Chapter 3

3.

For him, I had turned down an offer from the Mayo Clinic to stay at his hospital in New York.

So he could sleep in a little longer, I would wake up at four in the morning to make him breakfast and even iron his scrubs.

To ease his stress, I’d volunteer to cover his shifts, even if I hadn’t slept in thirty-six hours and my legs were trembling when I walked out of the operating room.

I even added my own research data to his papers, without asking for credit, just to help him get promoted to attending physician faster.

To survive in that high-pressure environment, I relied on massive amounts of caffeine, and I looked like a wreck.

But when Gavin finally agreed to marry me, I thought it was all worth it.

From then on, there was always a black coffee on his desk that I had prepared, with a little note stuck to the cup.

When difficult patients gave him trouble over insurance issues, I would step in and handle it for him.

As our wedding date approached, he helped me pick a venue on Long Island and we planned our honeymoon in Italy together.

When he watched me twirl around in my wedding dress in the fitting room, the tenderness in his eyes was almost overflowing.

Even the salesclerk said with envy that she'd never seen such a perfect couple.

Until a new doctor named Serena transferred to our hospital.

She was the daughter of a board member and one of Gavin's old college classmates.

From that day on, Gavin stopped talking about the wedding, and my coffee disappeared from his desk.

At first, I thought he was just busy training the new doctor.

It wasn't until the wedding planner called to tell me the venue contract needed Gavin's personal signature that I knocked on his office door.

Gavin said impatiently that he was busy and told me to sign for him.

But when I arrived at the luxurious estate in the Hamptons, the planner handed me two contracts.

One was mine. The other was Serena's.

The groom's name on both was Gavin.