I’ve never been one for beating around the bush. So when intimate messages from a strange girl popped up on my doctor boyfriend’s phone, I didn’t hesitate. I just placed the phone in front of Liam Davis and demanded an explanation. After a long silence, he confessed: “She’s a critically ill patient I was responsible for. I admit, I had developed some different feelings for her.” “But Chloe, we’ve come so far since college, it hasn’t been easy. I promise, I’ll cut ties with her, for good.” Gazing into Liam’s earnest eyes, I forced down the sharp pain in my heart. I chose to forgive him, letting our wedding preparations continue as planned. But on the wedding day, his colleague suddenly burst into the venue: “Dr. Davis, Elara Vance found out you’re getting married and her condition took a sharp turn for the worse. She’s in emergency!” My bouquet slipped from my grasp, hitting the floor with a thud. Liam bolted out the door like a gust of wind. Tears stinging my eyes, I screamed after him: “Liam Davis, if you walk out that door today, we are done! Absolutely, irrevocably done!” He hesitated for a split second, then, without a single glance back, he was gone. He had broken his promise.
The wedding venue instantly plunged into chaos. The guests’ murmurs swirled around me like a thousand tiny needles, piercing through my skin, making my entire body ache. My parents rushed over, utterly confused about what had happened. Ben Carter, Liam’s assistant, stood awkwardly to the side, his face flushed crimson. “Chloe… Elara, her situation is… complicated. Dr. Davis saved her life last time she was critical. She only trusts Dr. Davis; only *he* can stabilize her. It’s a matter of life or death, Chloe. Dr. Davis had no choice, please don’t blame him…” Ben had worked with Liam for two years and always called me ‘Chloe’ so warmly, showing me great respect. But now, he couldn’t even meet my eyes. I didn’t know how much he had hidden for Liam, or what connection he had to that girl, Elara Vance. The pain in my chest spread like a suffocating web. I truly felt Liam’s betrayal. My parents clutched my hands, their faces etched with panic. “What in the world is going on? Didn’t he take leave for the wedding? What kind of patient needs rescuing *right this second*?” Mr. and Mrs. Davis were frantically calling him, their voices laced with guilt. Mrs. Davis kept saying, “Chloe, don’t worry, honey. I’ll call that rotten boy right now and make him come back! If he doesn’t, I’ll break his legs myself!” My fallen bouquet, trampled and scattered by hurried footsteps, mirrored the shattered pieces of my heart. I stood rooted to the spot, my wedding dress, its hem dragging on the floor, felt like a flower ravaged by a storm. The wedding scene I’d dreamed of countless times had dissolved into this humiliating mess. The groom had abandoned his bride for another woman, leaving her utterly alone in a chapel brimming with blessings. For four long hours, seventy-six calls—Liam answered none of them. I watched the phone screen dim and light up again and again, until it finally went black. Sunlight streamed through the hotel’s floor-to-ceiling windows, casting harsh glares on the floor, and landing on my empty ring finger with an icy, biting cold. Guests gradually dispersed, leaving behind a chaotic mess of deflated balloons and half-eaten banquet dishes. Suddenly, the room spun violently. Everything swayed before my eyes, and the last sound I heard was my mother’s frantic cry. When I opened my eyes again, the sterile scent of disinfectant stung my nostrils. The nurse, taking my blood pressure, said softly, “You’re in a delicate condition right now. You absolutely cannot endure any more stress; you need complete rest.” I stared at the ceiling, tears silently tracked paths into my hairline. From the moment I was nineteen, accepting the notebook Liam handed me in the university library, to the handwritten letters he sent every week while he was away for his advanced medical training, to the day he became a senior resident, holding my hand and promising, “I’ll save lives and heal the sick, and I will always protect you.” Those six years flashed through my mind like a fast-forwarded movie. I saw the barely concealed joy on my parents’ and Mr. and Mrs. Davis’s faces, and tears welled in my eyes. How was I supposed to tell them that this six-year relationship had to end?
