Chapter 1

I didn't respond to my wife, Ellie Harper. For the first time, I hung up on her.

Sure enough, she was furious, and my phone rang again. I just blocked her, like she always did to me after one of her tantrums.

Mom and Dad looked at me with concern.

"Vance, what's going on with you and Ellie?" Mom asked.

Meeting their curious gazes, I gave them a quick smile and lowered my head to shovel a few bites of food before replying indifferently, "Things are not working out. We'll be getting a divorce soon."

Mom sighed, but she just gave Dad—who was still dazed—a quick pat. Then she forced a cheerful tone as she urged us to focus on our meal.

My phone buzzed with a new message. It was an apology from Ellie's assistant, Jaiden Roth, in the workgroup chat.

"I was just messing around. Big thanks to Dr. Harper for not taking it to heart. My apologies if my post bothered anyone."

But the bragging was pretty clear.

Soon, Ellie replied, "It was just a joke. There's nothing to apologize for. If anyone's bothered, they're just petty."

But to be honest, I didn't feel bothered at all. I was glad to be rid of Ellie.

As soon as Ellie sent that text, my colleagues knew exactly whose side to take. They immediately jumped in to chime their agreement.

"It's always so dead around the hospital anyway. Jaiden is basically sacrificing himself to liven things up. We're lucky to have him!"

"Who knew Dr. Harper was not only a master with a scalpel but also a pro at butchering pigs? Jaiden, you're one lucky guy!"

"Haha! We all know who's really being petty here."

Watching them go on and on with their insults, I couldn't help but feel a sense of profound sadness.

Because half of those suck-ups were my former students. They used to follow me around and constantly butter me up. Now, they couldn't even mention my name.

I couldn't blame them. After all, Ellie was the hospital director. Since she favored Jaiden, he became the man of the hour in everyone's eyes.

Even though this hospital grew from my work and the money I poured into it, Ellie's favoritism was worth more than all my sacrifices.

I let out a bitter laugh, locking my phone to focus on eating with Mom and Dad.

But what surprised me was that Ellie actually called Mom.

Mom looked at me helplessly.

I sighed and decided to pick up.

Before I could say anything, Ellie's cold voice came through the phone. "Is Vance there? Give him the phone. I need to speak with him."

For a moment, I regretted answering.

She called Mom to get to me and didn't even bother to say hello. That stung.

"What is it?" I asked.

Ellie's tone grew colder when she heard my voice. "Jaiden's post-op patient is showing signs of infection. Get back to the hospital now to perform a second surgery."

Her tone was commanding, as if she owned me. My anger flared at once.

The patient she mentioned required a cardiac septal bypass. Even if I were the one to perform it, I couldn't guarantee even a 50% success rate.

But because Jaiden was so desperate for that department head promotion, he begged me for this surgery.

I knew he wasn't qualified, so I refused.

But Ellie was so fixated on Jaiden. She passed the patient to him without a second thought.

I argued my case, but she said Jaiden needed experience and told me not to be so focused on personal gain.

To her, a life was just a stepping stone for Jaiden's career. Now that there was a complication, she expected me to clean up his mess.

Was she seriously treating me like a fool?

I refused flat-out. "I'm not going back. Let whoever screwed up deal with the consequences. If you're so worried, do the surgery yourself. You're the one who vouched for him, anyway."

I added, "I'm having dinner with Mom and Dad. They thought you were coming home, so they made this huge spread. It'd be a shame to let all this food go to waste. If that's all, I'm hanging up now."

Just as I was about to end the call, Ellie yelled, "Don't you dare hang up! Vance Gibson, have I been too nice to you lately?"