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Lahat ng Kabanata ng My Mate Left Me on the Operating Table: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

32 Kabanata

Chapter 1

Vanessa was dying.That was what I heard while I lay on the operating table.Silver fragments lodged in my chest had stopped my wolf’s healing. Every breath hurt, and taking a deeper one felt impossible.Beneath the surgical lights, my mate suddenly stopped working.A sharp clatter followed.Adrian set his scalpel in the tray and pulled off his gloves.“Get Mercer. I can’t finish this procedure.”Twenty minutes had passed since someone told him Vanessa was in trouble.My usually unflappable mate had finally lost his composure.He turned his back to me and began rearranging the instruments. Metal struck metal. His hands shook enough that even I could see it.“Dr. Vale, her heart rate is climbing.”The nurse glanced at me.“Are you certain you need to leave?”I understood her hesitation.A wolf injured by silver couldn’t heal like everyone else. Adrian wasn’t merely my surgeon. He was the man who had promised, three years earlier, that he would protect me.Now he wanted to be somewhere e

Chapter 2

Three days after surgery, I was discharged.My classes would resume the following week. The wound had begun healing slowly, and as long as I didn’t strain it, I could get through a lecture.Adrian’s car waited outside Briar Glen Medical Center.Without thinking, I opened the passenger door.A startled sound came from inside.Vanessa straightened from the driver’s side, her collar askew, a sliver of bare shoulder showing. The satisfaction in her eyes vanished beneath a hurried look of embarrassment.“Clara, I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to—”Adrian was unwinding a strand of blond hair from his watch.“Don’t say it like that. You’ll give her the wrong idea.”He looked at me.“She was picking something up, and her hair caught on my watch.”I believed him.Adrian had never thought he needed to lie.Before our bonding ceremony, he had told me, “I loved someone before you. But I’m choosing you, and I’ll honor our bond.”He always knew exactly where to draw the line.Then he stood as close to it

Chapter 3

If Vanessa had returned three years earlier, perhaps this wouldn’t have hurt so much.Back then, Adrian and I hadn’t built much of a relationship.Our parents were old friends. My family valued education; his had worked in wolf medicine for generations.They introduced us after a dinner.There was no fated-mate recognition.No one forced either of us to accept a mark.We simply thought we suited each other and decided to try building a life.I taught at the university. He divided his time between surgery and clinics.During our first year, I could count our proper dates on one hand.I couldn’t remember when I fell in love with him.Perhaps it happened during those late nights when he came home quietly and replaced my cold coffee without waking me.Or perhaps it happened in the rain after my car accident.The other driver stood at the roadside shouting. Rain struck my face so hard I could barely see.I called Adrian and started crying before I could finish giving him the address.He arr

Chapter 4

For the first time in three years, Adrian and I went weeks without speaking.The timing coincided with the opening of Vanessa’s play, *Love, Again*.My colleagues talked excitedly about it.“It’s about former lovers finding their way back to each other. Apparently the ending’s wonderful.”“My friend saw it and texted her ex afterward.”I stayed out of the conversation.Instead, I put a thank-you card in my bag and went to the medical center.Owen accepted the paper bag in the corridor.“Adrian isn’t here,” he said. “Do you want me to give him this?”“It isn’t for him.”I handed Owen the card.“Thank you for finishing my surgery. The cookies are for the whole team.”Behind his pale blue mask, his eyes rested on my face for a moment.He put the card in his office and asked a nurse to take the cookies to the break room.“Could I see you for my follow-up?” I asked.“Yes.”He checked his schedule.“If Adrian isn’t available, book my clinic.”Adrian wasn’t available.During our silence, he m

Chapter 5

His grip loosened, but he didn’t release me.He stared at the watch as though he had only just discovered how ugly his own explanation sounded.“That’s different.”“How?”I tried to pull away. His fingers closed again, and pain caught beneath my ribs.“Adrian. Let go.”There was no smile in my voice now.Owen stopped beside us without touching me.“She asked you to release her.”“Stay out of our relationship.”“You’re hurting her. That makes it more than a private disagreement.”Adrian finally looked down. Red marks had appeared around my wrist. He let go abruptly and reached toward my chest.I stepped back.His hand stopped between us.“I wanted to talk.”“You could have called. You could have knocked.”I returned the watch to Owen.“You couldn’t drag me out of a car.”Adrian followed the movement with his eyes.“Have you been drinking?”“One glass.”“You just had surgery.”“Which is why I’m going upstairs to rest.”I retrieved my coat and headed toward the entrance. Adrian followed.

