Quit the Mafia Crown, Took the Healer Scalpel Chapter 16

Quit the Mafia Crown, Took the Healer Scalpel Chapter 16

On the day the year-long fellowship ended, Lina received her certificate and made a decision.

Matteo ran over. “Let’s celebrate tonight! I booked a restaurant!”

Lina shook her head. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Matteo froze. “Leaving? Where?”

“To be a Doctors Without Borders doctor.” She put the certificate in her bag.

Matteo jumped up. “You’re crazy! That’s a war zone! Bullets and shells don’t discriminate!”

Lina said nothing.

Liam came up from behind, clearly having heard the conversation.

His brow was tight. “It’s too dangerous. I don’t agree.”

“I don’t need your permission.” Lina looked at him. “This is my choice.”

Liam took a breath, forcing calm. “Conditions are terrible, conflict could erupt any moment. Do you know our

mortality rate?”

“Yes.”

“And you still want to go?”

Lina looked up at him. “Liam, I didn’t study medicine to treat rich people’s colds.”

Liam was silent.

That night, Lina went back to her apartment to pack.

Dante was standing at the door.

He leaned on the wall, the familiar bag in hand. Today it held ration bars and first-aid supplies.

“I heard.” He handed her the bag. “Where you’re going, you’ll need these.”

Lina took the bag.

Dante looked at her, opened his mouth, and finally said, “I’ll go with you.”

Lina shook her head.

“You can’t stop me.”

“I’m not trying to stop you,” Dante said. “I’m going with you. Wherever you go, I go.”

Lina looked at him, her expression complicated.

“Dante, you don’t have to throw your life away for me.”

“I know,” he said. “I want to.”

Lina said nothing more and closed the door.

The next day, at the airport.

Matteo, eyes red, shoved snacks into her hands. “In case there’s no food there. Hand warmers for the cold. A flashlight, and-”

Lina looked down at the jumble of things and suddenly smiled.

“Enough.”

Matteo sniffled. “Not enough. You have to come back alive.”

Liam stood nearby and handed her a black card.

“A 24/7 emergency response card. If you’re in danger, call this number first.”

Lina took the card and nodded.

Liam looked at her and said only, “Take care.”

Lina turned and walked toward security.

Dante followed, three steps behind.

She stopped and looked back at him.

Dante stopped too.

“I told you not to follow me.”

“I’m not following,” Dante said. “I’m only seeing you off.”

Lina looked at him.

She hadn’t seen him in three months. Gaunt, sunken-eyed, stubbled, the once-mighty Don looked abandoned.

She turned back and kept walking.

She reached security.

She handed over her passport and boarding pass. The officer checked them and let her through.

She walked in without looking back.

Dante stood outside the line, watching her silhouette disappear down the corridor.

As the plane took off, Lina watched Zurich shrink until it vanished under the clouds.

She closed her eyes and finally let out a breath.

Three months later.

On the third day of lost communication, only a little drinking water was left at the medical station.

Gunfire had rung since yesterday; shells landed nearby, making the operating-room lights swing.

Lina crouched by a badly wounded man, changing his last gauze. Medicine was nearly gone; only three antibiotics remained, no anesthetic.

The wounded man bit down on a cloth, veins standing out on his forehead, and didn’t make a sound.

“Hold on a little longer.” Lina stitched with her head down. “Reinforcements will be here soon.”

She knew it was a lie.

Communications were down and coordinates unsendable; the nearest UN camp lay a hundred kilometers away, a five-day trek through the war zone.

The wounded man looked at her and suddenly took her hand.

“Doctor, you should go.”

Lina didn’t look up.

“If you go, you can live.”

Lina finished the last stitch and cut the thread.

“If I go, you won’t.”

Outside, another burst of gunfire, very close.

Someone was shouting in the local language. Lina couldn’t understand most of it, but she caught one word.

“Surrounded.”

She stood up, walked to the door, and lifted the curtain to look out.

On the slope in the distance, a dark mass of figures was moving toward them.