From OT To Wheelchair: He Cried When I Boarded Chapter 02

From OT To Wheelchair: He Cried When I Boarded Chapter 02

I shook my head, unable to speak.

When I first met Julian, I didn’t know he had a foster sister.

He’d been drag racing and crashed, barely clinging to life when they wheeled him into the ER.

I fought for ten hours in the operating room to pull him back from death.

Three days later, the first thing he did when he woke up was have his friend bring me to his room.

Through heavy gauze bandages, he managed a smile.

“Dr. Reynolds, you saved my life. Guess I’ll have to marry you now.”

I didn’t care for it, dismissing it as a rich playboy’s joke.

But he chased after me for a whole year, pouring money into St. Jude’s to transform it into the best hospital in Bayview City.

He knew I was always too busy with surgeries to eat, so he’d cook gourmet meals himself and wait for me in my lounge.

It was hard not to fall for him, but I held myself back.

That changed three years ago. A patient trying to extort me accused me of botching his surgery and burst into my office with a knife.

Julian lunged in front of me, his eyes wild with panic, taking three stab wounds meant for me.

The day I saved him, I accepted his confession.

Our three years together were perfect.

Until our engagement party, when he vanished.

Three days later, he came home holding a young girl’s hand.

He said gently, “Chloe just flew back and she wasn’t feeling well. I got caught up taking care of her—I completely forgot about the party.”

That was when I learned he had a foster sister who’d been abroad for years. Chloe Sterling.

Julian asked me to take care of Chloe, so naturally, I did everything I could for her.

Three days ago, Chloe told me she was uncomfortable down there.

She kept begging me not to tell her brother.

I thought she was just embarrassed, so I took her for a checkup and prescribed medication for the inflammation.

But the day the results came back, I stared at them in shock. Before I could figure out how to tell Chloe or Julian, it was too late.

Julian stormed into my lounge with bodyguards, his arm around a red-eyed Chloe.

With one command, my right hand was twisted and crushed under a bodyguard’s metal baton.

I curled up on the floor in agony, asking him why.

His eyes were cold as they fixed on me.

“I thought you were different. I thought you were kind, gentle—better than this disgusting shit”

“But you’re vicious. Just because I missed our engagement for Chloe, you gave her tainted medicine and infected her with god knows what!”

“She’s only twenty! You’ve ruined her!”

“Someone like you doesn’t deserve to be a doctor. Breaking this hand? I’m going easy on you.”

Behind him, Chloe suddenly burst into tears, pointing at the report on my desk.

“Zoe, you planned this all along! You infected me with that ointment on purpose, then you faked the test results!”

“Do you hate me that much? If you hate me this much, I should just die!”

“Did you show these results to other people? My reputation is ruined. I’m better off dead.”

As she spoke, she threw herself toward the window as if to jump.

Julian immediately caught her, holding her tight. He turned to me as I shook my head, weeping.

“Zoe Reynolds, driving my sister to kill herself over an engagement party? You really disappoint me.”

“Apologize to my sister! I want you to publicly admit that your narrow-minded jealousy made you hurt Chloe with contaminated medication and spread rumors to ruin her.”

Tears filled my eyes as I looked at him in despair.

“Julian, if I admit to that, my career is over!”

“I won’t admit to things I haven’t done.”

But no matter how I cried or argued, no matter how I begged him to test the ointment, he didn’t care.

He clicked his tongue softly and signaled the bodyguards. They forced my head down and slammed it against the floor.

They force my head down, grinding my face into the cold tiles.

Blood splattered everywhere. Passing patients held up their phones, filming my humiliation.

Mentally and physically exhausted, I finally blacked out.

When I woke up, I received a message from his friend telling me to come to the bar to explain myself to Julian.

Holding onto one last shred of hope, I rushed to The Lounge.

Only to hear the words that shattered everything.

My colleague, seeing my pain, stopped asking questions and handed me some PEP medication.

“Take these daily for a month, then come back so we can confirm you haven’t been infected.”

I thanked Sarah quietly and returned home in a daze.

My phone lit up with a message and a plane ticket attachment.

“Zoe, don’t be afraid. I’m coming to get you. I’ll fix your hand no matter what it takes.”

It was my stepbrother, Ethan Blackwood.

I buried my face in the pillow and sobbed.

I don’t know how long passed before sharp pain radiated from my broken wrist.

Terror made me scream and struggle.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Zoe! It’s me!”

In the dim light, I saw him clearly. Julian.

He looked freshly showered, clean and crisp. He smelled like Chloe’s body wash.

I froze.

Julian pulled me into his arms carelessly. “I just left you with some drunk guy—it’s not like I abandoned you there. Why are you making such a scene? I can’t even touch you now?”

Hearing him mention it so casually made me shake uncontrollably, tears streaming down my face.

He frowned. “Why are you being so dramatic? I’m a regular there—everyone knows me, everyone knows you’re my girl. Who’d dare touch you? And look, you’re fine.”

I couldn’t speak.

“Does your wrist still hurt? I had someone get you special ointment. It’ll heal perfectly—won’t affect your career at all.”

“So we’re good now, right? Come on, let’s go apologize together.”

He spoke in that doting tone of his, but bitter grief flooded through me.

“Julian, let’s break up.”