While performing surgery, Brandon, my fiancée Jasmine’s idol, was FaceTiming with her, flirting, when his scalpel slipped. The patient ended up paralyzed for life, a vegetable. Afterward, he pushed me toward the patient’s furious family, who were on the verge of breakdown, claiming *I* was the lead surgeon. I begged Jasmine to testify for me, but she simply said she’d already secretly married Brandon and didn’t want to make her husband jealous. She turned, shielding Brandon, and they left together. I was slashed dozens of times, my tendons severed, and the ring and pinky fingers of both hands were crushed to a pulp. In despair, my old friend Serena appeared with her bodyguards. Crying, she cradled my mangled hands. She dispatched a private jet, brought in dozens of experts from all over the world, and pleaded with them to save me. Two years later, I overheard her conversation with her assistant, Mark: “Serena, because of Brandon’s mistake, the patient died on the operating table. The family is flying back from overseas, and I don’t think they’ll let him off the hook.” “Are we going to push the blame onto Chase again, like last time? This is the second time he’s taken the fall for Brandon. What if someone really dies this time?” Serena scoffed, a sneer on her lips: “He was riddled with stab wounds and both his hands were ruined before, and he was fine, wasn’t he? If he can take the hit once, he can do it twice. As long as I’m taking care of him, it doesn’t matter as long as he doesn’t die.” “Brandon is preparing for the ‘Golden Scalpel Competition.’ Becoming a protégé of Dr. Evelyn Reed is his dream, and I won’t allow any danger or obstacles to come near him!”
Mark looked distressed: “But that competition slot originally belonged to Chase. He was once the best surgeon in the country, and becoming a protégé of Dr. Reed was *his* dream too. Yet you intentionally had his hands ruined to disqualify him.” “Chase worked for ten years to get that slot. Is this really fair to him?” “What’s unfair about it? His hands are already useless. He’s just a disabled man, he can’t compete anyway.” Mark still hesitated: “But you spent thirty million dollars to get Brandon in as a substitute, and then another two hundred million to bribe the organizers to leak the competition questions. If word gets out that you helped him cheat, your reputation and the company’s stock could suffer immeasurable losses.” Serena looked impatient: “Enough! From the moment I met Brandon, I was ready to give him everything. Since I couldn’t make him choose me, I’ll do everything I can to support his dreams. As long as Brandon is happy, what are a little reputation and stock prices compared to that?” “Brandon *must* win the competition. Only then can he become Dr. Reed’s protégé. As for Chase… let him be ruined. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to him.” Outside the door, I trembled, recording everything on my phone. I stumbled downstairs. So, the patient’s father who stabbed me that year, severed my tendons, and crushed four of my fingers – he was acting on Serena’s orders! She saved me, married me, not out of love, but to keep a scapegoat for her beloved man, ready to be sacrificed at any moment. I survived, but both my hands were useless, and four fingers had to be amputated. Now I even struggle to hold forks, let alone pick up a scalpel again. But I never imagined that behind all this was the meticulous planning of my own wife. Just thinking that while I lay in a pool of blood, my dreams shattered and my heart filled with despair, she might have been hiding in a corner, watching with satisfaction, sent shivers down my spine. The scars on my wrists throbbed faintly, shaking violently. My cup dropped to the floor, the noise drawing Serena’s attention. She pulled me into a hug, preventing me from stepping on the glass shards, and said with concern: “Chase, I’ve told you so many times, in this house, *I’m* your hands. Just tell me what you want, and I’ll get it for you.” “If not me, then Maria. Your hands aren’t fully healed, what if you hurt them worse? Do you want to break my heart?” I instinctively reached for the gloves on the bar. Serena stopped me, gently taking my mutilated, ugly hands and kissing the scars where my fingers had been amputated. “Chase, you never need to feel self-conscious around me, and you certainly don’t need to wear gloves to hide yourself. Because I love you, I love everything about you.” “I only regret that I arrived too late. Otherwise, your hands wouldn’t be like this, and you wouldn’t have lost your dream of being a doctor. Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you.” Her tone and eyes were so gentle, but her words filled my heart with endless sorrow. What I thought was deep affection and salvation was nothing but her disguise. I forced a smile: “Don’t say that, you’ve done your best.” “You’ve had a tough day at work. Why don’t you go back to the bedroom? I’ll ask Maria to warm you a glass of milk.” I secretly put two sleeping pills in her milk. After Serena fell asleep, I went to the villa’s garage. I meant to check the dash cam, but accidentally hit a button in the corner. The floor tiles slid open to reveal a staircase leading down, and below was a secret room. The room had an electronic lock, and on the small screen, a heart-shaped sticker with Brandon and Serena’s smiling faces. As expected, the password was Brandon’s birthday. Inside, the scene that greeted me pierced my heart like a blade. Serena had turned the secret room into a private cinema. The best display screen on the market was playing a video of Brandon practicing vascular suturing on a white mouse during college. Brandon’s pores were clearly visible, as if I could reach out and touch him. Because his hands weren’t steady enough, the needle had directly pierced the white mouse’s heart, killing it instantly. Despite such clumsy technique and awkward movements, Serena had added heart stickers to the video, with the caption: “October 3, 2018, Sunny. My dearest Brandon, future medical star, you look so handsome when you’re focused.”
