Chapter 2

When I regained consciousness, I found myself lying on an operating table.

The harsh glare of the surgical lights left my eyes burning. Blood loss had drained every trace of color from my face.

The moment I opened my eyes, a doctor beside me cried out in relief.

“He’s awake! Get Dr. Amell in here! There’s a shard of glass lodged beside his heart. It’s almost touching a major artery! He’s in critical condition, and she’s the only one who can operate!”

At the sound of Hannah’s name, I struggled to focus and realized that I had been brought to the hospital where she worked.

She was the hospital’s finest cardiothoracic surgeon. The shard beside my heart trembled with every beat.

It was lodged so precariously that the slightest movement could kill me.

The nurse hurried out and returned moments later.

“Dr. Amell is in surgery in another OR. She can’t leave, and she said you’ll have to operate! She also called every other doctor on duty for a consultation. Even the anesthesiologist is with her!”

The surgical resident froze at the nurse’s report. His eyes shifted uneasily toward me.

“Did you tell her it was Leon Redfield? Did you tell her his condition was even more critical?”

“I did, but Dr. Amell said Cedric’s life was at stake and no one could make her abandon her patient.”

Hannah had pulled in the entire medical team for a consultation, all so Cedric could receive the best possible care.

With no attending surgeon or anesthesiologist available, they expected a resident who had only just arrived with the ambulance to operate on me?

As each precious second slipped away, the last of my hope began to die.

Everyone at the hospital knew how much Hannah and I loved each other.

They could not understand why she had left me to die, or how she could remain unmoved even after learning that I was in critical condition.

Only I understood. Hannah would sacrifice anything for Cedric. Even me.

Tears streamed down my face uncontrolled, while my heartbeat grew slower and weaker.

Darkness pulsed at the edges of my vision. The pain gradually faded into numbness. My body began convulsing beyond my control.

The monitors around me suddenly erupted in piercing alarms.

The doctor gathered his nerves and made his decision. Turning to the nurses standing by, he said firmly, “I’ll do it. Get him prepped now. He’s out of time!”

By then, the blood loss had dragged me into unconsciousness. Yet the instant the cold scalpel sliced into my skin, my body jolted.

It was freezing. The pain was unbearable.

When the blade cut into me again, a desperate whimper escaped my throat. My body thrashed on pure instinct.

“Hold him down!” the doctor ordered.

The pain overwhelmed me. Everything went black.

It took the surgical team four or five hours to treat all the damage to my legs and the rest of my body.

When my vital signs finally stabilized, the doctor wiped the sweat from his brow.

Hovering at the edge of consciousness, I heard someone sigh with pity. “We’ve done everything we can. It’s up to him now.”

Hannah never came.

I barely had the strength to breathe, yet I kept whispering her name.

I lay shivering on the operating table. My hand moved weakly across the sheet as I searched for someone to hold on to.

Eventually, my fingers closed around someone’s sleeve. I clung to it. At last, the fear loosened its grip on me.

The shard around my heart was finally gone, but the crack in our marriage had formed. It ran deeper than any wound the crash had left.

I tried to open my eyes to see who was there, but darkness pulled me under before I could.