I held onto the sink, my fingertips pinching the pregnancy test showing two red lines, my knuckles turning white. The churning in my stomach had not yet settled, but a cold, firm resolve was already rising in my chest—this was Liam’s child, the result of our last loss of control before the divorce. I looked at my pale face in the mirror, a flash of determination passing through my eyes: I would keep the baby, keep the child but cut off the father. For the rest of my life, the child would be my weakness—yet also the armor I would use to take revenge on Liam and Vanessa.

A news alert on my phone suddenly interrupted my thoughts, the headline glaring:

“Top Surgical Team at City Hospital Fails Operation, Patient Critical! Dr. Vanessa Tearfully Accuses: Key Medication Sabotaged by Former Colleague!”

I opened it.

In the video, Vanessa wore a white coat, her eyes red, speaking to the camera through tears:

“Liam and I tried our best, but the most crucial custom-made coagulant was maliciously shattered by Ms. Clara, and the formula was destroyed as well. Because she was unhappy about being reassigned, she took her anger out on the patient’s life… I really blame myself for not protecting the patient.”

Below the video, the comments were already exploding.

“Clara? The doctor whose license was revoked? How vicious can she be!”

“Playing with a patient’s life—someone like her should be permanently banned!”

“Poor Dr. Vanessa, clearly the victim yet bearing all this pressure!”

Rumors spread like weeds.

My personal information was leaked maliciously, and my phone and messaging apps were bombarded—insults pouring in endlessly. I knew this was Vanessa’s doing, and Liam must have approved it—maybe even pushed it forward. After all, making me take the fall was the easiest way to protect their reputations.

I tried sending Liam a message:

“The coagulant was broken by Vanessa herself, and you know it. Stop spreading lies, or I won’t hesitate to expose everything.”

The message disappeared into the void.

More distorted accusations came instead.

Liam’s indulgence became yet another weight pressing onto me.

Meanwhile, inside the operating room of City Hospital, alarms blared sharply.

The patient from the failed surgery had sudden massive bleeding, blood streaming down the edge of the table onto the floor, staining it red. Liam’s hand holding the hemostat trembled uncontrollably, sweat dripping from his forehead into the open incision as nurses hurried to wipe it away.

“Blood pressure still dropping! 80/50!”

“Standard hemostatic drugs aren’t working! The bleeding is too severe!”

Vanessa’s face was pale, her hands shaking so badly she could barely hold a suture needle, tears welling in her eyes.

“What do we do? Liam! We can’t stop the bleeding at all! If only we still had the coagulant…”

“Shut up!” Liam barked, though his mind was in chaos.

He knew better than anyone that Vanessa accused me only to escape responsibility. But now, he had no choice but to follow the lie to the end. Yet watching the patient’s vital signs fade, a sentence from the lab suddenly flashed in his mind:

“That was the only coagulant! Without it, an aortic dissection surgery can’t stop the bleeding! You’ll kill the patient!”

Panic surged through him like a tidal wave.

He suddenly remembered that I might still have a backup of the formula—someone who valued her research as much as I did would never keep only a single handwritten copy.

At that moment, my phone vibrated.

It was a message from my former colleague, Sharon:

“Clara, the patient is in critical condition. The bleeding won’t stop. Liam and Vanessa are reaching their limit…”

My fingers paused slightly.

In the end, I could not bear to let a living person die.

I replied quickly:

“Tell the patient’s family to contact me immediately if the situation worsens. Also, keep a secret for me—I’m pregnant.”

After sending it, I placed a hand on my abdomen and whispered:

“Baby, I’m going to save this person, and I’m also going to make those who hurt us pay the price.”

Inside the operating room, the patient’s heart rate had dropped to the warning line.

“Heart rate 40! Prepare the defibrillator!”

Watching the flickering monitor, Liam suddenly saw my calm face appear in his mind.

Desperation pushed him into a reckless decision.

He fumbled out his phone, hands shaking, and dialed the number he had long blocked—yet always remembered by heart.

The moment the call connected, he practically roared:

“Clara! Please! Tell me the coagulant formula! The patient is dying!”

There was a moment of silence on my end.

Then my voice came, icy and emotionless:

“Dr. Liam, didn’t you believe Vanessa when she said I destroyed the coagulant? Isn’t it ridiculous that you now come begging me?”

“I was wrong! I was blind!”

Liam’s voice cracked, filled with tears, his dignity shattered.

“I shouldn’t have believed Vanessa’s lies, shouldn’t have allowed her rumors! Please— for the patient’s sake, for… for what we once had—tell me the formula! If you save him, I’ll agree to any condition you name!”

Vanessa stared at him in shock, then screamed:

“Liam! How can you beg her?! She’s a vicious woman! We can think of another way!”

“There is no other way!”

Liam turned and glared at her, bloodshot eyes blazing.

“You think I don’t know? You broke the coagulant yourself! A life is at stake— and you’re still making a scene!”

Vanessa froze, her face turning green and white.

On the phone, I listened to their argument, the corner of my mouth curling into a cold smile.

“Liam, what you owe me—what you owe this patient—cannot be repaid with a single ‘I was wrong.’”

I paused, then my voice cut sharp as a blade:

“Give the phone to Vanessa. I want to hear her say it herself—that she broke the coagulant,that she spread the rumors.”

I had just hung up on yet another frantic, life-or-death call from Liam, and before my fingertip even lifted from the screen, I heard a harsh commotion rise from downstairs. I walked to the window and lifted a corner of the curtain—my heart dropped instantly.

Liam and Vanessa had actually brought a group of reporters, along with several familiar neighbors, blocking the entrance of the apartment building.

