Chapter 3

Evie heard them and thought that once Ethan “recovered,” she’d have to clear things up with everyone about her relationship with Ethan; Lucas was just her brother-in-law. But for now, she didn’t want to cause more drama.

“It’s my job to care for patients,” she replied coolly.

A faint blush appeared on Lucas’s pale face. “She’s right, Evie. You really are the best partner. My brother is… oh, I mean, our family is lucky to have a friend like you.”

It then dawned on Evie that Ethan had been transferred so long ago, and she hadn’t even gone to the “rehab center” to see him.

So she said to Lucas, “Well, you get some rest. I’m going to check on your brother.”

Lucas nodded, but then let out a pained groan, his brow furrowed.

Evie immediately stopped. “What’s wrong? Is it very painful? The wound, or is it rejection?”

Lucas shook his head, forcing himself to speak. “It’s nothing, Evie. You go see my brother. I’ll be fine. He’s given up so much for you…”

His words reminded Evie again: Lucas was injured “saving” her, so Ethan’s “sacrifice” was expected.

Her guilt towards Lucas surged again.

“How can I do that? You need someone to look after you right now. I’ll stay with you. As for your brother, I’ll have my assistant check on his situation.” Evie made her decision. She couldn’t let Lucas, her “savior,” feel neglected in any way.

Meanwhile, in the hospital’s basement corridor, a few workers were pushing a gurney covered with a white sheet. My body lay underneath, on its way to the connected university medical school’s body donation storage.

“Too bad, so young to die,” one worker said.

“What’s to be sorry about? Maybe he did a lot of bad things in life and wanted to atone by becoming a cadaver,” another replied harshly.

“Looks like a pretty boy. Wonder how many women’s hearts he broke. Serves him right.”

They joked crudely. The gurney bumped, and my arm slipped out from under the sheet, hitting Evie, who was passing by.

Evie was carrying organic nutritional meals she’d bought for Lucas. The collision made her drop everything.

The workers quickly apologized. “Sorry, Doctor! Are you okay?”

Evie looked at the mess on the floor and her stained white coat, annoyed. “What are you doing? Can’t you watch where you’re going?”

The workers saw Evie’s top surgeon’s uniform and her name tag, “Evelyn Reed.” They knew she wasn’t someone to mess with.

So they bowed and scraped. “It’s this corpse’s fault, bad luck! He just died today after a kidney transplant. Maybe he saw you’re a doctor and held a grudge, so he bumped into you.”

They said with fake smiles they needed to hurry and get my body to storage to avoid more trouble.

Evie glanced at the sheet-covered gurney, and the pale, familiar arm sticking out.

For some reason, her heart lurched. A strange unease gripped her.

There were only two kidney transplants in the whole hospital today, both of which she’d led or participated in. She couldn’t possibly not know if a patient had died from one, unless…

So Evie frowned, walked closer to the gurney, and reached out to lift the sheet.

But just as she stretched out her hand, her phone rang резко. It was an emergency call from Lucas’s room.

As soon as she answered, a nurse’s anxious voice came through. “Dr. Reed, come back quickly! Mr. Lucas suddenly isn’t doing well, his heart rate and blood pressure are unstable!”

Hearing this, Evie could no longer bother with the body that had unsettled her. She turned and raced back to Lucas’s unit.

Seeing Evie run off, one of the workers kicked the gurney disdainfully. “Hmph. Some people are lucky, having Dr. Reed so worried about them. You? You just get to rot in this cold bag.”

With that, he carelessly covered my body again and pushed it onto the freight elevator heading to the medical school.

Back in the unit, Evie was pulled into Lucas’s room before she could even see clearly.

Several people were frantically checking Lucas, who was surrounded on his bed.

Evie pushed them aside.

After hearing “a kidney transplant patient died,” that unease had been swirling in her mind.

Now she was extremely anxious.

She had to make sure Lucas was okay before she could calm down.

“Honey, are you okay?” she blurted out. It was her private pet name for Ethan.

But after pushing through the crowd, she saw it was Lucas, pale and surrounded, not Ethan, whom she’d expected to be there.

Evie stopped in her tracks, a flash of confusion and embarrassment on her face.

The nurses, however, looked at Evie and Lucas with envy.