Chapter 3

*SMACK.*

A brutal slap across my face. The force sent me crashing into the test tubes behind me. Glass shattered, scattering across the floor.

I clutched my stinging cheek, looking up at Brandon’s hand, still suspended in mid-air, a look of utter disbelief on my face.

“Amelia Hayes! Who gave you the audacity to treat Chloe like that?!”

He snatched my ID badge and threw it to the ground. “She’s the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery whom I spent a fortune to poach from the Mayo Clinic! She’s the medical expert I cultivated with five years of painstaking effort! What right do you have to defy her?!”

“It’s just an operating room, isn’t it? If Chloe says you can’t use it, you can’t. Now, get on your knees and apologize to her immediately!”

Brandon’s face, contorted in rage, suddenly felt incredibly alien to me.

Wait, what did he say?

Mayo Clinic?

I looked closely at Chloe Davis, and a realization hit me. Wasn’t she that nurse who sold counterfeit drugs five years ago and was jailed for six months?

How did someone with barely a middle school education become my peer, let alone a chief of surgery?

Brandon suddenly turned, his voice soft with concern as he spoke to Chloe. “Why aren’t you wearing the gloves I got for you? These spilled instruments will get on you.”

“And next time, if you want to suspend someone, don’t get all worked up yourself. Don’t let it happen again.”

Chloe immediately took off her mask, letting out a few fake tears. “Brandon, maybe I should just resign. With Dr. Hayes like this, how can I possibly lead the heart transplant surgeries?”

Brandon’s voice instantly shifted back to a furious roar directed at me.

“Apologize to Dr. Davis right now! If you dare to obstruct her work again, you’ll be transferred to laundry duty in the maintenance department!”

The surrounding area fell silent.

The watching medical staff immediately began whispering. “Dr. Davis is the Director’s pet!” “Exactly, she’s a genuinely talented, highly educated expert!” “Unlike some people who have no real skills, only relying on being the Director’s wife.”

“Shameless!”

I stared at Brandon Miller, the man who once swore he’d always support and love me unconditionally, now publicly humiliating me.

But he still wasn’t done. He pointed at me. “Effective today, you’re demoted to a physician’s assistant. You’ll do rounds at 5 AM every day, and handle all departmental night shifts, patient records, and autopsy reports.”

“Once you’ve reflected enough and learned how to be an assistant, then we’ll talk.”

He grabbed the white coat Chloe had just taken off and tossed it at me. “Now, handwash Dr. Davis’s scrubs!”