“Clara! Come out!”

Liam tilted his head back and roared upward, his voice drowned beneath the rapid clicking of reporters’ cameras.

“The patient is still in critical condition! You have the coagulant formula—either hand it over, or come with us to the hospital to operate!”

Vanessa stood beside him in a white coat, eyes rimmed red, wiping tears for the camera.

“Sister Clara, I know you’re still angry at me, but a human life is at stake. You can’t gamble with a patient’s life because of resentment! Everyone’s watching—you can at least pity that poor patient and help save him!”

Reporters surged forward, microphones practically pressed against Liam’s face.

“Dr. Liam, is it true Clara intentionally hid the life-saving formula?!”

“Dr. Vanessa, are the previous accusations true?”

“What is the patient’s current condition?”

The neighbors began whispering among themselves too. Some recorded videos on their phones, some pointed and muttered:

“Never thought she was that kind of person—letting someone die is too cruel.”

“I used to think she was a good doctor—didn’t expect her to hold grudges like this.”

I took a deep breath and tightened my grip on the phone in my pocket—Sharon had just messaged saying the patient’s blood pressure had dropped again. I originally planned to wait for the right moment, but now I had been forced into a corner.

I grabbed my coat and headed downstairs.

The moment I stepped out the unit door, Liam seized my wrist.

“You finally came out!”

Liam’s eyes were bloodshot, his tone carrying an unquestionable force.

“Come with me! It’s not too late to rush to the operating room now!”

“Let me go!”

I struggled hard.

“It was Vanessa who shattered the coagulant. It was the two of you who spread rumors to ruin my name. What gives you the right to order me?”

“Sister Clara, how can you say that?”

Vanessa immediately squeezed forward, pretending to mediate.

“I know you’re upset, but this isn’t the time to talk about that! I’m begging you, please come with us!”

Her hand appeared to rest gently on my arm, yet her fingertips were secretly gripping a fruit knife hidden in her sleeve.

The blade pressed coldly against my wrist.

I reacted instantly and tried to pull away, but Vanessa suddenly tightened her hold and lunged forward. At the same time, her wrist twisted—

Sound of tearing—

A sharp sting exploded across the back of my right hand as the blade sliced through my skin.

Blood sprayed instantly, dripping down my fingertips onto the cement ground, staining it dark red.

“Ah!”

My entire body trembled in pain. My right hand curled up reflexively—

It was the hand I used to hold a scalpel.

The hand that defined my life as a surgeon.

The searing pain shot through my nerves like a thousand needles.

I stared at the blood pouring out, my heart filling with disbelief and utter despair.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Vanessa immediately released me.

The fruit knife clattered to the ground.

Her eyes filled with tears as she cried to the reporters:

“I didn’t mean it! I was just trying to pull Sister Clara along, and the fruit knife in my pocket must’ve slipped out! It’s all my fault!”

Liam stared at the blood streaming from my right hand, his pupils contracting sharply.

A moment of shock flashed across his face—

He knew exactly what this hand meant to me.

But Vanessa quickly threw herself into his arms, trembling as she sobbed:

“Liam, I really didn’t mean it. I was just too worried about getting Sister Clara to save the patient…”

“You—!”

My voice trembled from pain as I clamped my left hand over the wound, but blood still seeped through my fingers relentlessly.

“Vanessa, you did that on purpose!”

“Sister Clara, how can you slander me like this?”

Vanessa’s tears flowed harder.

“Why would I intentionally injure your hand? We’re both doctors—I know how important that hand is to you…”

The reporters, sensing blood like sharks, began firing their cameras wildly.

Flashes blinded my eyes.

“Dr. Clara, is what Dr. Vanessa said true?”

“Are you accusing her because you refused to perform the surgery?”

“The wound looks deep—will it affect your future as a doctor?”

The neighbors’ whispering grew sharper.

“Maybe Clara didn’t want to save the patient and decided to blame someone else?”

“Dr. Vanessa seems kind—she doesn’t look like someone who’d hurt anyone on purpose.”

Liam’s momentary shock was quickly drowned out by Vanessa’s tears.

He held her and spoke to me in a cold voice:

“Enough! Vanessa already apologized. She didn’t do it intentionally! The priority now is saving the patient. Get your hand treated first—we’ll talk about the formula later!”

“Liam!”

My whole body shook with fury, pain and chilling disappointment twisting together.

“My hand has been ruined by her! And you still defend her? Have you forgotten that this hand is not only my life— it's also your brother’s only hope of survival!”

Just then, a sharp screech of brakes cut through the chaos.

More than ten black sedans stopped in a perfect line.

The doors opened simultaneously, and a group of men in black suits, radiating an oppressive aura, surrounded a middle-aged man as he stepped out.

He was tall and straight-backed, his suit immaculate, his expression completely devoid of emotion.

His eyes were cold as frost—

This was Shawn, chairman of the Shen Group…

And the critically ill patient’s elder brother.

His gaze swept across the crowd, pausing on the reporters’ cameras, then landing on the blood pouring from my right hand, before finally settling on Liam and Vanessa.

The look in his eyes was so sharp, so heavy with authority that the noisy scene fell silent instantly.

Even the reporters stopped clicking their shutters instinctively.

Vanessa hid behind Liam, trembling, all her earlier arrogance and pitiful act collapsing.

Even Liam clenched his fists, unable to speak under Shawn’s icy pressure.

Shawn walked closer with steady steps, his gaze never leaving my bleeding hand.

Then his voice rolled out, low and thunderous:

“Who did this?”