Chapter 1
It had been a month since I last saw my wife, Olivia. As she and Lucas arrived at the hospital entrance, their colleagues immediately greeted them warmly:
“Dr. Jiang, Dr. Chen, welcome back from your conference!”
Watching this scene, I couldn’t help but feel a bitter laugh rising in my throat. Conference? They had actually been on a global tour!
Throughout the past month, Lucas had constantly sent me photos of him and Olivia on their travels. They watched sunsets on beaches, saw the Northern Lights in the Arctic, and even took cheesy couple photos at the Eiffel Tower.
Along with the pictures, Lucas would send me voice messages, gloating about how much more Olivia favored him and telling me to back off.
At first, it felt like my heart was being ripped out. Now, I just felt numb and somewhat amused by the absurdity of it all.
I had originally planned to return some things to Olivia’s office. Since she was back, I might as well give them to her in person.
I approached them, looking directly at Olivia.
“Dr. Jiang, I have something for you.”
Lucas smirked and said, “Jack, are you bringing a gift for Olivia? How thoughtful.”
Immediately, our colleagues turned to me with mocking looks.
“A gift? Does Jack even know his place?”
“As if he has a chance with Dr. Jiang. Talk about delusional!”
I ignored their jeers. After all these years, I was used to it.
Olivia and I had been secretly married for seven years, but she always refused to make our relationship public. She never posted photos of us together on social media or mentioned me in any of her updates.
Even at the hospital, she insisted on maintaining a professional distance, making me call her “Dr. Jiang” and treating me coldly and strictly at work.
Our colleagues had no idea about our relationship. When I sent Olivia flowers for our anniversary, they assumed I was just trying to curry favor with her. They mocked and isolated me, thinking they were pleasing Olivia by doing so.
And Olivia? She just watched it all happen, letting me bear the brunt of their disdain.
Snapping back to the present, Olivia also assumed I was bringing a gift and coldly said, “Jack, it’s work hours. If you have this much free time, you should focus on your job instead.”
“Actually, this is work-related,” I replied.
I handed her my white coat and ID badge, which I had already removed.
Olivia froze for a moment, confused. “Jack, what’s the meaning of this?”
I was equally puzzled. I had resigned, so naturally, I needed to return these items.
In fact, I had wanted to quit a month ago, but I had patients under my care that I needed to see through to recovery. Just yesterday, after my last patient was discharged, I immediately went through the resignation process with HR. I had even sent Olivia an online resignation request, which she had approved.
But now, why did she look so clueless?
It dawned on me that she probably hadn’t even read my message before approving it.
I was about to explain about my resignation when Lucas interrupted.
“Jack, are you quitting?” He tugged at Olivia’s sleeve, his eyes reddening. “Olivia, Jack must be upset about the promotion incident. That’s why he’s resigning.”
“Maybe I should give the promotion back to Jack. He has more experience and would be better suited for the Chief of Surgery position.”
Olivia’s face immediately softened with concern. She patted Lucas’s shoulder gently. “Lucas, don’t put yourself down like that.”
“You’re so talented. Jack can’t even compare to you. You absolutely deserve to be Chief of Surgery!”
She then turned to me with a cold glare. “Jack, stop trying to use your seniority! If we’re going by that logic, even the old guard dog at the gate has been here longer than you!”
I couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Olivia really had a talent for twisting the truth.
The reality was that Lucas lacked the necessary skills and was only hired because of Olivia’s special treatment. Since joining, he had made frequent mistakes, lacking even basic diagnostic skills and nearly killing patients by prescribing the wrong medications multiple times.
Each time, I had to clean up his messes.
Despite all this, Olivia still insisted that Lucas was brilliant and told me to learn from him.
A month ago, she even wanted me to give up my promotion opportunity to Lucas.
When I refused, she gave me the cold shoulder. Not wanting to upset her further, I eventually gave in.
But she still wasn’t satisfied and accused me of throwing my weight around.
I let out a cold laugh. “You’re right. I can’t compare to Lucas. The hospital is all yours now.”
Olivia raised her chin haughtily. “Good that you know your place. By the way, Lucas has been busy traveling lately. You’ll take over his surgeries and research reports, won’t you?”
In the past, Olivia had always exploited me like this, claiming it was to “train” me.
If it weren’t for her deliberately holding me back, I would have been promoted to Chief of Surgery long ago.
Moreover, my skills were far from lacking. She didn’t know that many hospitals had tried to recruit me, but I had turned them all down to stay by her side.
Now that I think about it, it really wasn’t worth it.
So this time, I firmly refused. “I have no obligation to cover for Lucas. Besides, I’ve already—”
Before I could say “resigned,” Lucas tugged at Olivia’s sleeve again, whispering, “Olivia, I’ll do it myself. Jack’s probably just jealous that we went on the trip together…”
Olivia’s eyes immediately turned cold. She pulled me aside and hissed, “Jack, are you done with this childish behavior? Lucas and I were busy attending medical conferences. Unlike you, who’s been sitting around doing nothing and jumping to ridiculous conclusions!”
Conclusions? It seems she had told this lie so many times that she started believing it herself.
I gripped my phone tightly, the screen still showing the private message Lucas had sent me just half an hour ago.
It was Olivia’s pregnancy test report!
So this was their idea of “attending conferences” and “working.”
This time, I didn’t confront Olivia hysterically about her lies like I used to. In the past, whenever I questioned her, she would accuse me of being paranoid, and if she couldn’t argue her way out, she’d give me the silent treatment indefinitely.
It was all so tiresome.
Thinking about this, I simply smiled. “You misunderstood. I refused because I’m not feeling well.”
Hearing this, Olivia’s expression changed, her tone softening slightly. “Not feeling well? Are you sick?”
Just as she was about to reach out to me in concern, Lucas suddenly clutched his chest, dramatically exclaiming that he felt dizzy and his chest hurt.
Olivia immediately turned her attention to Lucas, running towards him. “Lucas, are you okay? Don’t scare me like that…”
Of course, when it came to choosing between Lucas and me, Olivia would always pick Lucas.
I had no interest in watching their melodramatic performance, so I turned to leave.
As I took the elevator down to the parking garage, I noticed a brand new Mercedes parked next to my car.
I recognized it immediately—it was the car Olivia had bought for Lucas!