Chapter38
My surgery was supposed to provide Eloise with valuable data.
However, shortly after the procedure started, I experienced a brief brain shock due to excessive bleeding.
During the emergency, Antonio and Eloise were nowhere to be found.
“How can her surgeons just vanish?” a nurse asked anxiously.
It was a very good question, I could not see my husband anywhere.
“I heard Dr. Pitts needed some data for her paper, so Dr. Kaufman let her operate,” one replied. “Abandoning their patient for data? They should just quit,” a doctor fumed.
Their conversation hit me like a ton of bricks, leaving me
disoriented and weak. I didn’t know if it was due to my condition or the shock.
An intern looked at me and said, She is in critical condition, but the attending doctors are not here. How are we supposed to proceed?”
As they were at a loss, my condition deteriorated.
Their faces began to blur, and I could only faintly sense my surroundings, catching fragmented voices.
“Dr. Kaufman isn’t answering his phone? What now?” one nurse
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said.
“Neither is Dr. Pitts,” another added.
Just before I completely lost consciousness, I heard the surgical team was ready.
It was all thanks to another surgeon with glasses stepping in, who swiftly took charge.
I faintly heard him say, “Don’t worry. You won’t die.” But I wasn’t sure if this was a hallucination due to the anesthesia.
Then I was gone for the third time, and this time, I did not remember anything. I did not see colors, I did not feel helpless and anxious. I was simply asleep
Apparently, the surgery didn’t take long. A nurse wheeled me out and woke me up.
But the first person I saw when I opened my eyes was Antonio.
He paced around the room and then finally looked at me with anger in his eyes. “You lived. Why did you keep having them call us?”
Antonio shouted loudly enough for everyone in the hallway to hear.
“Can’t you see I just woke up? I did not call you, they did,
because you are my husband!” I tried to yell, but my voice was too weak.
“I don’t care! Just like I said, you survived! Nos leave us alone!” Antonio scolded me harshly
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A nurse stepped in. “Dr. Kaufman, she’s your wife. As a doctor, why weren’t you here when she needed you?”
Antonio scoffed, “I’m on my break, and she’s always pretended to be sick. Who knows if she’s faking it now?”
With that, he walked out. I was too weak to take care of myself, and my parents weren’t around to help.
I was trusting he would be there, like the promise he made wher we married, but he just left me behind like that.
During my ten–day stay in the ICU, I never saw him again.
When I was awake, only a few nurses took turns attending to me. I heard that someone had specifically asked them to switch shifts to do so.
The only person who came to mind was Antonio. But they told me it was another doctor.
“Where is Antonio?” I asked one of them.
She hesitated before saying, “Dr. Kaufman took an extended leave. He took Dr. Pitts out to relax, thinking she was overly stressed from her doctoral studies.”
I clenched the bedsheets and fell silent.
After they left, I stared at the white ceiling, thinking how awful everything had turned out.
After my parents divorced and remarried, they had new families and stopped caring about me. I had finally married the man I loved most, but he didn’t love me back.
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The surgery was successful, and my life was saved by Eloise. My husband’s first love.
The irony was cruel and unrelenting, as if the universe had a twisted sense of humor.
Anger and humiliation flared in me, hot and sharp, but they couldn’t drown out the grudging gratitude simmering beneath.
She had saved my life. I hated her for it and hated myself for feeling indebted.
The nurses coaxed me to sit up, to wiggle my toes, to take a sip of water. Each small movement felt monumental, and I hated how weak I was.
Now, I was lying in the ICU, too weak to even cry.
Each day, a new struggle. Always alone.
As the staff prepared to move me out of the ICU days later, I felt a strange mix of fear and excitement. I wasn’t the same person who had come into this room. My scar itched, my muscles ached, but my mind felt sharper than it had in years. I wasn’t sure what came next, but for the first time, I felt ready to find
out.
I made it through the night. With the help of a nurse, I paid my medical bills and was transferred to a regular ward the next day. My mind went blank when I saw the staggering amount.
Over the years, I had saved very little and simply couldn’t afford
- it.
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