Voices in the Ward

In the end, Ted still received the medication. Because treatment was given in time, his condition stabilized.

The hospital director, Isaiah Clem, stepped in to calm the family down, then asked to speak with me privately.

"The situation is clear now, and the patient is out of danger. The family realizes they got emotional and said some things they shouldn't have. They would like to apologize to you."

I lowered my head and didn't respond.

In my previous life, I had also insisted on using the medication. Ted had survived then, too. But what I got in return was even worse insults and false accusations.

Thinking of that, I looked up. "Dr. Clem, there's no need for an apology. I only did what a doctor should do. But I'd like to request that Sonya no longer be involved in any of my cases."

Sonya's unpredictable inner thoughts were something I couldn't afford to take lightly.

Isaiah looked a little surprised, but he nodded anyway. "Alright. She's still an intern. Being cautious is probably for the best."

When I returned to the ER, the patients and families who had just accused me were now looking at me with clear embarrassment. Olivia and Cheryl hurried over to apologize.

"Dr. Strickland, we're sorry. We weren't thinking straight and believed the nurse's nonsense. Please forgive us."

I nodded in acknowledgment.

Just then, light footsteps sounded at the door.

Sonya appeared in the doorway. Her eyes were red, as if she had just been crying. When she saw me, the hatred in her gaze was impossible to hide.

"You've got some nerve showing up here!"

Olivia snapped the moment she saw Sonya and lunged forward, grabbing Sonya by the hair.

"You knew damn well the pain medication was life-saving! Why did you deliberately lie to us and say it was addictive? Were you trying to get my husband killed?"

Cheryl's eyes were brimming with tears as she screamed at Sonya. "You've got a poisonous mouth! What was your real motive? Do you hate Dr. Strickland that much that you'd use my dad's life to ruin her?"

With her hair being yanked, Sonya cried in pain, tears streaming down her face. "I don't know what you're talking about! Let go of me!"

"Stop pretending!" Cheryl shouted even louder.

"I heard you last week, hiding in the stairwell on the phone, complaining that Dr. Strickland was always holding you back and giving you all the heavy work. After what happened today, I'm sure you did it on purpose!"

The moment she said that, the entire ward exploded.

"No wonder! I knew something felt off about her. An intern who doesn't focus on learning medicine, always whispering around the ward and running her mouth about the attending. What was she even trying to do?"

"Exactly! I kept thinking, there's no way a respected doctor like Dr. Strickland would suddenly pull something like this. Turns out it was this intern with bad intentions, jealous of someone more capable and deliberately smearing her."

Hearing that only made Olivia angrier. She was about to rush forward again.

Sonya trembled all over, her face going pale, then flushed, then pale again. She looked at me, humiliation and resentment burning in her eyes.

I sneered inwardly.

She felt humiliated already? Compared to everything I went through in my previous life, this didn't even count as a warm-up.

After this incident, no one questioned my diagnoses anymore. Even the most difficult patients became noticeably more polite, and Sonya was transferred out of the ER.

A few days later, I had just finished a surgery and was heading back to my office when John Walker, a middle-aged man, stopped me.

John looked frantic as he blocked my path.

"Dr. Strickland, my mom still won't cooperate. Please go take a look at her. Just don't let anything slip. Please say it's only regular gastritis. I'm begging you."

In my previous life, I had agreed to hide the truth.

Sonya exposed it through her inner thoughts, and that very night, the patient, Roberta Walker, jumped off the hospital building so she wouldn't drag her family down.

Afterward, her family mistakenly believed I had deliberately revealed her condition. They reported me straight to Isaiah, and I was stripped of my position as department head.

Seeing the pleading look in John's eyes, I couldn't bring myself to refuse. I still went to the ward.

I never expected Sonya to appear at the doorway when I had barely said a few sentences.

The next second, Roberta heard her inner thoughts again.

[Heh! Here they go again, teaming up to lie to Roberta, who's about to die. She's clearly in late-stage stomach cancer with barely any time left, and they're still putting on a show, saying it's just gastritis. She's just after Roberta’s generous pension and wealthy kids, trying to squeeze out every last dollar. Disgusting!]