Chapter 3

3

Only Grant was blind enough to fall for Lillian's performance.

He rushed to her side, carefully propping her up with pillows.

"Lily, you just got out of surgery. You need to stay down and rest."

Lillian spoke in a high-pitched, delicate voice, playing the victim to perfection.

"Grant, I'm okay. I just got tired of lying down. I wanted to move a bit."

She paused, biting her lip. "By the way, wasn't Jade at the hospital too? How is she?"

Grant finally seemed to remember he had a fiancée. His expression shifted for a moment.

"She's probably fine. Don't worry about people who don't matter. Focus on your recovery."

Lillian's face lit up with a hidden smugness before she continued.

"Really? She looked pretty bad. I thought she was seriously hurt."

She sighed dramatically. "Jade was probably just acting out because she was jealous, right?"

"After all, you are her fiancé. It's natural for her to be upset."

Grant's face darkened instantly.

"You're right. All these years, she's done nothing but pick fights with you out of spite."

He sounded genuinely disgusted. "I just didn't expect her to pull a stunt like this while you were in actual danger."

A person who doesn't matter? I was with him for five years. I was his fiancée. I was carrying his child.

And I was just someone who didn't matter?

I wondered what I had ever been to him.

Grant sat by her bed, feeding her porridge spoonful by spoonful, even though there was a nurse right there.

I floated beside him, watching this touching domestic scene.

Everything I had ever begged for, Lillian got without even asking.

As Grant set the bowl down, a nurse came in to change Lillian's bandages.

Grant immediately stopped her.

"A woman's hands are her life. Especially since Lily is a pianist. We have to be extremely careful."

He reached out for the tray. "Give the medicine to me. I'll do it myself."

The nurse looked confused but handed over the supplies and left. Lillian beamed at him.

"Grant, it's such a small thing. You don't have to trouble yourself."

Grant was already focused on her hand.

"It's not a small thing. Your hands are precious. If there's even a tiny scar, you might not be able to play."

My heart ached with a dull, phantom pain. In five years, he had never shown me this kind of tenderness.

Outside the door, I could hear the hospital staff gossiping.

"Dr. Sterling is so sweet to the girl in Room 26!"

"I know, right? They look so good together. I'm so jealous of her."

Even strangers could see how much he adored her.

Grant stayed by Lillian's side all night. If you didn't know better, you'd think she was his wife.

When he finally stepped out of the room looking exhausted, the other doctors looked at him with confusion.

"Dr. Sterling? Didn't you go see your fiancée?"

Grant waved them off impatiently.

"Why would I? She's fine. She's probably just sulking at home."

The group exchanged worried glances, falling silent as he walked away.

Once he was out of earshot, one whispered, "Man, Dr. Sterling is cold-blooded."

"No kidding. His fiancée and their baby both died, and he's in there playing nurse to another woman?"

"Shh! Keep your voice down. If he hears us, we're dead."

I drifted among them, listening to their whispers.

In that moment, I realized I had been a clown for the past five years.

Grant was always gentle and responsible with every other patient.

But never with me. He always said, "You're a doctor too. Can't you handle a little cold?"

I shook myself out of it and followed him into his office.

Just as he sat down, his phone buzzed. It was my mother.

"Grant Sterling, aren't you coming to see Jade?"