The news of Elara Vance’s “critical condition” reached me for the third time while I was in the kitchen, brewing herbal medicine. The clay pot gurgled, steam rising, and the pungent scent of the herbs, bitter with dried orange peel, filled the air, much like the bitter taste of my relationship with Liam lately. He burst in, creating a gust of wind. The hem of his white coat brushed the stove, knocking over the bowl of medicine I’d just poured. The dark brown liquid splattered across the off-white tiles, leaving an ugly, spreading stain. “Chloe, Elara’s crashing again. Her heart rate dropped to forty, the doctors said…” He stammered, grabbing my arm with a force that felt like he was trying to crush my bones. “I have to go to the hospital, just for a moment. If she sees me, maybe she’ll stabilize…” I looked at the bloodshot in his eyes, at the long strand of hair on his white coat collar, a shade that definitely wasn’t mine, and suddenly I laughed. “Liam Davis,” I pulled my arm free, grabbed a rag, and squatted to wipe the floor, my fingernails digging into the grout lines of the tiles. “Do you even remember what day it is today?” He paused, clearly not getting it. “It’s my follow-up appointment.” I wiped the medicine stain into a blurry smear, my voice flat as stagnant water. “The doctors said my post-op recovery isn’t going well. I *have* to go in for a dressing change today, or there’s a risk of infection.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. His eyes flickered away. “I know, but Elara, she…” “So she’s important, and I’m not? Is that it?” I looked up, meeting his eyes, asking each word clearly. “In your eyes, am I just supposed to stand here forever, waiting for you? Waiting for you to soothe your patient, waiting for you to remember the fiancée you abandoned, waiting for you to throw me a crumb of your pathetic attention?” “No!” he blurted out, rushing to explain, but his phone buzzed wildly at that moment, the words “Emergency Room” flashing across the screen. He glanced at his phone, then at me, and finally snatched up his car keys. “Chloe, please, I’m begging you. I promise I’ll take you to the hospital as soon as I get back, and stay for as long as you need…” “No need.” I stood up, threw the herb-stained rag into the trash bin. “Liam Davis, just go.” His footsteps halted. A flash of surprise crossed his eyes, perhaps not expecting such a calm response from me. “There’s just one more thing I need to tell you,” I said, walking to the hallway, picking up my jacket, and zipping it all the way up, covering half my face. “During my check-up last week, the doctors told me… it might be very difficult for me to get pregnant again.” The car keys clattered to the floor from his hand. “What did you say?” His voice was utterly shaky. He lunged forward, trying to embrace me. “How could this happen? Was it… the surgery?” “Yes,” I stepped back, evading his touch. “Or maybe it was when I fainted at the wedding and hit my stomach. Who knows?” I tried to force a smile, but it felt twisted and wrong. “But it’s fine, right? You don’t care anyway, do you?” He stood frozen, his face went ghost-white, his lips trembling, unable to utter a single word. His phone was still ringing, the shrill sound like a death knell. I changed into my shoes, pulled open the door, and a blast of cold air rushed in, making me shiver. “Go,” I said, looking at the stark, fluorescent light in the hallway. “Don’t keep your patient waiting.” He didn’t move, his eyes fixed on me, as if trying to brand me into his very soul. “Liam Davis,” I gave him one last look. “The moment you chose her, you should have known some things, once broken, can never truly be put back together.” The door closed behind me, sealing away his unspoken words, and sealing away the six years he had so carelessly crushed. I walked downstairs. The rain had started at some point, a fine drizzle on my face that was an icy, stinging cold. After just a few steps, hurried footsteps pounded behind me. He had chased me out, clutching my medical file in his hand. He must have brought it out in his panic. “Chloe! I’ll take you to the hospital! Right now!” He tried to grab me, his eyes brimming with panic. “I’ll have a colleague watch Elara. I’m worried about you…” “No need.” I pulled the medical file from his hand. “Dr. Davis, you should go save your patient. After all, in your heart, her life is far more important than mine.” I turned and walked into the rain, not looking back. The footsteps behind me chased for a few paces, then stopped. I knew, without a doubt, his phone must have rung again. The rain blurred my vision, blurring also that path that began in a library, a path I once believed would last an eternity. I found out later that day, he *did* go back to the hospital. Elara Vance’s supposed “heart rate drop” was a complete fabrication; she’d just pulled out her IV and lied again. Meanwhile, when I went for my dressing change at the hospital, the local anesthetic didn’t work. The doctor slowly inserted the dilator, and I bit down so hard on the bedsheet, tears mixed with cold sweat drenched my pillow. The nurse said I didn’t make a sound the whole time, but my hands, gripping the bedsheet, had fingernails dug deep into my flesh. They didn’t know that compared to the physical pain, the wound in my heart had already gone numb, long ago, each time he ran to someone else.
