Chapter 3

I didn't go to the hospital.

After ending the call, I sat on the sofa without moving a muscle until daylight flooded the room.

My screen lit up repeatedly. Audrey called three times; I ignored every single one.

Finally, two texts arrived:

[Julian, I'm sorry. I lost my temper earlier.]

[I just really don't want you driving around half-asleep at dawn. I'm off this afternoon, let's sit down and talk everything through, okay?]

I stared at the screen for a long time, waited until exactly thirty minutes had passed since my call, and texted back a single word: [Okay.]

I needed time to clear my head, and more importantly, I needed hard evidence.

Without ironclad proof, she had a hundred ways to gaslight me, spinning it until I became the paranoid, insecure boyfriend seeing ghosts.

I pulled Audrey's shift logs and punch-in records for the past six months, then drove across town to the nightclub mentioned in the post.

After wrapping up what I needed to do, I headed back home to wait for her.

I never expected to be ambushed right outside my building by a guy with makeup carefully sculpted onto his face.

He looked barely twenty-two, undeniably pretty in a fragile, boyish way, wearing a fitted white dress shirt.

"Mr. Julian Vance, right?" he spoke, his voice deliberately pitched soft and meek.

I stopped in my tracks and looked at him. "And you are?"

"I'm Kris." He gave a nervous, shy smile. "I'm... one of Dr. Evans's admirers."

My chest seized with a cold drop.

He scanned me from head to toe, his eyes carrying an unhidden layer of evaluation and comparison.

"Dr. Evans talks about you all the time. She says you're brilliant, the rising star of neurosurgery."

"Your point?" My tone was frigid.

His eyes welled up with tears in an instant, and before I could even react, he fell to his knees on the pavement with a loud thud.

"Julian, I'm begging you, please let Audrey and me be together!"

It was morning rush hour in our residential community, and residents immediately started turning their heads.

"What the hell are you doing? Get up!" I stepped back, utterly disgusted by the absurdity.

Kris pressed himself lower, his hands clasped in front of him as if praying, tears streaming down on cue.

"I know I don't deserve her! I know the kind of work I do is dirty! But Audrey is the only person who never looked down on me. She genuinely wants to save me!"

"She told me you're too perfect, that being with you is suffocating."

"She said you're always so cold and rational, that you never lose your head over her, that you can't give her the emotional security she craves!"

"You're a brilliant surgeon, you'll be fine without her! But I can't survive without Audrey! Please, just let her go..."

Every word felt like a poisoned needle aimed squarely at my chest.

I stood there watching his performance, a chill spreading through my veins.

A small crowd of neighbors had already gathered, whispering and pointing.

"Is that a mistress... or a male escort making a scene?"

"He looks so young, what a mess..."

"The guy's literally on his knees, though."

Right then, a familiar sedan screeched to a halt at the curb.

Audrey threw the car door open and rushed out, her face pale and furious.

The first thing she saw was Kris sobbing on the ground, and only then did her gaze snap toward me.

"Julian! What are you doing?!"

She practically screamed it as she lunged forward to pull Kris to his feet.

Kris immediately threw himself into her arms, burying his face in her shoulder and weeping harder:

"Audrey, don't blame Julian! I knelt on my own, I just wanted to beg him to let us be happy..."

Audrey held him against her chest, glaring up at me with raw disappointment and anger.

"Julian, I had no idea you could be so petty! Kris isn't well, his mental state is completely fragile! Does humiliating him make you feel like a big man?!"

I stood there, looking at the woman I had loved for seven years.

Watching the way her body instinctively shielded another man.

Watching the sheer disgust and accusation burning in her eyes.

A sudden, quiet laugh escaped my lips.

"Audrey," my voice was flat and steady. "We're done."