Chapter 2

The atmosphere in Warren's office was so tense that I could barely breathe.

He sat behind his desk, flipping through the notebooks one page at a time.

His brows were drawn tightly.

Steve Thompson from the Office of Inspector General was there too.

He wore a stern expression, fixing me with a hawk-like stare.

"Taylor, your husband Sean has made a public accusation against you, and we've got these pieces of evidence. Do you have anything you want to say?" Steve finally spoke, his tone official and completely devoid of emotion.

I sat across from them, my back ramrod straight.

"I have nothing to say," I replied.

My calm attitude seemed to surprise them a little.

Steve adjusted his glasses. "Does that mean you admit it?"

I shook my head. "I'm not going to admit to something I never did."

"So what about these logbooks, then?" He shoved a notebook right in front of me.

I lowered my head and took a look.

Every page was covered in handwriting I didn't recognize, listing out each so-called payment in detail.

Dates, places, patient names, amounts, and everything were there.

The number, from thousands to tens of thousands, crowded the pages, making my skin crawl.

The records spanned five years.

The most recent entry was last week.

"This isn't my handwriting," I said.

"Of course we know it's not your handwriting," Steve said. "The accuser claims he wrote them himself, so nothing would point back to you."

I sneered to myself.

Sean, you really went all out to set me up.

"And what about this bank card?" Steve pushed the card toward me. "It was opened with your ID, and the total amount in it matches the numbers in the logbooks almost exactly."

"I didn't even know this card existed," I replied.

"You didn't know?" Steve's voice grew sharper. "Taylor, that's not something you can explain away. A bank card opened with your ID, and you expect us to believe you had no idea?"

I was silent.

How was I supposed to explain this?

Should I say my ID was always in a drawer at home, and Sean could grab it whenever he wanted?

Should I say we were married, and I never thought I'd need to guard myself against him?

With all this so-called hard evidence laid out in front of me, anything I said would feel empty and powerless.

It would only make it seem like I was trying to defend myself, dodging the blame.

Warren finally spoke, letting out a heavy sigh.

"Taylor, you've been with this hospital for fifteen years. You started as an intern and became the pillar of our cardiology department. Your skills and professional ethics have always been something I could count on.

"But the fallout from today is severe.

"The public is in an uproar, and the Department of Public Health has already called. They're demanding we launch an investigation immediately and take strict action."

I sat there, listening quietly, my expression unreadable.

From the moment Sean shouted in the lobby, I knew my fate was sealed.

It didn't matter what the truth was. Someone had to take the fall to calm the public and protect the hospital's reputation.

And that someone had to be me.

"I'll cooperate with the investigation," I said.

For the next two weeks, everything in my life froze.

I was suspended.

Day after day, I was holed up in a spare office at the hospital, grilled by the investigation team. the same questions, again and again.

The investigation team was a joint task force made up of the hospital's Office of Inspector General, the city's Department of Public Health, and the prosecutor's office.

It was a full-scale operation.

They dug through every single one of my bank accounts and checked every asset in my name.

They even went to my hometown, questioning my parents and relatives.

They interviewed every single colleague in the cardiology department.

They dragged in every patient and their family members listed in those so-called logbooks—anyone I'd ever treated—for questioning.

The whole hospital was turned upside down because of me.

I was right at the center of the storm.

I could feel the looks people gave me were different now.

The junior doctors who used to respect me started avoiding me like I was contagious.

Colleagues who used to joke around with me would give an awkward nod and quickly slip away.

And of course, there were those who were more than happy to kick me when I was down.

For example, my deputy, Linda Richardson.

She made a point of publicly saying how heartbroken and disgusted she was by my so-called bribe-taking.

She even said, "There's no way we should let a black sheep like her stick around among doctors."

But every time she said it, the smug look in her eyes was impossible to hide.

I knew she'd been coveting my position as department head for a long time.

This time, Sean served up the best opportunity she could ever ask for.

Through countless rounds of questioning, the investigators kept repeating the same thing.

"Is there anything else you want to add? Anything you want to say to defend yourself?"

Every time, my answer was always the same. "I didn't do it. There's nothing left for me to say."

Really, there was nothing I could say to defend myself.

When your own spouse spent ten years building a trap so seamless, there was no escape.

Every time you tried to fight back, every attempt to explain only made the trap close in tighter around you.

The only thing left for me was to cling to my last bit of pride.

That kind of thing? I was above it.

I refused to bow down and justify myself to a trap that was set to destroy me.

I sat there, waiting in silence for the day when everything would be decided.

I knew that day was coming soon.

For the past two weeks, I hadn't gone home at all.

Sean didn't reach out to me either.

We were like two lines that crossed paths for a moment, then shot off in opposite directions. never to meet again.

Maybe it was for the best.

The place I once called home, the refuge I trusted, had become my burial ground.

Why would I ever set foot there again?

I was living alone in a rented apartment near the hospital.

The place was empty. I stayed there all by myself.

Yet somehow, that emptiness gave me a peace I'd never known before.

For the first time in fifteen years, I finally had a real break.

No more waking up at five in the morning, no more dragging myself home in the middle of the night.

Every day, I sat by the window, watching the sun rise and set.

I thought about all the people I'd saved.

I thought about all the surgeries I'd done.

I remembered the day I took the oath as a doctor.

"Health above all, lives entrusted to me."

I never forgot.

I never broke that promise.

That was all that mattered.

Let them say whatever they want. Let the world judge me however it liked. I didn't care anymore.

I didn't care anymore.