emergency department, I felt an agonizing pain in my stomach like someone stabbed me and twisted the knife.

I developed pancreatitis around the same time in my previous life. At that time, I called Joshua, who was on shift. He immediately came home and drove me to the hospital.

During his short absence from work, his first love, Jackie, picked up a patient on his behalf. She met a car accident on the trip and tragically passed away.

Later, Joshua learned that Jackie had made the sacrifice of sleeping with the hospital director to get Joshua's penalty retracted. The day after, the hospital indeed retracted its penalty on Joshua.

Jackie loved Joshua so much that she wouldn't stop calling his name before her death.

On the day Jackie passed away, Joshua locked himself in the room and smoked two packs of cigarettes. However, he emerged looking normal, chatting and smiling at me as usual. He drove me to work and picked me up, and he made dinners for me just like before.

His behavior deceived me into thinking he had let go of the past; that he had realized it was inappropriate for him to overly grieve the death of an ex-girlfriend.

On my mom's birthday, Joshua offered to cook, but he poisoned all the food he made. He tied me to a chair and stabbed me over and over with a surgery scalpel. My blood splattered all across the floor as I pleaded with him to spare the lives of my family members.

However, he had lost his mind. "Will Jackie come back if I spare their lives? Harper, you deserve to die! Why did you have to drink so much on that night? Did you see Jackie's car accident coming?"

I wanted to argue. I wasn't omniscient, and I did not see Jackie's car accident coming. I had too much to drink that night because I was trying to help Joshua. His complainant was a friend of my boss'.

Since it was in the middle of the reelection of the head of the department, the complaint would undo all of Joshua's hard work for promotion. Feeling bad, I asked my boss for a favor so I could have dinner with the complainants—the family members of the patient. They finally agreed to withdraw their complaint against Joshua after some heavy drinking with me.

As tears streamed down my face, I tried to tell Joshua the truth, but he was too mad to listen to me.

He stabbed me in the mouth with the scalpel as he raged, "It's all the fault of you and your fucking mouth! Jackie wouldn't have died if you didn't drink that night! It's your parents' fault for raising a loser like you. Your whole family should die along with you."

I trembled from the extreme pain, and my tears seeped into my open wounds. Once Joshua was done torturing me, he tossed away the scalpel and set my house ablaze with a lighter.

"Jackie, I'm coming to you."

I felt like a fool when I saw the affection in his eyes. During the drinking session with the complainants, I learned the reason behind Joshua's clash with the patient. The patient had scolded Jackie because of her poor attitude. When Joshua learned about it, he beat up the patient without thinking.

A sudden, sharp pain jolted me from my thoughts, and I struggled to stay upright. Knowing that time was of the essence, I could not dilly-dally.

With much difficulty, I made it to the entrance to hail a cab to another hospital. There was a downpour out there, and heavy raindrops pattered scarily on the glass.

Holding my phone, I waited for 10 minutes or so. No cab came to me. Enduring the pain, I went to the nurses' station to ask for other doctors who were on shift.

The nurse's smile faded when she saw me. She dismissed me with a wave. "Our doctors are all occupied."

"But I saw two doctors with no patients in their—"

The nurse shot me a glare. I hesitated to speak. Finally, I begged her, "I'm really in great pain. If there are no available doctors in the emergency department, could you get me a doctor from another department?"

"No way." The nurse waved at me with an annoyed look. "Stop faking your illness. Dr. Kane gave us a heads-up before this. No one will entertain you."