My BFF Betrayed Me with My Boyfriend! Now Neither of Them Will Leave Me Alone! Chapter 05
3 years later, the plane cruised smoothly over the Atlantic.
I gazed at the fading light outside the window and instinctively touched my right arm.
The shattered bone had healed fairly well, but it still ached whenever the weather turned damp and rainy.
After the attack 3 years ago, I accepted my mentor’s invitation and joined his clinical research project.
He had urged me to stay long before that, but back then, I couldn’t leave my patients, my boyfriend, or my best friend behind, so I had turned down his offer to remain in Zurich.
I had returned home full of excitement, dragging a heavy suitcase behind me, only to be betrayed by the 2 most important people in my life.
During my 3 years in Zurich, I nearly turned myself into a machine that never made mistakes.
I conducted research with my mentor at the hospital during the day, went to the rehabilitation center for physical therapy at night, and was still reading research papers in my apartment at 2 or 3 in the morning.
I simply couldn’t accept it.
I had survived medical school and residency.
My future was still wide open.
How could I let my life stop there?
—
Sometimes, when my old injury flared up in the middle of the night, I stared at the ceiling until morning without sleeping.
If not for that baseball bat, if Evan had answered that call, would my life have turned out completely differently?
But there were no ifs in this world.
An urgent announcement suddenly came over the intercom, alternating between German and English.
I heard the lead flight attendant calling out, “Is there a doctor on board?”
My body reacted before my mind did.
Without thinking, I unfastened my seat belt and stood up.
Near the back of first class, an elderly man clutched his chest.
His face was ashen, and his breathing was rapid.
“I’m a doctor.”
I crouched beside him, quickly checked his pulse and pupils, then signaled for a flight attendant to bring the emergency medical kit.
“Possible acute myocardial infarction. He needs to lie flat immediately, receive oxygen, and be given sublingual nitroglycerin.”
The man’s wife was crying too hard to speak.
While treating him, I asked his wife about his medical history whenever I could.
A flight attendant held her hand and kept trying to calm her down.
—
The plane landed early in Seattle.
When the paramedics boarded with a stretcher, I held up the IV bag and followed them all the way into the ambulance.
The vehicle sped through the streets.
Sitting inside, I watched as it headed in a familiar direction.
I never expected my first stop after returning 3 years later to be Buckley Memorial Hospital, where I used to work.
The lights in the ER were so bright that they hurt my eyes.
I calmly briefed the emergency physician on everything that had happened aboard the plane.
Once the patient had been transferred to the ICU, I let out a breath and turned to leave.
Then a familiar voice sounded behind me, filled with shock.
“Athena? Is that you?”
I stopped.
Evan stood there in a white coat, his mask pulled down beneath his chin and a freshly printed ECG clenched in his hand.
After 3 years, he had lost a lot of weight.
Dark circles shadowed his eyes.
His breathing was rapid as he stared fixedly at me, but he stopped 2 steps away and held himself back from coming any closer.
—
“You… Where have you been for the past 3 years? You resigned without saying a word. I searched for you for so long. You changed your number and moved away. No one knew where you went.”
I simply looked at him.
A young ER nurse hurried up behind him.
“Dr. Buckley, the patient has been transferred to the ICU.”
I stepped aside to let him pass.
Evan hesitated, unwilling to leave.
The night wind lifted the hem of his white coat.
“Wait, Athena. Can you give me your contact information?”
“Your hand… Is it okay now?”
I cut him off impatiently.
“Your patient is waiting. Every minute matters when treating a heart attack. Don’t delay.”
Evan stopped hesitating.
Clenching his jaw, he walked into the operating room.
The autumn wind slipped beneath my collar.
I curled my chilled fingers into my palm.
It didn’t hurt as much as I had imagined.
Time really could take pain away.
—
Even seeing Evan again no longer stirred anything in me.