A Diamond in Her Own Right

Dean Blake stared up at me from the operating table.

"Eve, I knew you're not dead… You've finally returned."

I looked down at him with a blank look on my face.

"Mr. Blake, please let go. I'm Evelyn Chance, your surgeon today, and not your Eve."

After a stunned pause, Dean chuckled. "Are you still angry? It has been five years, and your temper is still so short. I only sent you to Loasia to teach you a lesson. It's your fault for hurting Laura's hand, wasn't it?

"You can still be Mrs. Blake as long as you admit to your mistake."

Even now, he thought that title was an honor.

The medical staff around me held their breaths as they exchanged looks.

I picked up the hemostatic forceps and clamped the edges of his bleeding wound.

"Aah!"

He let out a shriek of agony as his body violently jolted.

"Evelyn, you've gone mad!"

He stared at me in disbelief, breaking out in a cold sweat from the pain.

"Mr. Blake, you're bleeding. If you don't want to die from blood loss, you'll shut your mouth. Administer the anesthesia," I instructed coldly.

Dean's vision began to go hazy as the drug coursing in his veins did its work.

Still, he clung to the last shreds of his consciousness, staring straight at me the entire time.

"You can't get away... Eve… Once I wake up... we'll get married..."

The last word faded into silence before he finally passed out.

I blankly looked down at the face I was once enamored with, feeling absolutely nothing on the inside.

Married?

Dean likely had no idea that I'd already married the best man in the world.

Right now, he was just a troublesome patient in my eyes.

"Dr. Chance..." My first assistant glanced at me with worry.

"Let's begin." My voice remained calm as I swapped gloves.

…

"Clean the wound site. Prepare to stitch him up."

The operation lasted six whole hours.

Dean was very lucky. Although he had been in a horrifying car crash, nothing vital was struck.

However, he would be limping for the rest of his life due to a complex fracture in his right leg.

Still, that did not matter to me.

What mattered was the success of the operation as it would allow me to protect my reputation as the hospital director.

When he was pushed out of the operating theatre, it was to a packed hallway.

At the front of the crowd was Laura Tanner, the person responsible for my "exile" five years ago.

She instantly darted over when the bed was wheeled out. "Dean, are you okay? How am I meant to go on if anything happens to you?"

Her sobs were shrill and heart-wrenching, a flawless performance.

I took off my mask, revealing my face.

Laura's sobs abruptly cut off. Her eyes went wide as she pointed at me like she was looking at a ghost.

"Evelyn Chance? Why are you here? Didn't you die in Loasia?"