Chapter 2

2

The operating room fell into a heavy silence after his outburst.

I hovered in the air, drifting like a lost thought. I nodded at his words.

"You're right, Grant. Lillian Quinn will always be more important to you than me. I'm not even worth one of her fingers."

Too bad he couldn't hear me.

As a doctor myself, I knew Lillian's injury looked scary but wasn't life-threatening.

It was a simple fix that any surgeon in the wing could have handled perfectly.

But Grant insisted on doing it himself, terrified that his precious Lily might have a tiny scar.

I floated beside him, watching him work with such focus.

In the five years we were together, I never really got the chance to just look at him like this.

He was always so busy, always rushing from one surgery to the next. I was always the one waiting in the shadows.

In the beginning, I used to complain. I wanted him to comfort me, to prioritize me just once.

But Grant never did.

"You knew I was a surgeon when we started this," he would say coldly.

"If you think I can't give you enough attention, go find a boyfriend who has nothing better to do."

An hour later, Lillian's surgery was finished. Grant looked at her with immense relief.

"Lily, it's okay now. The surgery was a total success."

Only then did Grant remember the emergency the assistant had mentioned.

He turned to the nurse. "What was the situation with the OB-GYN patient?"

The assistant relayed the details, and Grant's brow furrowed.

"That sounds extremely critical. Even I might not have been able to save her. Let's go take a look."

But by the time he reached the wing, he was told the patient had already passed away.

Grant froze for a second, a flicker of professional sadness crossing his face.

But it was quickly replaced by a sense of relief.

He wasn't an OB-GYN specialist; he didn't need to get involved in a messy malpractice situation.

No one wanted to take responsibility for a lost cause.

Grant didn't even bother to ask for the woman's name before turning away.

I followed him as he drifted back to Lillian's private suite.

Lillian was in a double room, but she was the only one there.

Grant had moved the other patient to a different ward, claiming Lillian needed a quiet environment to recover.

Outside, people were lined up in the hallways on gurneys, yet Lillian occupied two beds worth of space.

I remembered when I was sick last year. Grant didn't even arrange a room for me.

He didn't even come to see me.

His excuses were always the same.

"I'm busy."

"Aren't you a doctor too? Take care of yourself."

I used to fight with him about it, but eventually, I just learned to swallow my own hurt.

Grant Sterling never apologized. He never backed down.

When my mother fell and shattered her leg, I begged Grant to perform the surgery.

He refused.

"I've looked at the scans. It's not that serious. Any attending can do it. I have more important cases."

He even had the nerve to lecture me. "As doctors, shouldn't we be the first to follow the rules of fairness?"

In the end, I had to call an old classmate to get my mother the care she needed.

Once she recovered, Grant just shrugged.

"See? You handled it fine on your own. Don't bother me with these little things next time."

But when it came to Lillian, all his principles vanished into thin air.

The thought left a bitter taste in my ghostly mouth.

It wasn't that he was incapable of helping; he just didn't care about me or my family.

Look at how much he cared for Lillian.

I looked down at my translucent belly. It was flat and empty now.

Maybe it was for the best. At least the baby didn't have to grow up with a father who hated his mother.

When Lillian saw Grant enter the room, she immediately struggled to sit up.

She put on such a pathetic, fragile act that even the young nurse nearby rolled her eyes.