Chapter 2

"No." I struggled to sit up, baring my teeth as pain shot through my leg. "Lilian said I'm the only one who can do the operation. Just patch me up enough to get me there."

"You've got to be kidding me." Tiffany pushed my wheelchair toward the imaging department. "Even if you make it there, you can't operate with your leg like that."

"I can still guide the surgery."

In the end, Tiffany could not talk me out of it. She put my leg in a cast and asked a nurse to wheel me to the operating room.

I glanced at my phone. It had been almost 20 minutes since the crash. Lilian had not called once.

As we neared the operating room, I heard her voice.

"I'm very sorry. Due to a mistake made by the lead surgeon, Shane Porter, we were unable to save Mr. Lowe..."

The hallway instantly filled with the family's sobs. My fingers tightened around the wheelchair's armrests as Ethan's voice rang out a moment later.

"Mr. Porter asked us to tell you he'll compensate your family. No matter how angry you are, Mr. Lowe isn't coming back. You're better off accepting the compensation and moving on with your lives."

His words were like pouring gasoline onto a fire.

"How could he say something like that?"

"Make him come out! We don't want his money! We want him to pay with his life!"

As the nurse pushed me around the corner, Lilian saw me, and the color drained from her face. "Shane?"

The family followed Lilian's gaze. "That's Shane Porter?"

More than a dozen pairs of eyes turned toward me all at once, some burning with rage, others filled with suspicion, and the rest studying me in silence.

I sat in the wheelchair with my right leg wrapped in a cast. There were still streaks of dried blood tangled in my hair. I definitely did not look like a surgeon who had just finished an operation.

Lilian's lips parted, but no words came out.

Ethan's eyes darted around, then he raised his voice and shouted, "Shane! You actually faked your injuries to avoid taking responsibility! Have you no shame?"

For a moment, I was speechless.

I had to admit, Ethan always knew exactly where to strike. He could find the deepest wound in an instant and drive the knife straight into it.

His words snapped the family into action.

"He almost fooled us!"

"Stop pretending! You're a murderer!"

Several of them rushed at me. One yanked my hair, another slapped me across the face, and someone else swung a handbag at my broken leg.

Pain tore through my body. I trembled violently and bit down on my lip as hard as I could.

In the end, I still cried out.

One of the nurses, Zara Simpson, threw herself in front of me to shield me, but someone drove an elbow into her face. Blood poured from her nose immediately.

"Please stop! Mr. Porter is really injured!" Zara shouted, her voice breaking with tears.

However, no one listened.

Through the crowd, I caught sight of Lilian. She stood there with her hands tucked into the pockets of her white coat. Her face was full of concern, yet she never took a single step forward.

Ethan stood beside her with the faintest smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

The sound of security guards running echoed down the hallway.

Only then did Lilian suddenly spring into action, as if she had just realized what was happening.

"Stop! Everyone, stop!"

I watched her performance. It made me sick.

"That's enough!"

Tiffany's voice exploded from outside the crowd. She forced her way through with two uniformed traffic police officers. The moment she saw the state I was in, her expression turned dark.

"What do you think you're doing? This is a hospital, not a street market!"

The officers' arrival finally forced the family to back off.

I slumped against the wheelchair, my lip split and my hair a tangled mess. The cast on my leg was covered with muddy footprints, and my right leg hurt as if it had been broken.

Tiffany crouched beside me to inspect the cast. Her eyes were already red. "Dr. Porter... are you okay?"

I shook my head. The humiliation from my previous life mixed with everything I had suffered in this one, swelling into a lump in my throat. I could not say a word.