Chapter 6
“She left?”
“Where did she go?!”
Theodore’s voice shook uncontrollably.
He hurriedly pulled out his phone and dialed my number.
“The number you’re trying to reach is currently unavailable.”
The cold, mechanical voice repeated the same message again and again.
Lucas stared at him.
His expression was ice–cold.
She had an emergency airway stent placement and mucosal
debridement surgery.”
“It hasn’t even been ten hours since the procedure.”
“And she pulled out her IV and checked herself out.”
Someone who couldn’t even speak was pushed to the point
where she had to leave this city in the middle of the night.”
My mother finally couldn’t hold herself up anymore.
She collapsed into the chair.
Covering her face with both hands, her shoulders began to shake violently.
“Bree…”
“My Bree…”
That was when the police arrived.
Aubrey?”
We received a report from the university.”
You’re being investigated for intentionally damaging
university laboratory equipment and putting others at risk.”
“You’re coming with us.”
Aubrey completely panicked.
She struggled desperately.
Then she turned toward Theodore.
Theodore, help me!”
“Please!”
“You have to help me!”
You’re the University General Counsel!”
Theodore stood frozen.
He stared at the face that once made him think she was
innocent and helpless.
Now, all he felt was disgust.
“My legal position?”
He let out a bitter laugh.
“I falsified the Incident Report just to protect you.”
“My own license is on the line.”
“What do you expect me to do?”
The officers cuffed Aubrey and escorted her away.
The elegant celebration dinner had become a humiliating spectacle.
The next day, everything exploded.
The Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting.
Theodore, the university’s General Counsel, was terminated immediately.
He was accused of falsifying evidence and helping conceal a criminal offense.
The State Bar opened a disciplinary investigation and
suspended his license to practice law,
When he walked out of the university gates carrying a
cardboard box filled with his personal belongings, a group of
reporters surrounded him.
Theodore, why did you protect a student who tried to harm your wife?”
“Do you have an inappropriate relationship with Aubrey?”
The camera flashes nearly blinded him.
He couldn’t say a single word.
All he could do was escape back into his car.
Meanwhile, at the hospital.
My mother had just reached her office door when the
hospital director called her inside.
He slammed a suspension notice onto the desk.
“Evelyn, look at what you’ve done!”
“You refused medical treatment to your own Biological Daughter!”
And now your patient is left with permanent damage.”
The entire internet is tearing this hospital apart right now!”
“You’re suspended immediately, pending a State Medical
Board investigation.”
My mother took off the doctor’s coat she had worn for thirty years.
Her fingers trembled so badly that she couldn’t even unbutton it.
When she returned to the empty house, she pushed open my bedroom door.
Everything inside was spotless.
On the desk sat a thick photo album.
She slowly opened it.
The first page showed a picture of me at three years old.
She was holding me in her arms.
Both of us were smiling brightly.
Below the photo was a handwritten note:
“Bree will always be Mom’s greatest pride.”
She continued turning the pages.
My awards.
My certificates.
Every achievement I had earned.
And beside each one were the notes she had written herself.
But starting seven years ago…
There were no more pictures of me.
Instead, the pages were filled with Aubrey’s acceptance letters.
Aubrey’s birthday photos.
My mother stared at those pictures.
It felt like someone had punched her straight in the chest.
The pain made it hard for her to breathe.
“Bree has always been spoiled.”
“Bree, you need to be more understanding of Aubrey.”
“Bree, you’ve disappointed me.”
The words she once said came rushing back to her, one after another.
Only then did she finally realize…
She had been the one who hurt the daughter who loved her most.
“Ah…”
A heartbroken cry tore through the empty house.
Meanwhile, Theodore returned to the house we once shared
as husband and wife.
He sat on the couch.
His eyes stayed fixed on the Incident Report I had signed.
The handwriting was pressed deeply into the paper.
Every line carried the weight of the despair I had felt when I signed it.
He remembered the Emergency Department.
I had grabbed his sleeve.
Tears had fallen from my eyes because of the pain.
And he had forced the pen into my hand.
He slapped himself.
Once.
Then again.
Again and again.
Until the corner of his mouth split open and his cheek went numb.
He grabbed his phone.
Then he started texting me over and over.
[Bree, I was wrong.]
[I was really wrong.]
[Please come back.]
[I’ll take you to the best doctors.]
[Please…]
(Just reply to me.]
Every message showed only one gray check mark.
Only then did he realize…
I had deleted him.
Completely.
I had cut him out of my life.