Chapter 5
909 Words
By the time Maya returned from the mountain region, she'd lost noticeable weight.
She turned down her coworkers' dinner invitation and dragged her exhausted body home, wanting nothing more than sleep.
The key turned in the lock.
The moment the door opened, she froze.
The entire Cole family was gathered around the dining table eating breakfast.
Lydia sat in Maya's usual seat, feeding Evan spoonfuls of porridge by hand.
Mr. Cole, Mrs. Cole, and Chloe were all there too. Every pair of eyes landed on Maya at once, their displeasure completely undisguised.
"So you finally decided to come back?"
Chloe slammed her hand against the table and shot to her feet. "Where the hell have you been these past two weeks? You dumped Evan in the hospital and disappeared. Is that how a fiancée's supposed to act?"
Mrs. Cole immediately joined in. "You chased after Evan for nearly ten years. Now the wedding's only half a month away, and this is your attitude?"
"You didn't even bother checking on him once," Mr. Cole added heavily, frowning. "How are we supposed to trust someone this irresponsible with Evan?"
Maya looked at them gathered around the table and felt nothing but irony.
She'd spent ten years taking care of Evan with everything she had, only to receive criticism in return.
Lydia looked after him for half a month, and suddenly she became the devoted, loyal one.
"So Evan and I..."
She wanted to say they're not getting married anymore.
But before the words left her mouth, Lydia interrupted softly.
"Mr. and Mrs. Cole, Maya's Vice President now. She must be busy. Please don't blame her."
It sounded like she was defending Maya, but the reminder was obvious enough.
Maya's position had only come because of Evan.
Mrs. Cole immediately picked up the thread. "If your father hadn't insisted on donating that kidney back then and burdening Evan with such a huge debt, would he have signed that unfair overseas assignment list? Would he have made you Vice President?"
The living room fell silent instantly.
Evan set down his bowl and looked toward Lydia. "I'll see you off the day you leave. If anything happens overseas, call me anytime. I'll get there as fast as I can."
Maya stood there motionless, fingertips turning cold.
Then she suddenly spoke.
"If I were the one going abroad, Evan... what would you do?"
Chloe burst out laughing before Evan could answer. "You? Someone who got everything through connections? You think you'd survive somewhere that dangerous?"
"What's the point of joking like this?" Mr. Cole's face darkened.
Even Lydia joined in gently. "Maya, Evan's already yours. So is the Vice President position. You should be satisfied."
Evan studied Maya with faint disbelief in his eyes.
He controlled ninety percent of the hospital's shares. The final overseas assignment list came down to his decision.
Maya had never stayed away from him longer than twenty-four hours before. She'd stormed off for half a month this time, but now she was back.
There was no way she'd willingly leave the country.
She depended on him too much. Loved him too deeply. She'd never bear to walk away.
"Today's my birthday." Evan lowered his eyes, his tone flat. "Don't say things that ruin the mood."
Maya smiled faintly and said nothing more. She turned and walked into the bedroom.
Locked inside the drawer was their engagement contract.
She'd stayed up night after night writing it by hand herself:
Witnessed by heaven and earth, bound together till old age.
In her previous life, that promise had never come true.
And in this life, it never needed to begin.
Maya picked up a pen and crossed out her own name.
Then, in the empty space beneath it, she wrote:
For your twenty-eighth birthday, I'm giving you your freedom.
The drawer slid shut.
Her phone rang almost immediately afterward. An emergency call from the hospital.
Maya grabbed her bag and walked out without looking back once.
The moment she arrived at Kingsley Medical Center, her pupils contracted sharply.
The hospital entrance was packed with reporters and sobbing family members.
A massive banner stretched across the crowd in glaring red letters:
THE HOSPITAL DESTROYED A CHILD'S LIFE. THREE-YEAR-OLD STILL UNCONSCIOUS.
Shouting, crying, accusations. Chaos swallowed the entire entrance.
"The surgeon deserves to rot in hell!"
"We want justice! We want answers!"
Maya had just stepped forward when the hospital work group suddenly exploded with notifications.
The moment she opened the group chat, cold spread through her body like ice water.
A: [Maya almost killed a child during surgery. She's going to destroy this hospital!]
B: [She doesn't deserve to be Vice President!]
C: [If she can't perform surgery properly, she shouldn't touch the operating table at all! She treated a child's life like a joke!]
A coworker she was close with privately messaged her:
Coworker: The surgery happened a week ago. But you were still in the mountains then. Maya... what the hell is going on?
Before she could even process it, an unfamiliar number sent her an audio file.
Evan's voice came through clearly.
"Change the lead surgeon's name to Maya.
"I know this could affect her, but Lydia just won the Golden Scalpel Award. Nothing can happen to her right now.
"I'm the hospital's largest shareholder. What I say goes."
The truth tore through Maya's chest like a blade of ice.
Again.
For Lydia, he would throw Maya into hell without hesitation.
- Writer
