Chapter 3

I couldn't stop my hands from shaking as an inexplicable wave of revulsion welled in me.

Two of the people closest to my heart had actually placed a bet on my emotions.

Slowly turning my head to look at Lucas, I said in a firm, unwavering tone, "Let's break up."

Immediately, silence descended upon the table.

Lucas stared at me in shock. "You—"

However, before he could say anything more, Kimberly leaned over and said carefully, "Anna, are you mad at me? We really were just talking about work last night. I didn’t deliberately make him stay with me."

Upon hearing that, Lucas knitted his brows, and when he turned back to me, the shock in his eyes had given way to annoyance.

Thinking that I was just throwing a temper tantrum, he said coldly, "That's enough, Kimberly. No need to explain to her any further. She's always been this impulsive and caused trouble for everyone else around her."

Kimberly wanted to say more, but Lucas was already dragging her away, leaving me alone at the table.

I tossed away my barely-touched meal, then went to the head nurse's office to hand in my resignation.

The head nurse didn't try too hard to talk me out of it, only telling me that it would take at least one month for everything to be processed.

Once I had returned to my workstation, one of my colleagues, Pamela, came over to ask, "Anna, did you and Dr. Carter break up?"

Although Lucas hadn't agreed, to me, our relationship was already over, so I nodded.

Pamela sighed. "No wonder. A patient was causing trouble earlier and shoved Dr. Wendell. Dr. Carter immediately swept her into his arms and carried her to the ER. I was right there when it happened, and it looked like Dr. Wendell only had a minor fall, but Dr. Carter was so panicked over it."

I frowned at the news. "She didn't injure her hand, did she?"

Despite the lingering resentment, my feet instinctively took me toward the ER before I could stop myself.

During our university years, Kimberly had, more than once, slung her arm across my shoulders and declared with absolute confidence, "I'm definitely going to become the best cardiac surgeon in this country! Anna, once we're working in the hospital, I've got your back!"

If she had accidentally hurt her hand, how was she supposed to perform surgeries again in the future?

All sorts of horrible scenarios raced through my mind, one after another.

When I arrived at the room Kimberly was in, I saw that her eyes were red-rimmed.

"Kimmy, are you okay?" I hurried over to her.

Upon seeing that it was me, she forced her lips into a smile. "I'm fine. I just twisted my ankle."

The sigh of relief had barely left me when Lucas spoke up from nearby, his tone indifferent. "Annabelle Siden, are you finally satisfied?"

I stared at him, utterly lost.

“If you hadn’t thrown a tantrum, Kimberly wouldn’t have tried to go and comfort you. How would that patient have had the chance to hurt her otherwise?”

The disdain and mockery in his voice, which he didn't bother to hide, pinned me to the spot and left me dazed.

Kimberly hastily shoved his arm. "What's wrong with you? Why are you blaming Anna for this?"

However, Lucas never tore his gaze away from me. "Why is it that you still haven't grown up at all despite the many years that have passed? You're always expecting people to cater to you. Do you think you're some sort of princess?"

As silence suffused the room, I felt tears pooling in my eyes again.

Seemingly realizing that he might have been a bit too harsh, he softened his tone and added, "Try to be more levelheaded from now on, okay?"

With that, he reached a hand out to help me wipe my tears away, but I jerked my head out of his reach and took several steps back.

"Dr. Carter, we've already broken up, so please don't say such things to me again."

A bark of angry laughter burst from Lucas' lips.

"Annabelle, are you still not done?"

This time, even Kimberly was shooting me a disapproving look. "Stop letting your anger do the talking."

In truth, the two of them were incredibly similar. Not once had they ever taken my words seriously, nor had they ever acknowledged my feelings or seen me for who I was.

A bitter, mocking smile tugged at my lips as I turned and walked away without saying another word.

In the days that followed, Lucas unilaterally started giving me the silent treatment. Since I was deliberately avoiding him as well, we ended up going half a month without speaking to each other.

However, as one of the hospital’s most prominent doctors, Lucas remained a constant subject of gossip in the department.