From Clingy to Independent- He Thought I Needed Him Until He Realized I Didn’t Chapter 11
After the wedding, I had meant to make a clean,
final break with Adrian.
Instead, I was hit with sudden abdominal pain.
Adrian noticed right away that something was
wrong and rushed me to the hospital for tests.
It turned out to be the minor procedure I had put
off before, combined with the stress of changing
cities and jobs, that had triggered an acute
episode.
This time, Adrian moved with startling speed and
had the surgery arranged that same day.
The operation went smoothly.
When I woke up, Adrian was sitting by my bedside,
patiently stirring a bowl of porridge.
Steam curled upward, softening the calm lines of
his face.
If this had happened before, my heart probably would have skipped a beat, and I would have felt
genuinely happy at the sight of him.
For once, he had put me first and set everything
else aside to take care of me.
Adrian lifted a spoonful of porridge and held it to
my lips.
I turned my head away.
“Thank you, Dr. Hayes, but there’s no need to
trouble yourself. I can do it on my own.”
His hand stopped in midair.
“Jenna, I’m your boyfriend. You don’t have to be
this polite with me.”
I looked up, about to remind him that we had
already broken up.
He cut me off before I could speak.
“I don’t agree.”
I let out a quiet sigh.
In Adrian’s mind, this probably felt like a breakup
that had come out of nowhere, which was why he couldn’t let it go.
But to me, it was only the last straw.
The idea of breaking up had started long ago, in all
those moments when I had been ignored.
There was nothing left to discuss.
“Dr. Hayes, there’s a case I don’t really understand.
Could you explain it to me?”
At some point, Lily had appeared in the doorway.
She walked in smiling.
“Ask the doctor on call or your supervising
physician. And from now on, don’t come to me
anymore.”
Lily froze, and the smile on her face stiffened for a second. Then she looked at me as if asking for
help.
“Jenna, I really don’t understand it. Can you stop making things hard for Dr. Hayes?”
I smiled.
“We’ve already broken up. Whatever happens between you two has nothing to do with me.”
Something lit up in Lily’s eyes for the briefest moment, though when she spoke, there was the
faint catch of tears in her voice.
“Can you two please stop fighting because of me? Otherwise I’m really going to feel awful…”
Adrian cut her off coldly.
“It’s the same textbook everyone else is using, so why can everyone else understand it except you?”
“If you can’t even handle something this basic, then maybe you’re not cut out for medicine. Change fields while you still can.”
Lily’s eyes reddened.
She looked like she couldn’t believe these words
were coming from the man who had always been so patient with her.
“I’m only asking because I’m scared of making a
mistake. I just wanted to ask a few more
questions…”
Adrian interrupted her again.
“This is a hospital, not your tutoring session. I’m a
doctor, not your private tutor.”
“My time is for my patients and my family. You’re neither. Don’t come looking for me again. It’s
annoying.”
Just like last time, Lily ran off crying.
Only this time, she was crying because of Adrian.
“After hearing the groom’s vows that day, I thought about a lot of things.”
Adrian turned back to me, guilt filling his eyes.
“I always seem to get things backward. I’m patient and considerate with the people I should keep at arm’s length, and harsh and stingy with the person I should treasure most.”
“I’m patient when I explain things to my patients, and I look after Lily because I tell myself it’s just basic courtesy and responsibility.”
“But with you, I held you to the harshest standards. I wanted you to be independent, not to bother me all the time, and not to interfere too much in my life…”
“It was as if, because you were the person closest to me, you were supposed to absorb all of my
coldness and neglect.”
“Jenna, I know I was wrong. Can you give me one
more chance?”
I picked up my phone and answered him with my
actions.
“Thank you for everything with this surgery, Dr.
Hayes.”
“Let me know how much I owe you. The
registration, the procedure, and whatever it cost you to call in favors. I’ll transfer it all at once.”
The light in Adrian’s eyes went out instantly.