At 8 PM, Liam, who had been missing for seven whole hours, finally appeared. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and his gaze towards me was filled with guilt. “Chloe, I’m so sorry.” His voice was hoarse. “Elara… I couldn’t just stand by and watch her die. It’s my duty to save lives.” I suppressed the bitterness, unable to stop myself from asking: “There are so many doctors in that hospital. Couldn’t they manage without you?” “Liam Davis, I’m not an idiot.” After a long silence, he grasped my icy hand, his voice raspy. “Chloe Miller, in these six years, I’ve never asked you for anything. Just this once, I’m begging you, please don’t blow this out of proportion. Don’t cause Elara any negative impact, okay? I’m afraid her condition can’t handle such a blow.” I looked at the desperate plea in his eyes, my heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vise, constricting my breath until I could barely gasp. He shouldn’t have *begged* me; he should have *apologized* to me. Your first instinct never lies: he hadn’t spared a single thought for how humiliated I was, left standing at our wedding; he hadn’t worried why I ended up in the hospital. The first words out of his mouth were all about Elara Vance. Tears fell like a broken string of pearls, hitting the white bedsheet and spreading into dark, damp spots. It took every ounce of strength I had to force out a single word: “Fine.” He visibly deflated with relief, then added: “Elara found out I was getting married, and her emotional state became really unstable. Let’s postpone our wedding for now.” “I’ll stay with her for her treatment for a while, just until she’s a bit better… maybe two months, only two months, then we’ll have our wedding, okay?” Liam’s voice was laced with a careful, hopeful tremor. I had waited six years; another two months didn’t seem like much. But looking at the concern in his eyes for another woman, I suddenly felt like even two months was too long to wait. The tiny life inside me seemed to sense my turmoil, stirring ever so slightly. I gently touched my lower abdomen. A five-week-old life resided there, ours, yet it suddenly felt like it had nothing to do with him. I slowly withdrew my hand, my voice calm as stagnant water. “Liam Davis.” “My memory isn’t perfect, but I remember when I was nineteen, you handed me that notebook in the library, so nervous you could barely string a sentence together.” “I remember our first dinner date, your palms slick with sweat, you could barely hold your forks.” “I remember on graduation day, you held me close and promised me a good life, promised to make me the happiest bride.” “All these years, you remembered I hated cilantro, that my stomach gets upset easily so I need hot soup, you remembered all my little quirks… I always believed you cherished me, that I was the most precious thing in your life.” I looked up at him, and my tears suddenly burst forth, a torrent I couldn’t stop. “But today, I can’t feel your love for me anymore…” Six years of memories flooded my mind, a chaotic rush. Liam’s eyes were also red. His Adam’s apple bobbed. A single tear tracked a path down his cheek. “But Chloe, Elara… she can’t manage without me right now.” That one phrase, “she can’t manage without me,” shattered the last flicker of hope within me. I looked at him, and a tearful laugh escaped me. “Then go.” He paused, seemingly not expecting me to say that. But in the end, he said nothing, turning and leaving the hospital room. The next day, I packed my things, ready to check out. As I reached the end of the corridor, I bumped into Liam. He didn’t even *see* me. All his attention was fixated on the girl by his side. She was wearing a patient gown, her face pale, half-supported in his arms, like a frightened little bird. So this was the woman he’d abandoned me for, on our wedding day.
