Chapter 4

True to my expectations, Cynthia immediately stumbled back a couple feet and collapsed heavily to the floor. Blood seeped out of the bandages around her abdomen. Her wounds had evidently reopened.

In truth, the pain of death had made it hard for me to recall what happened during the day of the incident.

However, as I watched Cynthia feigning weakness while accurately slamming her own body into a hospital billboard, I couldn't help but start to feel suspicious.

Had Cynthia really been stabbed by the victim's enraged family member?

I had clearly been the one who rushed forward to push the attacker aside, and I had also been the one locked in the cold chain warehouse after sustaining several stab wounds.

Xavier called security before I could think further about the issue.

"Enough!" he bellowed. "You siblings are both so unreasonable!"

Cynthia started to kick up a fuss as well. "I'm going to call the police! This is intentional injury!"

Unexpectedly, Xavier was the first person to stop her. "I'll take full responsibility for your injuries. Just consider it an apology from me on behalf of Elio. He's still young, and I'll make sure to give him a talking-to when I get home."

No matter what, he couldn't allow Elio to end up in the police station. They were family, after all, so even if there were conflicts between them, they could just resolve them behind closed doors.

In the end, Elio was driven away by the hospital security.

I lowered my hand weakly, wishing that I was still alive. If I were alive, at least my family wouldn't have to be falsely accused like this.

After settling Cynthia back in her ward, Xavier returned to his office alone and tapped on the pinned chat in his messaging app.

He had listed the contact down as "Lena".

His hand tightened around the phone.

There were no new messages in the chat, and the latest messages were from one month ago.

"You have the nerve to blame medical malpractice of this severity on me! We might as well get divorced so you two can get together, Xavier Goodwin!"

"Can't you just be more understanding of Cynthia? She indeed lacked experience, considering it was her first actual participation in an operation, but this clearly could have been avoided if you had just been more careful. As the team leader, don't you need to take responsibility?"

His message was marked as sent but not delivered.

That's right. I had already blocked Xavier's number a month ago.

I watched as Xavier searched everywhere for a way to contact me until he finally started writing an email.

"Let's stop this petty squabbling, Elena. I was just too worried about Cynthia being stabbed last night. It's a good thing that the criminal was already under control at that time, so nothing serious happened."

After thinking for a while, he deleted the message word by word.

Forget it. Since Elena didn't like Cynthia, he probably shouldn't mention her anymore.

He started writing a new message.

"I went to the church on the mountain to get a lucky charm identical to mine as a birthday present for you, Elena. After the next few days of work, I'll apply for leave so that I can keep you company, so stop throwing a tantrum, alright?

"Elio caused a scene at the hospital today, so we'll have to teach him a lesson when we go home. You should also stop complaining about matters regarding the hospital in front of him."

Then, Xavier ordered a bouquet of flowers, after which he contacted my favorite cake shop.

"My wife doesn't like strawberries, so please swap them for mangoes. Also, just write 'happy birthday, honey' on top," he instructed.

After hanging up, he took a dark blue gift box out of his briefcase. Judging from the shape of the box, it probably contained a necklace.

The office was very quiet early in the morning. Xavier walked into my office and hid the gift box behind my pen holder.

He wore a gentle smile on his face the entire time he was doing this.

I felt my heart ache, accompanied by slight anger.

If we didn't really love each other, how could we have remained together for eight years?

A new day had begun, and the wreaths ordered by the hospital management had already arrived. When was Xavier going to realize that I was already gone?

Bryan carefully opened the office door. "The interns are already waiting, Dr. Goodwin, but I still need to confirm if you're sure you're going to use the body as a teaching instrument."

There was a huge shortage of cadavers used for dissection in anatomy classes, and there was no hospital that wasn't hard-pressed to obtain a sufficient number of them. Therefore, by the time the cadavers were divided between departments, there was even less available for each class of interns.

Xavier and I had signed a donation agreement on the day of our wedding. If either of us passed away, our body would be handed over to the other party's department for safekeeping.

Back then, I even joked that Xavier must remember to dress me up nicely so as not to scare the new interns.

I didn't expect my words to come true in such a morbid way.

Xavier walked toward the operating room while rolling up his sleeves. "I'm sure you're aware that it's most effective to use a real cadaver in the very first teaching session. By the way, I remember that you're also in charge of some interns. Do you want to have them observe together?"

Bryan shook his head vigorously. In his eyes, Xavier must be acting this way because he was still in a great shock, and he would rather avoid being near him for the time being.

Xavier cast Bryan's fleeing figure a strange look.

I could understand how Bryan felt quite well, though. After all, it was rare to find someone who would expressionlessly invite someone else to watch them dissect their own wife's body.

The atmosphere in the operating room was strange when Xavier walked in.

There was a masked female cadaver on the operating table. The multiple stab wounds on the body had already been sutured, and the most conspicuous thing about it was the large vertical scar over the stomach.

All three stab wounds had landed accurately on the lower abdomen, leaving the emergency doctor no choice but to stitch all three wounds together in the hopes of minimizing secondary damage.

The scar looked particularly hideous, such that even Xavier couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.

However, he quickly calmed down and asked, "Why are all of you still in a daze? Have the preoperative preparations been completed? Even if it's just a simulation, it must be done perfectly."

The interns looked at each other before one of the ladies replied hesitantly, "We didn't dare to touch her casually."

When Xavier heard this, he frowned heavily and sternly chided the group of young interns, "What if it's an actual patient lying in front of you? Are you going to be too afraid to touch them too? Are you just going to watch them die?"

The interns' faces turned red with shame at the scolding, and everyone started to busy themselves with their tasks.

Xavier's surgical knife sliced open my body bit by bit, but then he suddenly froze.

I curiously craned my head to see what he was doing.

I realized that a corner of the surgical drape had shifted due to his actions, revealing a small mole as red as a drop of fresh blood on the waist.

The sight in front of him instantly rendered Xavier speechless. He stood there blankly as if he were being held in place by an invisible force, his body trembling involuntarily.

Due to excessive blood loss, I had not been able to close my mouth at the time of my death, but Bryan had cleaned my body up well. As a result, it was now lying very serenely on the operating table.

However, Xavier took off his white coat and covered my body with it as if he had gone mad. "Impossible! This isn't Elena! I don't believe it!"