Chapter 2

Watching the two of them perform their little duet was almost comical.

I was the one who had brought Logan into our residency program in the first place, impressed by his overseas fellowship credentials. I thought he would bring fresh perspectives to our department. Instead, he neglected his clinical rounds and somehow got uncomfortably close to my wife.

On multiple occasions, his careless charting and diagnostic slips should have landed him before the disciplinary board, but Chloe had quietly covered for him every single time.

She had even chewed me out over it.

"Can't you cut a newcomer some slack? Do you really have to blow every tiny mistake out of proportion?"

Back then, I already felt our marriage slipping away.

Today, I finally saw things with absolute clarity.

I called Dr. Patel as soon as I could reach her. She told me the chief had asked her to take over, and that Logan had assisted under her supervision.

I told her what Chloe had said and sent her my pre-op assessment through the chart. She pulled it up while we were still on the phone.

"The tissue around the valve is unusually fragile," I said. "My note flags the risk of a tear and postoperative bleeding. Please make sure the ICU team sees it."

"I'll review it with the ICU attending now," she said.

I documented the handoff in the chart and filed an incident report about the scheduling call.

Across the hall, Chloe was telling anyone who would listen that Logan had saved the CEO's mother.

He never once mentioned Dr. Patel.

"You should get some rest," Chloe told him, steering him toward the lounge. She walked right past me.

Watching them walk shoulder-to-shoulder, a bitter chill ran through my chest.

A few steps down the hall, Logan glanced back.

His eyes were dripping with triumphant mockery.

I met his gaze coldly, offering no reaction.

A surface-level surgical success meant nothing.

The patient had an uncommon inherited valve disorder. Her imaging showed that the tissue around the valve was especially fragile.

The particular pattern was rare enough that it had been the focus of my fellowship research.

The initial symptoms looked like ordinary valve disease. The imaging was what made this case different.

Dr. Patel had handled the emergency. The next few hours would tell us how well the repair held.

Logan was already talking as if she were ready to go home.

I was afraid a tear could turn a stable recovery into an emergency.

I checked that the ICU team had acknowledged my note before I left the surgical floor.

After walking Logan down the hall, Chloe marched back to me.

Her face was twisted with irritation, completely devoid of the tenderness she had just shown Logan.

"I told you from the start that you weren't up for this. Why did you insist on showing off?"

"Now that you've humiliated yourself in front of leadership, you can kiss any future promotions goodbye."

"Whatever. You're getting up there in years anyway. Just stay in your current lane and stop dreaming."

She had always been like this.

Constantly belittling my competence, calling me arrogant and mediocre, never realizing that I simply chose not to brag about my achievements.

Back in the doctors' lounge, Logan was already waiting.

"Dr. Crawford, you could at least tell people I saved the case," Logan said.

The other doctors in the lounge turned to watch with curious eyes.

They had heard his version first. Some of them seemed to believe he had led the operation.

Several colleagues looked at me with pity, clearly thinking I had ruined my career by offending the CEO.

I picked up the printout of the OR schedule from my desk.

"Dr. Patel was the attending," I said. "You assisted."

I set the schedule on the table between us. Both their names were right there.

Logan's smile instantly vanished.