Chapter 1

I was rushing to perform an emergency surgery when a woman and her mother charged at me, slapping me to the ground. They accused me of being a corrupt, crooked doctor who prescribed fake drugs for kickbacks.

I begged for mercy, pleading that I needed to go perform surgery on my mother, but they beat me black and blue.

"A quack like you deserves to perform surgery?"

When my husband finally arrived, I thought he would stand up for me. To my absolute horror, he was already having an affair with that woman. He called me an embarrassment and sneered, "If your mother dies, it’s exactly what she deserves!"

I froze.

But, darling... the person dying on the operating table right now is your mother.

 Chapter 1

Having just finished a grueling 12-hour shift, I was needed in the operating room once again.

My mother-in-law, Catherine Pierce, had suffered a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm with severe trauma complications.

At this moment, I was the only trauma surgeon in the entire hospital qualified to perform this procedure.

Married to my husband for 15 years, my mother-in-law and I had grown as close as a real mother and daughter. My husband had countless flaws, and the only reason I continued to endure this marriage was because of Catherine’s kindness.

She had long treated me as her own daughter, and I saw her as my second mother.

Therefore, absolutely nothing could go wrong with today’s surgery!

I grabbed my stethoscope, dragged my exhausted body through the office door, and hurried toward the OR.

Just as I stepped around the corner of the corridor, a dense crowd of people suddenly blocked my path.

I furrowed my brow, intending to detour around them and continue my rush to the OR, when someone suddenly seized the collar of my white coat. I was violently yanked forward, stumbling from the sheer force of it.

Smack!

Without any warning, a vicious, full-force slap struck the left side of my face.

The tremendous impact threw my head to the side, and a flash of white blinded my vision. A second later, the thick, metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth.

Extreme confusion and shock nailed me to the spot. I forgot to even react, only feeling my cheek swelling and burning instantly as blood trickled down from my cut lip.

"You corrupt quack! You prescribe fake drugs and ruin lives just to get your kickbacks! You almost turned my mother into a junkie!"

A young woman, decked out in designer brands and wearing Jimmy Choo stilettos, shoved me hard to the ground, screaming curses at the top of her lungs. "Today, I’m going to serve justice and beat you to death, you shameless fraud!"

"Who are you... you’ve got the wrong person!" I stammered, stars dancing in my vision. I collapsed onto the floor, my head spinning, completely unable to process what was happening.

I didn't even know this woman. What was she talking about—dirty money and reckless prescriptions?

"My name is Victoria! And my mother is Margaret! Three days ago, she got sedatives and sleep medication from you. Have you forgotten, you bitch?!"

Victoria sneered as she stepped forward, driving the sharp, pointed toe of her high heel mercilessly into the joint between my thigh and hip.

Piercing agony shot through me, forcing me to curl up in a humiliating ball.

Yet, I was even more confused.

I was a trauma surgeon. Why would I be prescribing neurological or psychiatric medication?

They definitely had the wrong person!

I opened my mouth to explain, but Victoria’s foot swung up and kicked me squarely in the face.

Thud!

The massive force slammed my head back into the hospital floor. My ears rang instantly. I lay sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, entirely stripped of the ability to defend myself.

The massive commotion drew the attention of nearby patients, who stared at the scene in shock.

An older woman behind Victoria immediately stepped forward, covering her face and wailing to the surrounding crowd.

"Look at her, everyone! It’s her! She swapped real medicine for fakes to make dirty money, and almost got me and my husband addicted! Someone like her shouldn't even be allowed to be a doctor!"

"She even seduced my daughter’s husband! She’s an absolute slut!"

The crowd of patients and families gathered in the hallway was instantly inflamed by these twisted lies. They began pointing fingers at me as I lay on the floor:

"She looks presentable, but who knew she was a doctor with no moral bottom line."

"Taking kickbacks for painkillers? Seducing someone’s husband? She deserves every bit of this. Beating her to death wouldn't be enough!"

"Yeah, beat her! Let’s see if she ever dares to hurt people again!"

Suppressing the agonizing pain from the kicks, I struggled to push myself up from the freezing floor tiles. "I didn't do it! All my prescriptions can be checked in the system right now! I wasn't the one who gave you fake medication!"

"Please, let me pass... I have to go perform surgery on my mother. If I’m delayed, she’s going to die!"

