Nikolai’S POV
Ten seconds passed and no one breathed.
The monitor kept giving that long, flat sound and it started drilling into my skull.
“That’s impossible! Dr. Bennett, what kind of stunt is this? Are you seriously helping her stage something like this in front of the press?”
He didn’t answer me. He just stared.
I pushed past two nurses and dropped to my knees beside her. Sera was lying there, eyes half open, blood at the corner of her mouth and she wasn’t moving at all.
“Sera!” I said sharply, grabbing her shoulders, “enough. Get up. This isn’t funny and this isn’t how you prove a point.”
I shook her harder than I meant to.
“Wake up! You’ve already embarrassed everyone. Don’t take it this far.”
Her head rolled to the side.
Dr. Bennett shoved me back. “Stop it!”
“Don’t touch her like that,” he snapped, then pointed at her chest. “Look at her properly, Nikolai. Look.”
He grabbed her file from a nurse and slammed it onto the conference table. Papers scattered and cameras zoomed in.
“For three months her numbers have been crashing and I told you every single time she couldn’t wait any longer,” his voice shaking was with anger. “Her oxygen saturation was eighty eight percent at rest last week and her lactate kept climbing. Those are end stage marker!”
He threw another report down. “You’re a cardiac surgeon. Don’t stand there pretending you don’t know what that means.”
Behind me I heard a choked sound.
“Sera!” her mother cried, heels scraping against the floor as she ran forward. “Sera, baby, answer me.”
Her father rushed too and nearly tripped over a chair. “Call her name, call her name,” he kept saying like it was a spell that would fix this. “Sera, sweetheart, open your eyes.”
Her mother fell to her knees on the other side and touched her face with shaking hands. “She’s cold... She’s just fainted. She’s always had low blood pressure. She’s strong, she’ll compensate.”
Dr. Bennett looked at her. “You cut off her medication funds. She signed an IOU yesterday.”
Her father froze. “What are you talking about?”
“She had twenty dollars in her pocket,” Bennett said. “Twenty. She couldn’t even afford antibiotics.”
Her mother’s face crumpled and she shook her head over and over. “No. I just wanted her to calm down and apologize. I never thought…”
“You never thought she’d collapse?” Bennett shot back. “You’re the head of cardiac surgery.”
I leaned down again and pressed my fingers to Sera’s neck.
Nothing.
My hands felt numb.
“She’s young,” I muttered. “Her compensatory mechanisms are strong. She’s just in shock. Move. Get the crash cart. Start compressions.”
Her father grabbed her hand. “Sera, it’s Dad. You hear me? Don’t scare us like this.”
Her mother started sobbing openly. “My baby, please. You can’t do this to me. I didn’t mean it. I didn’t mean it.”
Cameras were flashing nonstop.
Bennett’s voice cut through everything. “Assess her yourself, Nikolai. You’re the one who signed that transplant decision. Check her pulse. Listen to her heart. Look at her pupils and tell everyone what you find.”
The room went completely silent.
I leaned down and put my ear to her chest.
Nothing.
I checked her pupils.
Fixed.
The flat line kept ringing and it felt like it was mocking me.
“N-no! No, this is wrong! This is a mistake. I made the right call. Evangeline needed that heart. Sera could hold on. She always held on.”
“Sera, please, Mom is here.” Her mother let out a broken scream and collapsed against her husband. “I’m here. Wake up.”
Her father’s voice cracked as he kept repeating her name like he could drag her back with it.
I stared at her face and for the first time I couldn’t control my voice.
“Sera… fuck! Open your eyes. I’m telling you to wake up.”
She didn’t move.
Mrs. Whitmore crouched down slowly, like her bones had aged twenty years in ten seconds. Her fingers pressed against Sera’s neck.
Five seconds.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Her hand slipped.
She fell back onto the floor.
“No… no…” she whispered, shaking her head like that alone could reverse it. “That’s not right. I checked her labs yesterday. She was stable enough to argue with me. She stood there and fought with me. She looked me in the eye. That’s not someone who dies the next day.”
Dr. Bennett’s voice was cold. “She used the last of her strength to argue with you.”
Her father dropped to his knees beside Sera and grabbed her hand. “Sera. Sera, sweetheart. Enough. Open your eyes. Dad’s here. Don’t do this. You hear me? You don’t get to scare us like this.”
I was still frozen.
Then something snapped.
I lunged forward and pushed past everyone.
“Move.”
I grabbed her shoulders again.
“Sera,” I said sharply, shaking her. “Stop it. This isn’t funny. You don’t win like this. You don’t prove a point like this. Open your eyes right now.”
Her head lolled.
I slapped her cheek lightly.
“Hey. Look at me.”
Nothing.
I pressed my fingers to her neck again. Nothing. I leaned down and put my ear to her chest.
“No,” I muttered. “No. I know this heart rhythm. This is temporary. It’s reversible. We can shock her. We can intubate. Get the crash cart.”
No one moved fast enough.
I bent down and started chest compressions myself.
“Come on!” I growled through my teeth. “You’re stronger than this. You’ve survived worse. You don’t get to quit on me.”
Her mother crawled closer, sobbing openly now. “Sera, Mommy was wrong. I was angry. I shouldn’t have said those things. I shouldn’t have forced you. Just wake up and yell at me again. I’ll let you win. I’ll let you say whatever you want.”
Her father was crying too, gripping her foot like he was afraid she’d disappear. “I’ll cancel everything. I’ll resign. I’ll go public and fix it. Just come back. Please.”
I leaned down and grabbed her hand and brought it to my lips.
Her skin was cold.
“Sera,” I whispered, voice breaking. “Look at me, baby... You don’t get to leave me. I made a decision as a doctor. That’s all it was. A decision. You’re my wife. You don’t get to punish me like this.”
I kissed her knuckles again.
“Open your eyes and yell at me. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m heartless. Just say something.”
Dr. Bennett’s voice cut in, tight. “Nikolai. Stop.”
