Chapter 5

The traffic police officer presented all the evidence again, from the body camera footage and photos from the crash scene to my hospital CT report. Everything pointed to the same conclusion.

After watching the video, Howard frowned deeply and turned to Lilian. "How do you explain this?"

Lilian bit her lip. I knew that look. She was deciding whether to play her last card.

Beside her, Ethan anxiously tugged at the sleeve of her lab coat.

"Pull up the surveillance footage."

Ethan ran to the nurses' station and came back carrying a tablet. The screen lit up, and a recording from inside the operating room began to play.

In the video, a surgeon wearing scrubs, a mask, and protective goggles was performing the operation. The surgeon's height, build, and even the way they handled the instruments all looked exactly like mine.

The camera was mounted overhead, making it impossible to see the person's full face. Only the eyes and forehead above the bridge of the nose were visible.

"This is the operating room surveillance footage." Lilian's voice steadied, even carrying a hint of sorrow. "Throughout the entire surgery, the lead surgeon was Shane."

The family exploded.

Garrett's wife let out a piercing scream and lunged toward me, only to be stopped by the security guards. Her voice cracked with grief. "And you still say it wasn't you? The man in that video is you!"

The other family members joined in, shouting and crying. The hallway descended into chaos.

Howard's expression darkened. "Shane, what's going on here?"

I stared at the video. It felt as if someone had wrapped a hand around my heart. It looked so convincing, too convincing.

If I had not known with absolute certainty that I had never stepped into that operating room, even I would have believed the surgeon on the screen was me.

Ethan wiped away fake tears as he piled on. "Mr. Carter, he's pretending to be injured because he was afraid the family would hold him responsible."

Officer Frank Wallace frowned and spoke up again. "Our surveillance footage can't be wrong."

Tiffany stepped forward as well. "And I can testify that the Dr. Porter I treated was genuinely injured."

At that moment, both sides had what looked like undeniable evidence.

Howard looked at Lilian, then at me. His brows knitted together.

Garrett's wife held up her phone, her fingers flying across the screen. "I don't care anymore! I'm exposing all of you! I'm filing a complaint with the Department of Health!"

Lilian quickly stepped forward, putting on the air of someone acting for the good of the entire hospital.

"Shane, just admit it! Even if you don't care about yourself, think about the hospital. If this gets out of control, it'll affect more than a thousand people who work here!"

Ethan immediately backed her up. "Exactly, Shane. The hospital has spent years training you. How can you just stand by and watch its reputation be destroyed? Just apologize. We can negotiate with the family afterward."

Howard fell silent for several seconds. I could see the hesitation in his eyes.

He said at last, his voice heavy, "Shane, why don't we calm the family down first? We can investigate who's responsible afterward."

His words hit me like a bucket of ice water.

Lilian and Ethan exchanged a quick glance. Both of them visibly relaxed.

I knew exactly why.

His words meant I would remain the prime suspect. As long as that label stayed attached to me, they would have all the time they needed to tamper with evidence, destroy records, and coordinate their stories. That was exactly how they had done it in my previous life.

My fingers tightened around the wheelchair's armrests as the surveillance footage played on a loop. When the image froze on the masked surgeon, my gaze wandered across the screen before catching on a tiny dark spot on the bridge of the surgeon's nose.

A mole.

I did not have one.

Ethan did.