I took a huge step back until my back hit the cold metal door of the operating room. Gripping the doorframe with both hands, my knuckles turned white from the strain.

"I'm a licensed chief physician!" I shouted. "Without an official notice from the state medical board and a formal license revocation, I'd like to see any of you try and fire me!"

The security guards froze, startled by my roar. Clutching their batons, not a single one of them dared to take a step forward.

The corridor fell deathly still as neither side dared to move.

Realizing that brute force wasn't working, Emma's expression darkened further. She fished out her phone and called the police. "Hello, emergency services? A doctor at Heartwell Hospital intentionally harmed a patient and caused serious injury. The situation is getting out of control as we speak!"

After hanging up, she looked at me and sneered. "You just had to do this the hard way."

In less than ten minutes, two police officers pushed through the crowd and walked in. Surveying the mess on the floor and Benjamin, who was still throwing a tantrum, they frowned.

"Who's the lead surgeon?" one officer asked.

I straightened up. "I am."

One of them pulled out a pair of handcuffs and explained, "We received a report accusing you of seriously injuring a patient through medical malpractice. We'll need you to come with us to the station to assist in the investigation."

But I didn't budge, nor did I show the slightest hint of guilt. "I'm not going anywhere."

I looked the officer in the eye. "My patient is still in the anesthesia recovery phase, and his vital signs haven't stabilized yet. According to hospital protocol and medical malpractice standards, the lead surgeon cannot leave his post until the patient is out of the danger zone.

"If I leave now and something happens to the patient, who will take responsibility? You? Or him?" I pointed at the officer and then at Samuel.

The officer froze for a moment, clearly having never encountered a doctor who stood his ground so firmly.

Samuel panicked and shot Benjamin, who was on the floor, a look.

Benjamin caught on and immediately wailed, grabbing onto the officer's leg. "Officer, don't listen to his nonsense! He's just stalling so he can make a run for it!"

The elderly man threw a fit on the floor, rolling around and smearing tears and snot all over the officer's pant leg. The situation spiraled out of control instantly as the onlookers' phones flashed nonstop.

I knew that the moment I walked out that door and left with the officers, I would never be able to clear my name. Consequently, I absolutely couldn't back down.

I thought it over for a moment and said, "Since you claim the man in the surveillance footage is me, pull up all the hospital's surveillance footage!"

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth, my eyes burning with conviction. "Not just the entrance to the operating room, but the locker room, the corridors, and even the elevators!"

So long as the timelines were cross-referenced, the lie would collapse under its own weight.

The triumphant look on Samuel's face stiffened for a split second, and he instinctively glanced at Emma.

However, she didn't even lift her gaze. "The surveillance system has been undergoing maintenance since yesterday. Except for that backup camera at the operating room entrance, all the others were turned off," she explained coldly.

How convenient. To bring me down, they truly had spared no effort, even concocting a reason as absurd as that.

"Stop fighting it, Michael." Samuel sighed, wearing an expression that suggested as if he was doing this for my own good.

He then added, "I sucked it up when you suppressed me in the department and made my life miserable. But this is a matter of life and death!"

He whipped out his phone, tapped into a WhatsApp conversation, and held it up to the officers to see. "Look. This is the message he sent me in the middle of the surgery."

Michael: "I messed up and cut the wrong part. Find a way to cover for me, and you can name your price."

The crowd erupted.

"What a monster! He messed up, yet he wants his junior to take the fall. How can someone like him be the director?"

My mind went blank as I stared at the profile picture in disbelief. It was my WhatsApp profile photo. Even the username was an exact match.

"I've never sent a message like that! There isn't even any signal inside the operating room!" I lunged forward, attempting to snatch his phone to get a closer look, but the officers held me back.

"That's photoshopped! It's fake!" I bellowed.

"I can testify," Emma, who had been silent all this time, interjected. "I was right next to Samuel at the time, and I witnessed him receive this message. I was also the one who advised him not to reply and to call the police instead."

I was dumbstruck. I turned to look at the woman I had shared a bed with for seven years.

At that moment, my heart went cold. For the sake of her first love, she was willing to commit perjury in public and ruin me for good.

Benjamin raised the thermos in his hand and hurled it at me. The stainless steel container struck my forehead, and a warm liquid began to stream down my brow. Blood blurred my vision, staining the whole world red.

"Let's beat this quack to death!"

"We'll make him pay with his life!"

The patient's family members rushed me, their fists and kicks raining down like a storm. It took both officers a lot of effort to drag them away.

I leaned against the corner of the wall, gasping for air, battered and bruised. Yet, I let out a low, bitter chuckle. "Do you two really think this is enough to convict me?"

With a trembling hand, I reached into the chest pocket of my white coat and pulled out a miniature camera. "With doctor-patient relations being as tense as they are these days, how could I, as the hospital director, not have a backup plan?"

I clicked the pen cap, and a faint red light flickered at my fingertip. "This is a miniature body camera—high-definition, wide-angle, and equipped with audio recording. It has been recording since the moment I entered the locker room to change. Whether or not I was drunk, whether I made a mistake, whether I sent that message on WhatsApp…"

I stared long and hard at Samuel's ghastly pale face and continued, "It recorded everything!"

Benjamin, who had been egging the crowd to beat me to a pulp moments ago, instantly fell silent.

Samuel's legs were visibly shaking. Cold sweat poured down his forehead as he looked to Emma for help.

Emma's expression hardened. Clearly, she hadn't expected me to have an ace up my sleeve.

Samuel suddenly exclaimed in horror, "The operating room is a sterile, restricted area! How could you bring a camera inside? If it captured the patient's private areas, that would constitute a violation of privacy. It's illegal!"

Like a drowning man clutching at a straw, he did everything in his power to muddy the waters.

As soon as his words fell, Benjamin caught on and ran with it. "That's right, you pervert! I can't believe you secretly filmed my son's private parts! The footage absolutely cannot be made public! Who knows if you'll try to sell? Officers, arrest him! This is a crime!"

The tide, which had been on the verge of turning in my favor, was instantly muddied once again.

The officers looked troubled as well. One said, "Since the footage involves the patient's privacy, it can't be played in public without proper authorization. Please come with us to the station for questioning."

They were about to take me away by force when an old but powerful voice thundered from the end of the corridor. "Don't you dare lay a hand on him!"

Everyone froze and turned toward the voice. An elderly man with a head of silver hair strode over with a cane, flanked by several men in black.

The moment Samuel saw him, his legs went weak, and he almost dropped to his knees. Emma's expression also changed drastically, and she lowered her head in respect.

It was my mentor, one of the most respected figures in the country's medical field, Ryan Clark.

Back then, for Emma's sake, I had turned down an offer from Kyoden Municipal General Hospital and stayed at this subpar hospital. Ryan had been so furious that he almost cut ties with me. I didn't think he'd rush here in person for me.

"Dr. Clark…" My eyes misted over, and my throat tightened.

Without sparing me a glance, Ryan walked straight up to Benjamin. The man behind him immediately handed him a thick folder.

"So, you have a son whose sperm duct was severed?" Ryan sneered, looking Benjamin in the eye.

Intimidated by Ryan's presence, Benjamin stammered, "Y-Yes."

Ryan flung the folder in Benjamin's face. "Open your damn eyes and look closely! These files were retrieved from the Medicaid office, and this is a copy of your family records!

"You, Benjamin Wilson, have fathered only a daughter in your entire life, and she's only ten this year! Where did this son of yours come from for hernia surgery? Or did your ten-year-old daughter suddenly grow a sperm duct?"