"Spit!"

A mouthful of saliva landed squarely on my pristine white coat.

Victoria lunged forward, pressing the sole of her stiletto brutally against the side of my face, as if trying to grind my cheek into the marble floor.

"Using your own mother as a meat shield when you're at death's door? Your mother was cursed with eight lifetimes of bad luck to give birth to scum like you!"

Victoria ground her heel down on my cheekbone from above, applying so much vicious force that she nearly tore off a layer of my skin.

"Come here, strip her clothes off! I want everyone to see that a corrupt doctor like her doesn't even deserve to wear clothes!"

Humiliation.

The absolute, suffocating humiliation coiled around my throat like a venomous snake.

I had never been subjected to such degradation in my entire life—especially when they had the wrong person!

But I didn't have time to reason with lunatics, nor the time to prove my innocence.

The digital clock on the wall flashed in glaring red.

Countdown: 56 minutes.

Taking advantage of the gap when Victoria turned to order her bodyguards forward to strip me, I took a deep breath, jerked backward, and pulled my face away from her shoe, leaving a streak of blood behind.

In the split second she lost her grip, I ignored the excruciating pain radiating through my battered body, scrambled across the floor, and threw my weight against the door of the duty room three meters away.

"Grab her! Don't let her get away!"

Bang!

Just a fraction of a second before a bodyguard's boot could kick into the door frame, I slammed the heavy fire door shut and flipped the deadbolt with a click.

"You useless trash!"

Victoria’s furious screams echoed from outside, followed by the frantic pounding on the door and the rattling of the handle.

Cold sweat and blood mixed together, dripping off my jaw onto the pure white fabric of my uniform.

Drained of all strength, I slid down the door panel and slumped against it. Trembling uncontrollably, I fished my phone out of my pants pocket and dialed my husband, William.

"Speak. I'm busy." The voice that answered was as cold as ever.

For some reason, over the past three years, his attitude toward me had grown increasingly distant. I had tried everything to fix it, even asking his mother for help, yet nothing could win back his heart.

"William, save me... quickly, call the police!"

My voice trembled violently with fear and grievance, tears mixing with blood and splashing onto the phone screen.

"A group of crazy people I don’t even know ambushed me at the hospital and trapped me in the duty room... They’ve been kicking me, stepping on my face... Please, just get security to chase them away! Mom’s aneurysm ruptured! I have to get to the operating table in less than 50 minutes!"

The other end of the line went dead for a second. Then, a scoff of pure, undisguised impatience broke the silence.

"Elena, are you suffering from persecution paranoia?" William’s voice dripped with open contempt. "This is one of the top private hospitals in New York. Who would dare rush in and beat you up in broad daylight? You’ve always been a coward, making a mountain out of a molehill. Let me guess, a minor patient dispute scared you witless?"

"It’s real! It’s not a dispute! I don’t even know the woman screaming outside!" I gasped heavily. The ringing in my left ear forced me to press the phone tightly against my right. "Mom is in the emergency room! Without me, she is going to die today!"

"Can you grow up for once?" William’s tone turned even harsher. "I am in the middle of a multi-billion dollar M&A deal. To trick me into rushing to the hospital to boost your ego, you'd actually make up such an absurd lie? Your mother just happens to have a crisis today of all days?"

"William!!"

"If it really is true, then it just means your mother deserves to die today!"

William coldly cut off my pleading, uttering words that sent a literal chill down my spine, before brutally hanging up the phone.

Beep—

The dial tone echoed in the small room. I stared at the "Call Ended" text on the screen, feeling my violently palpitating heart being crushed and frozen into ice in an instant.

He thought the person on the operating table was my mother, which was why he acted so callous?

That bastard! That’s his own mother!

I checked the time.

Only 53 minutes left!

Outside, the pounding on the door abruptly stopped.

A moment later, the ear-piercing shriek of an electric saw cutting through metal tore through the lock cylinder.

Screech—Snap!

Two seconds later, with a sharp, sickening metallic crunch, the heavy-duty deadbolt of the room was forcefully destroyed from the outside.

The door handle was violently thrust down.

Smash!

The heavy fire door was forcefully shoved open.

"Gotcha, you bitch," Victoria stood in the doorway, giving me a venomous, triumphant smile.