Life is full of regrets

Pain washed over Ellie, so intense she was on the verge of passing out. The words she tried to speak emerged as nothing more than a faint gasp.

She lay on her back, tears of frustration welling in her eyes.

Just then, Carolyn hissed, clutching her cheek. She gazed up at David, her eyes brimming, tears plopping down in a steady patter. "David, my tooth hurts!"

David tensed immediately. Gently cradling her face, he asked, "Are you okay? Should I take you to the hospital?"

Carolyn hooked a finger into his belt, pulling him closer; her tone was a mix of complaint and coquetry. "It's all your fault—forcing me to eat that imported chocolate. Now my tooth hurts."

With a soft, delicate sob, she buried her face in David's chest.

After that, David didn’t spare Ellie another glance. Slipping an arm around his sister-in-law, he headed straight for the on-site clinic.

Ellie lay in a pool of her own blood, the floor sticky and slick beneath her. She couldn’t get up.

Gradually, her strength faded.

Staring up at the fluorescent light tube overhead, her gaze grew hollow.

Everyone could see there was something wrong with David's relationship with his sister-in-law—even her own father. Yet in the end, she alone had clung to her belief in David's character.

"Ellie, you were such a fool…"

She died there in her own bedroom, her eyes wide open. When she died, her ten fingers were splayed across the concrete floor, mangled and bloody. Six fingernails had been torn away halfway down the fingertips, the blood and flesh ground into a pulp.

Ellie jolted awake.

Clutching her abdomen, she gasped for air. Realizing she had been reborn, tears in her eyes, Ellie fumbled with the thick desk calendar. Today was March 18th. Early tomorrow morning, her father would die of a heart attack in his rocking chair at home.

She couldn't afford to waste a second. Grabbing her coat, she rushed back to her parents' house.

Her father was sitting in their small courtyard, discussing something with his secretary, Philip. Seeing Ellie return, his expression visibly soured.

"Decided to come home, have you?"

Tears welling, Ellie threw her arms around him. For a moment, Joe was at a loss for how to react. "This child…"

To marry David, she had nearly severed ties with her father. It was only out of pity for his daughter that he had arranged a job for the son-in-law he despised.

Ellie knew time was running out. Looping her arm through her father's, she practically dragged him to the hospital.

Lying on the hospital bed, Joe sighed heavily. His daughter's displays of filial piety were rare, and he didn't want to embarrass her—especially now that she was pregnant. He couldn't risk upsetting her.

"Dr Ellie, your prediction was spot on!"

Philip hurried into the room, handing the examination report to Ellie. Just as she had anticipated, the old chief's heart was on the verge of giving out. The situation was critical, and the hospital immediately began prepping him for surgery.

"Ellie," Joe asked, knowing he was about to go into the operating room and unwilling to leave with regrets, "why did you suddenly bring me to the hospital today?"

Hugging her dad, Ellie told a white lie. "Dad, Mom came to me in a dream."

"Alright…" Tears streamed down the old man's face.

Ellie kept vigil outside the operating room for eight hours, until her father was safely wheeled out. Once she learned he was stable and just needed rest to wake up, Ellie scheduled a procedure for herself.

She walked into the office of the Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "Director, can you perform a surgery for me?" She took a steadying breath. "And… could you put my name down for one of the rural placement slots?"