My gaze must have been too intense, because Elara Vance saw me first. She instinctively recoiled behind Liam, her fingers clutching at the hem of his coat. It was then that Liam turned to look at me, his brow instantly furrowing, his tone laced with impatience: “Chloe Miller, Elara’s emotional state is fragile. If you have something to say, take it home. Don’t make a scene here in the hospital, you’ll upset her.” Elara peeked out shyly, her voice barely a whisper. “Chloe, Liam and I are really nothing more than patient and doctor… please don’t misunderstand.” I gripped the maternity scan report in my hand, my knuckles turning white, yet I managed a weak smile. “You’re overthinking it. I’m just here to check out.” With that, I ignored them, turning to pay my bill. Liam’s gaze became strange for a moment; he seemed surprised by my calmness, and a strange hollowness echoed in his chest. He reached out to take my hand, but I instinctively turned my head, and my eyes immediately caught sight of an unidentified medicinal stain on his white coat. His gaze followed mine. He saw me take off my jacket, and he started to take off his own to put over my shoulders, but I moved away. He froze, then stepped forward, again trying to take the coat. “Give it to me. You like this coat so much, I’ll take it back and have it cleaned.” I shook my head, simply dropped the coat into a nearby trash bin, my voice flat. “Just toss it. I don’t like things that are stained, you know I’m a bit of a clean freak.” Watching my cold expression, the smile froze on Liam’s face. He knew I wasn’t just talking about the coat; I was talking about our relationship. By the time he wanted to speak again, I had already paid and turned to leave. Not long after I left the hospital, my phone buzzed. It was a text from Liam: 【Please don’t be mad at me. I bought you that strawberry cake from your favorite place, the one you mentioned. Hope you get it.】 When the delivery arrived at my apartment, I looked at the familiar blue box and suddenly laughed. He used to buy me this strawberry cake to appease me whenever he angered me. I mechanically took a bite. It used to taste so sweet, but now it was just bitter and hard to swallow. That night, Liam didn’t come home. Tearing away six years of a relationship was more painful than I’d ever imagined. Sleepless until dawn, I finally just got up and started packing. Matching sweaters in the closet, books lined up on the shelf, sticky notes on the fridge… every single item was a thorn of memory. I remembered that graduation year, when Liam had just become a doctor, working tirelessly, day and night. But he would still come find me on his days off, his eyes bright like stars: “Chloe Miller, as soon as I get promoted, I’m going to marry you.” Two years later, he stood before me, holding a ring, his voice trembling, “I did it. Marry me. A promise is a promise.” The sun was exceptionally bright that day. I hugged him and cried for a long time, feeling like I was the happiest person in the world. We decorated our apartment together, chose furniture together, and filled the windowsill with my favorite succulents. He said he wanted warmth to always embrace our home. But now, this home, it had no room for me anymore. By the time I closed the last suitcase, the sky was turning a pale, fish-belly white. When I called a moving company to take my things, both sets of parents showed up. I hadn’t told them about Liam, so they still didn’t understand why people who were about to get married two days ago were suddenly breaking up. My parents sighed, not trying to persuade me much, just saying, “Come home whenever you want.” Mrs. Davis, however, clung to my hand, refusing to let go. “Chloe, honey, please give Liam another chance, won’t you? What happened at the wedding, he just… he just got confused in the moment…” I said nothing, only told the movers to continue loading the boxes. Just as Mrs. Davis was practically pleading herself hoarse, the door opened. Liam was back. And he brought Elara Vance with him.
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