Chapter 6

Adrian arrived the next morning carrying breakfast.I left the door closed.“You shouldn’t drink coffee on an empty stomach,” he said through it. “I bought the bread you like.”I looked at my table.Milk, toast, and sliced fruit. I had prepared everything half an hour earlier.For years, I had treated a surgeon’s time as more valuable than my own. His shifts and consultations always came before our plans. I packed food into his car and reminded him to eat.Now he remembered I got hungry, too.“I’ve eaten.”“Save it for later.”“Take it with you.”Silence.“You’re still angry about last night.”“I’m preparing to dissolve our bond.”He never seemed to understand the difference.The lock turned.Adrian entered with his key, glanced toward my wound, then saw the application on the table.“You actually looked into it?”“I made an appointment.”“When?”“Tuesday.”He picked up the paper.I put my hand over it.“Don’t tear it.”His expression changed.“You think I would?”The marks on my wrist

Chapter 7

Dad answered his door holding a spatula.When he saw my overnight bag, he asked, “Have you had lunch?”I shook my head.“Your mother bought salmon. Good timing.”He didn’t ask why I had come alone.Only after I sat down did Mom notice my wrist.“What happened there?”I tugged my sleeve lower.She put down her fork.I began with the operating room.When I described Adrian leaving, Dad turned off the stove. When I reached the bond application, Mom moved beside me and held my injured hand.Neither told me to give him another chance.“Have you decided?” Mom asked. “Or do you need someone to help you think?”“I’ve decided.”Then I started crying.I had thought I finished crying in the car, outside our building, in the bedroom Adrian hadn’t entered for weeks.Apparently not.Mom handed me a tissue.“You can be certain and still be sad.”“He used to be good to me.”Dad sat across from us.“We know.”“He wasn’t always like this.”“We know that, too.”Somehow, that hurt more.I had been afraid

Chapter 8

Mrs. Vale came to my apartment instead.She brought flowers, not Vanessa.I invited her in and poured water. When she noticed the boxes beside the table, her smile weakened.“You’re already packing?”“Sorting things.”Inside were Adrian’s medical journals and the tickets Vanessa had sent for opening night. I had never used them.Mrs. Vale set the flowers down.“I owe you an apology for Adrian.”“You don’t have to apologize for him.”“He gets too confident. He thought you would understand.”“I understand his work. I understand he had a life before me.”“Then why—”“I don’t understand why he called another woman his mate and treated my hurt as an inconvenience.”She wrapped both hands around the glass.“Vanessa sent the photograph.”“Did she write his explanation, too?”Silence.After a while, she said, “Vanessa gave up something important for him.”“What?”“A touring production. Adrian had that accident in college. She stayed to help him recover.”I knew about the accident. A collapsed

Chapter 9

Judith, the bond registrar, read the last page of our application.“You both understand that once the marks are dissolved, this bond cannot be restored. Any future bond would be a new one.”“I understand.”Adrian said nothing.“Mr. Vale?”“I don’t consent to ending it.”Judith set down her pen.“You may object. You cannot require someone to remain in a bond they entered voluntarily.”“She’s injured. She isn’t emotionally stable.”I turned toward him.Judith spoke first.“Do you have evidence that Ms. Hayes cannot make her own decisions?”“She’s been taking sleep medication.”My fingers went cold.I had admitted to his colleague that I couldn’t sleep. Now Adrian offered that vulnerability as a reason I should lose the right to leave.“Are you worried about my health,” I asked, “or does being unwell mean I’m not allowed to end this?”“That isn’t what I said.”Judith handed me another form.“Health affects the method and timing. It doesn’t remove your right to apply.”Adrian insisted he s

Chapter 10

I canceled my appointments with Owen.He called while I was preparing a lecture.“The system says you transferred your care.”“Evelyn will handle my recovery and the bond assessment.”“She’s excellent.”“The records are already being transferred?”“Yes. She’ll contact me if anything needs clarification.”I held my pen still.Convenience wasn’t my only reason. Adrian’s suspicions had begun turning ordinary medical care into something I might have to defend.I didn’t want Owen dragged into our arguments.“Thank you for the other night.”“You already thanked me.”“And for not pulling me.”The line went quiet.Then he said, “You could walk yourself.”Such a simple observation.Everyone else kept telling me I was too exhausted, too upset, too injured to make decisions.He remembered I could move under my own power.“I won’t trouble you again.”“Changing doctors doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help. Medical questions go to Evelyn. Other questions can go to a friend.”“Are we friends?”“You br

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