เรื่องสั้นแนว Feel-Good Story และนิยาย Male POV Defy Fate

I'm doing my hospital rounds in the middle of the night when my personal phone suddenly rings. I answer it, hearing a frantic woman's voice. "My husband is having a heart attack! Please hurry over and save him, Dr. Chapman!" I'm just about to ask for the address and leave when rows of comments suddenly pop up right in front of my eyes. [Don't go!] [Her husband is actually already long dead.] [She's left the doormat outside her door wet, just waiting for you to step on it.] [She'll insist her husband died because you attempted to save him the moment you enter the house.] I feel a chill spread through the back of my neck. On the other end of the line, the woman starts crying even harder. "Are you still on the line? My husband really isn't going to make it, Dr. Chapman!" I take a deep breath and say, "If your husband is having a heart attack, please call 911 first. I'm not allowed to treat patients privately outside the hospital."

In my previous life, the day after my son was born, someone stole him. My wife lost her mind. She spent six months searching for him before finally jumping off our balcony. Right after that, I drank myself to death on the streets. This time around, I trusted no one. When the head nurse said she needed to take my baby for a checkup, I rose from my chair and stepped in front of the crib, blocking her way. "What checkup? Which department? Where is the paperwork? Has the attending physician signed off on it?" She froze, caught off guard. "It's a routine hearing screening," she explained. "If it's a routine screening, why are you personally taking my baby? I don't trust anyone. Bring me the paperwork. I'll carry my son and go with you. Otherwise, the answer is no." She stood there, frozen in place.

During our graduation hiking trip, my roommate Quentin Lowe insisted on taking an unmarked trail. He fell and broke his leg, then begged me, a medical student, to set the bone and give him first aid. Just as I opened my first aid kit to stabilize his broken leg, a voice suddenly sounded in my head. "I'm you, ten years from now. Don't touch his leg! That damn Quentin had already bought a huge insurance policy. He chose this cliff on purpose so you'd treat him. "Then he'll accuse you of practicing medicine without a license, leaving him permanently disabled! "He'll demand $450,000 from you. You'll lose your right to practice medicine for life. In the end, his whole family will push you to the point of jumping off a building!" When Quentin saw me frozen in place, he grabbed my hand and pressed it hard against his broken leg. "What are you waiting for? Do something!" The voice in my head spoke up again. "Forget him and get down the mountain! His parents are already waiting outside the hospital at the foot of the mountain with a group of people. They're planning to extort money from you!" I shuddered. Quentin's urgency was definitely out of character. I slung my hiking pack over my shoulders and walked away without hesitation.

I had always been what you would call a slow person. Case in point: When I saw the stern-looking female CEO appearing in the financial news who looked just like my wife, it took me ages to finally realize it was truly her. Immediately after, a stream of comments highlighted in different colors overlaid my vision. [Oh my God! Julian Vance, the shameless supporting male lead, has finally shown up to stir the pot! Imagine dragging a child into this just to scam Ms. Eunice Latour, how disgusting!] [Didn’t he already make away with two million as compensation? Why is he back again? He must be sick in the head if he thinks that he can use his child as a pawn to get ahead in life!] [I can’t wait to see Mr. Carter put him in his place! Let the real male and female protagonists shine!] It took me half a minute before I finally wrapped my head around what they were saying. It seemed I had been in the world of a novel, one where I was cast as an evil supporting male lead whose main goal was to make the male and female protagonists look good. My wife was Eunice Latour, the female protagonist in question. One day, she went out to buy food for the baby, only to never return.

My daughter, Lilah Olson, was hit by a car and needed immediate medical attention. Instead of calling my surgeon wife, Elina Olson, I raced against the clock to find another doctor. In my previous life, Lilah and Elina’s first love, Nolan Hicks, were involved in car accidents at the same time. I called Elina first and begged her to operate on Lilah. She rushed over to perform the surgery, only to miss Nolan’s desperate call for help. Elina didn’t blame me. Instead, she comforted me, saying that everyone had their own fate. That was until our third wedding anniversary. She slipped sleeping pills into my water and replaced Lilah’s calcium supplements with rat poison. She grabbed me by the hair and forced me to stay conscious, making me watch as she hacked Lilah’s corpse to pieces, blow after blow, until it was nothing but bloody pulp. Then she used a scalpel to slash open my major artery and stabbed me more than a thousand times. “If it weren’t for you two, Nolan wouldn’t have died!” When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day Lilah was hit by the car.

When the embassy ordered an evacuation, my parents took only two people with them—my older sister, and the boy they'd raised as their own son. My sister was their little princess, and they couldn't bear to leave her in a country torn apart by war. Meanwhile, the boy was the child they'd cherished since he was little. They couldn't bear the thought of him suffering. As for me, all they offered were words of comfort. "You've been through a lot growing up. After everything you've endured, this is probably nothing to you. Once we get them home safe, we'll come back for you." Because of that promise, I waited in a foreign country, week after week. A stray bullet eventually found its way into my heart. Meanwhile, my parents were making headlines around the world for celebrating his birthday. Given a second chance at life, I boarded a boat run by smugglers and fled the country. From then on, I risked everything to build a future for myself, never again seeking affection from my family.

At a company party, I catch our manager drugging a female coworker's drink and call the police to save her. But the next day, she shows up with the police and accuses me of drugging her and trying to rape her. She even claims our manager was the one who saved her. The police take me in for questioning, and before long, I'm being branded a rapist all over the internet. My company fires me to distance itself from the scandal. Even after I'm cleared of all charges, my life is a mess. I've lost my job, and the online harassment gets so bad that my mother ends up in intensive care. When I confront my coworker, Katherine Miller, about what she's done to me, she doesn't feel the least bit guilty. "I never asked you to save me. You're the one who decided to stick your nose where it didn't belong. Whatever happened to you is your own problem. "I worked hard to land this job. I'm not going to risk getting fired just because you decided to piss off my manager." Then our manager comes out shirtless, puts his arm around her, and gives me a smug look. "You were too stupid to know your place. Of course you got fired. Getting rid of someone like you would be as easy as squashing a bug." I'm so furious that I pass out. But when I open my eyes, I'm back on the day of the company party.

As one of the country's top high school teachers, I have helped countless students get into the best colleges. But I somehow find myself reborn as a poor kid from the countryside while attending a ceremony honoring my achievements. A mysterious voice echoes in my mind. "If you fail to get into college, you'll die!" How hard can that be? It's just getting into college. That's hardly a challenge for a genius like me. But soon I realize that getting into college isn't really about how smart you are. In the end, it all comes down to people and their motives.