Chapter 2

The department where Joel worked was one of the top cardiac surgery departments in the country. Many patients with heart conditions willingly lined up to receive treatments here.

But even in such a department, where hospital beds were incredibly hard to come by, there was always one empty bed.

Joel reserved that bed for his childhood friend, Ciara Lycett.

In my past life, when Oscar had a sudden heart attack, I called Joel since he was a cardiac specialist. At first, he said there was no available bed. But after I begged him, he finally agreed to let Oscar temporarily use that empty bed.

He even hopped on the ambulance that came to pick up Oscar.

But in that brief half an hour, Ciara had a heart attack too. Unable to reach Joel, she died in the ambulance.

After dropping Oscar at the hospital that day, Joel disappeared. He didn't show up again until three months later when Oscar was discharged after making a full recovery.

By then, Joel had resigned from his position at the hospital. The reason he gave was that he wanted to spend more time with Oscar. He started driving me to and from work and even cooked for us daily. He even helped Oscar with his homework.

Just when I thought he had finally returned to our little family with his heart in the right place, he drugged our entire family on Oscar's birthday.

Oscar and my mom died in agony.

Joel kept me conscious by using drugs. He then drove me to Ciara's grave and forced me to apologize to her on my knees.

But I couldn't understand what I had done wrong.

Ciara had battled a heart condition her entire life. After her heart transplant, she didn't take her medication properly, and it led to frequent heart failures.

The day her heart failed, she couldn't reach Joel by phone and didn't think to call 911 either.

A neighbor stumbled upon her and called 911. Yet, she insisted on being taken to Joel's hospital, which was 18 miles away, instead of going to the nearest hospital.

I couldn't understand why Joel blamed me for her death when it was clearly her own actions that led to her demise.

Joel refused to hear a single bad word about Ciara.

His eyes were filled with sorrow as he said, "Our son was perfectly fine. How could he suddenly have heart disease? You must have deliberately interfered to prevent me from receiving Ciara's call. You're the reason I couldn't get to her in time.

"Solange, I've told you countless times that Ciara and I were just friends. Why did you keep hurting her? She stopped taking her medication because of you. If anyone deserves to die, it's you!"

I had no idea what Joel was talking about, but he didn't give me a chance to explain.

"You're the one who killed Ciara. Now you'll feel the horror of dying due to unimaginable heart pain," Joel declared.

With a scalpel, he made an incision from my throat down to my chest. Then, he reached his hand inside my chest to crush my heart.

Upon recalling that, I could still feel the lingering pain in my body. I involuntarily shivered as goosebumps broke out all over my body.

Focused solely on saving my critically ill son, I rushed into the head nurse's office and prostrated myself before her.

"Ms. Rice, I know you have the authority to assign beds. We don't even need a room. We can stay in the hallway. My son has acute aortic dissection, and Dr. Lamere is the only one in the city who can perform this surgery. Please help me contact him. I'm begging you. Please save my son!"

For my son's sake, I abandoned all pride. I banged my head against the floor desperately to plead for help.

The head nurse, Heather Rice, felt sympathy for me. She picked up her phone and started to leave the room, but Terry blocked her path.

"Ms. Rice, you don't seriously believe this, do you? Can't you tell she's putting on a show? Listen, this woman is incredibly manipulative.

"Back then, Joel was planning to go abroad with his first love. However, because of a complaint she filed, they were forced apart. She even used her father, the hospital director, to pressure Joel into marrying her.

"She'd do anything out of jealousy. She says the kid has acute aortic dissection. For all we know, she could be the one who beat him and caused his pain."

Terry's words successfully swayed Heather.

She put her phone away and gently said, "I'm sorry, Ms. Comer. We have to go by our hospital policy. Without a doctor's diagnosis, we can't admit a patient."

In an instant, my heart sank to my stomach.

I had thought that by not calling Joel, he could rush to Ciara's aid, and the tragedy of the past could be averted. But who would have guessed that he'd go to such lengths and even instructed his colleagues to refuse treatment for our son?

In my despair, I heard my mom's shrill scream. "Solange, come quickly! Oscar… H-He's not breathing!"