I once wanted to record our daily life after marriage, to keep as a memory for when we grew old. But Serena had said that true memories only needed to be kept in the heart, there was no need to waste time on meaningless things like that. Yet she had recorded so many videos of Brandon’s daily life and work. There were over a thousand videos in the playlist, more than the number of days we’d been married, each one accompanied by her heartfelt confessions. In the secret room, there were also a dozen small wooden shelves, holding hundreds of bottles of men’s hand essential oil. When I was a doctor, I’d seen the same kind on Brandon’s hands. Curiously, I’d asked him where he bought them. Brandon had laughed scornfully: “Chase, don’t bother. You can’t buy them, and you can’t afford them. Someone who loves me had an international master specifically blend this for me. The ingredients are expensive and rare, the best for nourishing skin. Each bottle costs hundreds of thousands.” That person, it turned out, was Serena. Three years of marriage, and I had never received such favoritism. And what hurt me the most was a comic poster titled ‘Brandon’s Dream.’ A cartoon Brandon fought his way through challenges, winning the ‘Golden Scalpel Competition’ and becoming a protégé of the world-renowned medical icon. Beside it, in Serena’s handwriting: “Brandon, I will definitely put you on top.” And on this path to the top, I saw an image of myself, covered in blood, fingers crushed to pulp, lying in a pool of my own blood. My face was marked with a vivid red ‘X’, and a note: ‘Brandon’s Obstacle, solved.’ Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably. I booked a plane ticket for three days later. Serena, since I’m such an eyesore to you, I’ll leave for good. As for your Brandon, he’s enjoyed himself on my pain and blood for long enough. It’s time for it to end. I returned to the villa and drafted a divorce agreement on my phone, leaving with nothing. There were plenty of templates online. Sitting on the couch, I stared blankly at my mutilated hands, sleepless through the night. The next morning, Serena thought I had simply woken up early and suspected nothing. She took out a thumb-sized tube of hand cream and carefully massaged it onto my hands. “Chase, this is a new product developed by some international master. It can moisturize skin and promote healing. It’s incredibly hard to buy, I only managed to get one tube, and it’s perfect for you.” Looking at the hand cream, I gave a sardonic smile. This was a free sample from those hand essential oils she bought for Brandon, whole boxes of which were piled in the corner of the secret room, covered in dust. Before I could bring up divorce, Serena quickly dressed and left. “Chase, things are a bit chaotic outside lately, so stay home and don’t wander off.” As soon as she walked out the front door, I opened my phone. The recording device I’d secretly placed in her car played Serena’s and Mark’s voices. “Serena, the deceased patient’s family seems to have contacted the media. They want justice for their loved one. I’ve already told the hospital to keep quiet, but public opinion is growing, and it might trace back to Brandon.” “Then what are you waiting for? Leak Chase’s photos and home address to the media. Tell them he did it.” “But Chase…” “Don’t talk nonsense. He’ll just stay quietly at home. Send two bodyguards to guard the outside. What could happen? The main thing is that Brandon absolutely cannot be affected.” For Brandon, she calmly pushed me into the eye of the storm. Truly, her devotion ran deep. Not long after Serena left, the media and influencers, having received the tip-off, swarmed our house. The two bodyguards, of course, were nowhere to be seen. They violently smashed the door, shouting: “Chase, you murderer, you heartless doctor! You killed someone and you dare to hide at home, enjoying yourself? We’re here to deliver justice! Come out!” The window glass shattered from thrown rocks, and rotten eggs splattered on my head, emitting a foul stench.
