I held onto the sink, my fingertips pinching the pregnancy test showing two red lines, my knuckles turning white. The churning in my stomach had not yet settled, but a cold, firm resolve was already rising in my chest—this was Liam’s child, the result of our last loss of control before the divorce. I looked at my pale face in the mirror, a flash of determination passing through my eyes: I would keep the baby, keep the child but cut off the father. For the rest of my life, the child would be my weakness—yet also the armor I would use to take revenge on Liam and Vanessa.
A news alert on my phone suddenly interrupted my thoughts, the headline glaring:
“Top Surgical Team at City Hospital Fails Operation, Patient Critical! Dr. Vanessa Tearfully Accuses: Key Medication Sabotaged by Former Colleague!”
I opened it.
In the video, Vanessa wore a white coat, her eyes red, speaking to the camera through tears:
“Liam and I tried our best, but the most crucial custom-made coagulant was maliciously shattered by Ms. Clara, and the formula was destroyed as well. Because she was unhappy about being reassigned, she took her anger out on the patient’s life… I really blame myself for not protecting the patient.”
Below the video, the comments were already exploding.
“Clara? The doctor whose license was revoked? How vicious can she be!”
“Playing with a patient’s life—someone like her should be permanently banned!”
“Poor Dr. Vanessa, clearly the victim yet bearing all this pressure!”
Rumors spread like weeds.
My personal information was leaked maliciously, and my phone and messaging apps were bombarded—insults pouring in endlessly. I knew this was Vanessa’s doing, and Liam must have approved it—maybe even pushed it forward. After all, making me take the fall was the easiest way to protect their reputations.
I tried sending Liam a message:
“The coagulant was broken by Vanessa herself, and you know it. Stop spreading lies, or I won’t hesitate to expose everything.”
The message disappeared into the void.
More distorted accusations came instead.
Liam’s indulgence became yet another weight pressing onto me.
Meanwhile, inside the operating room of City Hospital, alarms blared sharply.
The patient from the failed surgery had sudden massive bleeding, blood streaming down the edge of the table onto the floor, staining it red. Liam’s hand holding the hemostat trembled uncontrollably, sweat dripping from his forehead into the open incision as nurses hurried to wipe it away.
“Blood pressure still dropping! 80/50!”
“Standard hemostatic drugs aren’t working! The bleeding is too severe!”
Vanessa’s face was pale, her hands shaking so badly she could barely hold a suture needle, tears welling in her eyes.
“What do we do? Liam! We can’t stop the bleeding at all! If only we still had the coagulant…”
“Shut up!” Liam barked, though his mind was in chaos.
He knew better than anyone that Vanessa accused me only to escape responsibility. But now, he had no choice but to follow the lie to the end. Yet watching the patient’s vital signs fade, a sentence from the lab suddenly flashed in his mind:
“That was the only coagulant! Without it, an aortic dissection surgery can’t stop the bleeding! You’ll kill the patient!”
Panic surged through him like a tidal wave.
He suddenly remembered that I might still have a backup of the formula—someone who valued her research as much as I did would never keep only a single handwritten copy.
At that moment, my phone vibrated.
It was a message from my former colleague, Sharon:
“Clara, the patient is in critical condition. The bleeding won’t stop. Liam and Vanessa are reaching their limit…”
My fingers paused slightly.
In the end, I could not bear to let a living person die.
I replied quickly:
“Tell the patient’s family to contact me immediately if the situation worsens. Also, keep a secret for me—I’m pregnant.”
After sending it, I placed a hand on my abdomen and whispered:
“Baby, I’m going to save this person, and I’m also going to make those who hurt us pay the price.”
Inside the operating room, the patient’s heart rate had dropped to the warning line.
“Heart rate 40! Prepare the defibrillator!”
Watching the flickering monitor, Liam suddenly saw my calm face appear in his mind.
Desperation pushed him into a reckless decision.
He fumbled out his phone, hands shaking, and dialed the number he had long blocked—yet always remembered by heart.
The moment the call connected, he practically roared:
“Clara! Please! Tell me the coagulant formula! The patient is dying!”
There was a moment of silence on my end.
Then my voice came, icy and emotionless:
“Dr. Liam, didn’t you believe Vanessa when she said I destroyed the coagulant? Isn’t it ridiculous that you now come begging me?”
“I was wrong! I was blind!”
Liam’s voice cracked, filled with tears, his dignity shattered.
“I shouldn’t have believed Vanessa’s lies, shouldn’t have allowed her rumors! Please— for the patient’s sake, for… for what we once had—tell me the formula! If you save him, I’ll agree to any condition you name!”
Vanessa stared at him in shock, then screamed:
“Liam! How can you beg her?! She’s a vicious woman! We can think of another way!”
“There is no other way!”
Liam turned and glared at her, bloodshot eyes blazing.
“You think I don’t know? You broke the coagulant yourself! A life is at stake— and you’re still making a scene!”
Vanessa froze, her face turning green and white.
On the phone, I listened to their argument, the corner of my mouth curling into a cold smile.
“Liam, what you owe me—what you owe this patient—cannot be repaid with a single ‘I was wrong.’”
I paused, then my voice cut sharp as a blade:
“Give the phone to Vanessa. I want to hear her say it herself—that she broke the coagulant,that she spread the rumors.”
