Chapter 7

The final countdown of my life.

I lay on the cold operating table.

Waves of agonizing pain, like my insides were being torn apart, washed over me.

It was okay. Just bear with it.

Soon, I could go home and have my mom's homemade stew.

Julian's violent voice message still echoed in my ears.

"Audrey Hayes, do you really think I don't have a temper?"

"Scarlett is dying, can you just be understanding, for God's sake?!"

All because I missed our third appointment.

But I had told him, hadn't I? I was running out of time. I was dying.

He just didn't believe me.

Ten minutes later, Julian, dressed in surgical scrubs, entered the operating room with a blank expression.

This surgery wasn't originally his.

But the System had set it up so that no matter who the surgeon was, it would ultimately be him.

"System, what's my terminal illness?"

"A tumor surgery. Julian Hayes's golden specialty."

The System almost sounded gleeful.

The anesthetic had been administered.

Julian was ready.

His assistant couldn't help but quietly ask, "Dr. Hayes, are you okay?"

The assistant knew about me.

They had even secretly admired him.

"Dr. Hayes truly has an iron will."

"Only a ruthless person could operate on his own wife."

But Julian himself, for now, had no idea.

Lying under the surgical drapes was the wife he had angrily scolded just an hour ago.

He took the scalpel handed to him by the assistant.

And with practiced ease, made a sixteen-centimeter incision on my abdomen.

Compared to the surgeries he usually performed, this tumor operation wasn't particularly special.

Even if it failed, it would be within a reasonable scope.

After all, the surgical difficulty was high, and the success rate extremely low.

But thanks to his years of professional experience, the surgery was well within his control.

However, the word "accident" is the one thing humans can never control.

For instance, Julian unexpectedly discovered a faint pink scar on the skin near the incision.

His hand immediately froze mid-air.

The assistants were all a bit surprised.

This had never happened before.

Especially with the patient's flesh already cut open.

Dr. Hayes looked dazed.

Only I, in the entire room, knew why.