Chapter 2

After washing my hands thoroughly and changing into fresh scrubs, I stepped out of the operating room and saw Lilia standing in the hallway, her eyes red from crying, staring straight at me.

As soon as she saw me, Lilia shouted, "Isabella, do you think I'm too easy on you? Who said you could yell at me?"

I stared at Lilia's arrogant face and, without a second thought, walked right up and kicked her to the ground.

I snapped at her, "Yell at you? Today, I'm not just yelling. I'm going to beat you.

"You're a nurse, but you're terrible at your job. Still, you keep hanging around me just to pad your resume. If you know you can't handle it, then stay out of my way.

"But you? You idiot, you actually unplugged the patient monitor just so you could charge your phone.

"If something happened to the patient, could you even handle the consequences?"

Lilia was always acting high and mighty around me, never once thinking I'd fight back. She was totally shell-shocked after I landed that hit.

All the resentment from this life and the last boiled over. I couldn't hold back anymore. I let loose on her, throwing punches and kicks like there was no tomorrow.

"You idiot! You almost got my patient killed!" Isabella yelled.

The hallway was packed with onlookers, but nobody stepped in to stop me.

"Is this nurse nuts? Who the hell unplugs a patient monitor in the middle of surgery?" someone scoffed from the crowd.

"She's totally reckless! Nurses like her should be fired right away!" another person shouted.

"Forget firing. Lock her up! Nice one, doc!" someone else cheered.

Lilia, gritting her teeth, snapped back at the crowd, "Don't buy her crap. I never touched the monitor. She's the one who went overboard and almost got the patient killed."

Watching Lilia stubbornly refuse to admit her mistake, I couldn't take it anymore. My patience snapped. I raised my hand high, ready to slap her across the face.

But before I could even bring my hand down, a sudden force slammed into me, a kick so fierce it sent me flying straight across the hallway.

I crashed hard into the nurse station's cabinet, my head spinning so badly I could barely see straight. It took a long moment before my vision cleared enough to make out who'd attacked me.

Standing there was my husband, Kelvin.

Seeing me in such a sorry state, Kelvin pointed at me and went off.

He barked, "Well, Isabella, you botched the surgery and nearly put the patient at risk, and now you're trying to blame Lilia for it? Are you out of your mind or just asking for trouble?"

As soon as they spotted the hospital director's badge on Kelvin's chest, the crowd that had just been backing me up instantly flipped sides.

"If the director says it's the doctor's fault, then that's gotta be it. Come on, the director wouldn't lie to us, would he?" someone scoffed.

"Totally! She probably screwed up and now she's just trying to throw the poor nurse under the bus so she doesn't have to take the heat!" another chimed in.

My whole body felt like my bones were shattered from the fall, and I had to cling to the wall just to stay upright.

Seeing the look on my face, Lilia scoffed, her voice icy.

"Isabella, if you're so incompetent, don't blame others for not cleaning up your mess," she spat.

"Doctors like you are a plague. No matter where you go, you poison everything!"

Kelvin looked at Lilia's injured face with concern, asked a nurse for an ice pack, and gently pressed it to her cheek. Then he turned to me.

He said coldly, "Isabella, you botched the surgery, and now you're trying to shift the blame.

"And not only that, you beat up and yelled at an innocent nurse in front of everyone. You've got zero professional integrity. Consider yourself fired."

As I stared at the two who teamed up to ruin me in my last life, my heart was racing.

I shot back, "Right and wrong aren't something you can just spin however you like!

"If you're so eager to throw dirt on me, why not ask the other nurses who were in the OR? Let's see who actually screwed up."

Kelvin rolled his eyes with obvious disdain, then nodded toward Alissa, who was standing behind me.

"Alissa, why don't you tell everyone what really happened just now?" he demanded.

Alissa gave me a look full of pity, then stepped forward, her jaw clenched.

"Dr. Raymond didn't handle things properly, and then she took it out on Lilia," she said, her voice tight.

Her gentle words cut through me like a knife, stabbing straight into my heart.

Ever since I came to this hospital, Alissa and I were always a team. We'd saved countless lives together, working side by side.

But now, right to my face, she was helping Kelvin and Lilia drag me through the mud.

Tears streamed down my cheeks, and I couldn't stop shaking, overwhelmed by emotion.

"Alissa, that's not how it went down! Please, make sure you know the truth before you say anything!" I begged, my voice trembling.

Alissa couldn't even look at me. She just lowered her head, avoiding my eyes.

"Dr. Raymond, I'm sorry. I'm just telling the truth," she said softly.

Seeing this, the crowd totally blew up.

"I can't believe that's what really happened! Dr. Raymond is the worst. She can't even do her job right and still tries to blame someone else," someone shouted.

"She's so toxic! How can there be a doctor this messed up? She doesn't care if people live or die, and now she's trying to take everyone down with her," another person yelled.