Seeing that the front door was about to be broken down, Maria, the housekeeper, couldn’t bear it. She urged me to change into her clothes and hat and slip out through the back door. I hadn’t run far when a few influencers spotted me. “There’s that scumbag! He’s trying to escape? Quick, grab him! Our live stream is going to go viral!” The trauma of being caught and tortured by the patient’s family years ago resurfaced, and I ran for my life in terror. In a panic, I FaceTimed Serena for help. As soon as she picked up, she said: “Chase, I’m in a meeting. Can we talk later, please?” Before I could speak, Serena seemed to have accidentally opened her camera. On the screen, Brandon had his arm around her shoulder. They were leisurely and sweetly shopping at a mall. Brandon playfully pointed at a high-end luxury brand store in front of them: “Serena, I love all their wallets and watches, but they’re so expensive. What should I do?” Serena looked at him adoringly, her voice full of pampering affection: “Then I’ll buy them all for you, Brandon. Consider it a good luck charm for your competition tomorrow.” “Oh, stop it, you’re going to spoil me too much! How about… you let me try on that diamond-encrusted one first, okay?” “As long as Brandon is happy, I’ll do anything.” The sales associate nearby looked envious: “Madam truly spoils her husband! They say love makes a man handsome, no wonder your husband is so charming. You two are such a perfect match, truly enviable.” “If my partner spoiled me even half as much, I’d die happy.” Serena smiled but said nothing, not denying it. Instead, she seemed quite pleased that the sales associate referred to Brandon as her husband and immediately gave the employee a ten-thousand-dollar tip. Brandon playfully rolled his eyes at her: “Such a spendthrift.” My steps froze instantly. The words I wanted to say were stuck in my throat, unable to go up or down, leaving only a suffocating pain. Brandon noticed me on the screen and greeted me with forced enthusiasm: “Isn’t that Chase? Oh dear, Serena is so bad, she was so busy buying me jewelry, she forgot she was on a video call with you. You’re so generous, you won’t be mad, right?” He introduced me to the puzzled sales associate: “This is my best… well, *my* best guy. He’s not just generous, he’s also very special.” “Most of us have ten fingers, but he only has six, isn’t that unique? If he were here today, you probably wouldn’t earn so much commission, since he doesn’t have that many fingers to pick out things.” “Chase, you really know how to live frugally, you’re so economical.” It was then that Serena realized she had accidentally pressed the wrong button. She explained, looking embarrassed: “Chase, don’t misunderstand. Brandon has a competition tomorrow, and as a friend, I just wanted to get him a gift and cheer him on…” She was so flustered she didn’t even realize I wasn’t home. “Right, of course. You two enjoy your shopping, I’ll hang up now.” “Chase, I really didn’t mean to lie to you! I just… I’ll come home right away and go to the doghouse and beg for forgiveness, okay? Please don’t be mad.” Serena looked genuinely scared, as if she really would come back. I played along with her act, smiling: “I understand. You were just worried I’d get jealous. I get it. Anyway, I can’t talk, my phone’s almost dead. See you tonight.” I hung up, my heart cold. Seeing the influencers getting closer, I ducked into an alley, gritting my teeth through the pain in my hand, I strained to push aside a manhole cover and jumped down. I endured the nauseating stench and the bone-chilling cold, clamping my hand over my mouth to stifle any sound. They still couldn’t find me, even by late night. They passed the manhole several times, wanting to jump down and look, but the putrid smell of the sewage deterred them. They cursed and eventually left. It was already early the next morning when I finally managed to crawl out, my fingernails torn back, raw and bloody. Trembling, I arrived home to find the house trashed. Seeing my condition, Maria gasped and quickly went to draw a bath for me. It was then I learned that Serena hadn’t come home all night. By evening, Serena still hadn’t returned. Local news, however, was broadcasting Brandon’s smooth victory in the ‘Golden Scalpel Competition.’ It also reported that the CEO of Lynch Industries, to win a handsome man’s smile, had spent three hundred million dollars to purchase the world’s only sapphire watch. She had also booked the most luxurious hotel in A-City for Brandon’s celebratory banquet. Brandon was now highly sought after. He just needed to wait until tomorrow, when Dr. Evelyn Reed, the world-renowned medical icon, would appear at the awards ceremony to announce him as her sole protégé.
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