Chapter 4
691 Words
The day Ethan received his divorce papers in the mail, Aria handed me her resignation letter.
They moved out not long after, and appeared to go live with Ethan's parents.
Honestly, I couldn't care less about that messy drama. My entire focus was on my career.
After six months of solid preparation, I was finally up for promotion to Chief of Medicine.
With my glowing, impeccable resume and years of experience working as a Doctors Without Borders physician, this promotion was a lock.
But when the list of candidates went public, my name wasn't anywhere on it.
I hurried straight to the hospital, determined to get answers from leadership about what had gone wrong.
Then I spotted a familiar figure in the hospital lobby.
In that split second, everything clicked into place.
A mob of patients had packed the entrance of the Infectious Diseases Department, yelling over each other at the top of their lungs.
One patient shouted, "Mia is a crooked doctor! She sells exorbitantly priced medicine and ruined our whole families!"
Another cried, "I thought Mia saved my life! Turns out she was just trying to push me to my death!"
A third screamed, "Greedy quack! Crooked hospital! Give us our money back! Give us our money back!"
And right there, blending right into the crowd, stood Aria with a smug grin plastered all over her face.
Every single one of those patients screaming curses at me was someone I had saved with my own two hands.
Staring at that chaotic, ugly scene, I felt a jolt of panic I had never experienced before in my life.
The young intern who badgered me with questions every single day got shoved around so badly they could barely stay on their feet, but they still stepped forward to defend me.
The intern said, "This isn't true! Dr. Harris never sold any exorbitantly priced medicine! Have you all lost your goddamn consciences?"
Aria spun around, and that was when she spotted me.
She immediately yelled at the top of her lungs, "Mia is here!"
In the blink of an eye, the whole crowd whipped around and charged straight at me.
A thud rang out as I got knocked flat on my back before I could even react. I couldn't tell who was stomping on my hand, or who was kicking me over and over in the leg.
Amid all the chaos, Aria knelt down beside me and wrenched my head back by the hair.
She asked, "Mia, do you regret letting me recognize you that day?"
I ground my teeth together and said nothing.
She didn't even wait for me to answer. She lifted her hand and cracked me hard across the face.
She hissed, "Since you knew I was sick, I had no choice but to ruin you and destroy your reputation!"
The chaos didn't drag on for long.
The police showed up fast and cleared the crowd, pushing them back.
I scrambled to my feet.
I said, "Officer, I want to report this. Someone deliberately incited these people to stage a riot at the hospital!"
The whole exorbitantly priced medicine lie would fall apart on its own the second someone checked the hospital's financial records.
Aria stared at me, and a flash of resentment glinted in her eyes.
Then, out of nowhere, she burst into tears.
She sobbed, "Mia, this has nothing to do with me! Why are you trying to frame me..."
I eyed her suspiciously, wondering what new trick she was pulling now.
But the next second, Ethan's furious roar came from behind me.
He roared, "Mia! You've gone too far!"
The two officers saw he was coming at me in a rage and quickly stepped between us.
But my eyes locked on the red rash covering his hand, and every alarm bell in my head started screaming.
I shouted, "Hurry! Everyone get back! Stay away from him!"
Before anyone in the crowd could even process what I had just said, Ethan froze mid-step.
The next second, he clamped a hand over his chest and heaved out a massive spray of bright red blood straight onto the floor!
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