I Won't Settle for Less Anymore

That night, Ethan didn't come back to our apartment in BackBay.

I didn't call him endlessly or demand to know where he was like I would have done before.

I just sat on the bed, listening to that recording over and over.

Every time I played it, my heart broke a little more.

After Mom died of cancer, I thought I'd found a new anchor—Ethan. He was the youngest candidate for attending physician at Redwood General Hospital and a star lecturer at Hawford Medical School.

It had been four years. Four years of supporting each other through everything.

Ethan had genuinely cared for me. During clinical rotations, whenever senior doctors made things difficult, he was always the first to stand up for me.

He remembered what kind of coffee I liked on night shifts, and he would order takeout for me after I pulled 36-hour shifts.

We were inseparable, like two halves of a whole.

Because of that, people envied us, calling us the "power couple of medicine".

After four years of being so close, I'd grown used to Ethan being a part of my life. I thought I couldn't live without him.

I'd imagined our future together. We would be at the same top hospital, complete our residencies side by side, get married, have kids, and build a warm home together.

I believed there was nothing that could ever come between us.

But that peace ended the day Victoria returned to Estain.

She came back when I was in my fourth year of med school.

Her father, Seth Hartfield, was the chairman of Redwood General Hospital's board. Her mother, Diana Rosales, was a renowned plastic surgeon.

Victoria had finished a master's in public health at Boskary and returned to take a hospital operations role under Seth.

She and Ethan had been engaged once, but they broke up when she went abroad.

Now that she was back, she made it clear that she wanted him again.

The first time Victoria showed up in front of me, I felt the threat immediately.

Poised like a princess, she was in a Chanel suit, Louboutins clicking under her feet. Meanwhile, I was in wrinkled scrubs, my hair in a messy ponytail, with dark circles from sleepless nights.

"So, you're Leah?" Victoria sized me up. "Ethan mentioned you. Thank you for taking care of him all these years."

Her tone was polite but distant, as if I were nothing more than a passing presence in Ethan's life.

"But now I'm back." She smiled and continued, "Ethan needs someone who can support him in social circles and help build his career. You get what I mean, right?"

At that moment, the gap between us hit me like a punch to the gut.

I was a broke student scraping by on scholarships and grants. Victoria, meanwhile, was a high-born heiress, raised in the lap of luxury.

I thought Ethan would stand by me and tell Victoria that we were together, but he didn't.

He simply said, "Victoria, Leah is a very important… friend of mine."

Friend.

He used that word.

Not girlfriend, not partner—friend.

From that day forward, Victoria began to set her plan in motion.

She "accidentally" booked two concert tickets and invited Ethan. She mentioned his research projects at board meetings to get him more resources. She even hosted weekend gatherings for doctors and left me out.

Gradually, Ethan started spending more time with Victoria.

"Her dad's the board chairman," he explained. "I need to maintain that connection. It's important for my career. Besides, Victoria's in the medical field too. We have a lot in common. Don't overthink it. It's just work."

Every time, I chose to believe him.

Every time, I convinced myself it was temporary.

Until the day I discovered that months of my research data had vanished.