Shattered Heart, The Surgeon's Cold Choice

The day I was mangled in that car wreck, my fianc abandoned me.

He left me bleeding out to perform surgery on his first love.

Jade Sullivan, can you stop making a scene? Lillian is in critical condition.

With those cold words, he forcefully pried my fingers off his sleeve.

I watched him walk away, my heart shattering into more pieces than my bones.

So, I was the one meant to be discarded?

Later, when I lay on the cold slab of the morgue with a tiny, unborn life still inside me, he sat outside the door all night.

Eventually, the most brilliant surgeon in the city would never be able to pick up a scalpel again.

...

Inside the hospital, I used every ounce of strength left to clutch Grant Sterling's coat.

"Grant, you have to believe me. I didn't hurt Lillian."

Grant looked down at me with nothing but pure annoyance and disgust.

"Jade! You're still lying even now? Lillian's hand is ruined. Are you satisfied?"

My face was a mask of blood as I looked up at him.

"No, that's not what happened. I didn't do it... please, I'm begging you. Save me."

Grant reached down and peeled my desperate hands off his expensive fabric.

"You're gripping me pretty tight for someone who claims to be dying. I think you're just fine."

He sneered, his voice dripping with venom.

"You're just doing this to sabotage Lillian so she can never play the piano again, aren't you? You're truly wicked."

I stared at the man I loved, and the last spark of hope in my eyes flickered out.

Two hours ago, on my way to the hospital, Lillian Quinn had veered her car straight into mine.

I had struggled to reach the hospital, only to find there was one operating room left.

The triage doctor looked at both of us with a grim expression.

"There is only one surgical suite available. The other patient will have to wait two hours for the next rotation."

My face went pale as I heard those words. I grabbed Grant's sleeve, silently pleading for my life and our baby's.

But Lillian looked at me with a triumphant glint in her eyes.

Her gaze seemed to scream: See? Your fianc doesn't love you at all!

In the end, Grant chose Lillian.

The reason was simple. Lillian had a piano competition next month, and her hands were precious.

They were precious enough to trade for my life and the life of our unborn child.

Grant was now leaning over Lillian, whispering sweet reassurances.

"Don't worry, Lily. I'm here. I won't let anything happen to you."

Then, he spared me one final, icy glance.

"Jade, you better pray that Lillian's hand is okay. If not, I'll make sure you regret it."

I looked at him, trying one last time to reach him. "Grant, don't leave me. I'm... I'm carry..."

I fought through the agonizing pain, wanting to tell him I was carrying our baby.

But Grant interrupted me, his patience completely gone.

"Jade, have you had enough? Lillian is in a crisis. Can't you put your petty jealousy aside for once?"

He didn't wait for an answer.

"You've already turned her life into a nightmare. Are you happy now?"

With that, he hurriedly pushed Lillian's gurney toward the operating room. He didn't even look back once.

And just like that, I was abandoned again.

Watching his retreating back, my heart felt like it was being pierced by needles.

Grant, please, just look back at me.

If you just turned around, you'd see the blood soaking through my sheets. I really can't wait two hours.

The pain finally pulled me into the darkness. In my haze, I heard frantic voices.

"Quick! The patient is hemorrhaging! We need to stop the bleeding!"

"It's no use! It's too late, we can't get it under control!"

"Her sternum is shattered. A fragment is less than an inch from her heart. We can't handle a surgery this complex!"

"Go get Dr. Sterling! He's the expert on these cases. If he steps in, her chances are much higher!"

After that, everything went silent. I knew then that I was gone.

The surgeons tried everything, but they couldn't pull me back from the brink.

As the heart monitor flatlined, my life reached its end.

Suddenly, I felt light. I was standing there, watching my own body, before being pulled toward Grant.

He was in the middle of Lillian's surgery when an assistant ran in, looking panicked.

"Dr. Sterling, there's a patient from OB-GYN... you need to come see her immediately..."

Before the assistant could finish, Grant snapped at him.

"Can't you see I'm in the middle of a procedure? Whatever it is, tell them to wait. Lillian's hand is the priority."

The operating room fell into a heavy silence after his outburst.

I hovered in the air, drifting like a lost thought. I nodded at his words.

"You're right, Grant. Lillian Quinn will always be more important to you than me. I'm not even worth one of her fingers."

Too bad he couldn't hear me.

As a doctor myself, I knew Lillian's injury looked scary but wasn't life-threatening.

It was a simple fix that any surgeon in the wing could have handled perfectly.

But Grant insisted on doing it himself, terrified that his precious Lily might have a tiny scar.

I floated beside him, watching him work with such focus.

In the five years we were together, I never really got the chance to just look at him like this.

He was always so busy, always rushing from one surgery to the next. I was always the one waiting in the shadows.

In the beginning, I used to complain. I wanted him to comfort me, to prioritize me just once.

But Grant never did.

"You knew I was a surgeon when we started this," he would say coldly.

"If you think I can't give you enough attention, go find a boyfriend who has nothing better to do."

An hour later, Lillian's surgery was finished. Grant looked at her with immense relief.

"Lily, it's okay now. The surgery was a total success."

Only then did Grant remember the emergency the assistant had mentioned.

He turned to the nurse. "What was the situation with the OB-GYN patient?"

The assistant relayed the details, and Grant's brow furrowed.

"That sounds extremely critical. Even I might not have been able to save her. Let's go take a look."

But by the time he reached the wing, he was told the patient had already passed away.

Grant froze for a second, a flicker of professional sadness crossing his face.

But it was quickly replaced by a sense of relief.

He wasn't an OB-GYN specialist; he didn't need to get involved in a messy malpractice situation.

No one wanted to take responsibility for a lost cause.

Grant didn't even bother to ask for the woman's name before turning away.

I followed him as he drifted back to Lillian's private suite.

Lillian was in a double room, but she was the only one there.

Grant had moved the other patient to a different ward, claiming Lillian needed a quiet environment to recover.

Outside, people were lined up in the hallways on gurneys, yet Lillian occupied two beds worth of space.

I remembered when I was sick last year. Grant didn't even arrange a room for me.

He didn't even come to see me.

His excuses were always the same.

"I'm busy."

"Aren't you a doctor too? Take care of yourself."

I used to fight with him about it, but eventually, I just learned to swallow my own hurt.

Grant Sterling never apologized. He never backed down.

When my mother fell and shattered her leg, I begged Grant to perform the surgery.

He refused.

"I've looked at the scans. It's not that serious. Any attending can do it. I have more important cases."

He even had the nerve to lecture me. "As doctors, shouldn't we be the first to follow the rules of fairness?"

In the end, I had to call an old classmate to get my mother the care she needed.

Once she recovered, Grant just shrugged.

"See? You handled it fine on your own. Don't bother me with these little things next time."

But when it came to Lillian, all his principles vanished into thin air.

The thought left a bitter taste in my ghostly mouth.

It wasn't that he was incapable of helping; he just didn't care about me or my family.

Look at how much he cared for Lillian.

I looked down at my translucent belly. It was flat and empty now.

Maybe it was for the best. At least the baby didn't have to grow up with a father who hated his mother.

When Lillian saw Grant enter the room, she immediately struggled to sit up.

She put on such a pathetic, fragile act that even the young nurse nearby rolled her eyes.

Only Grant was blind enough to fall for Lillian's performance.

He rushed to her side, carefully propping her up with pillows.

"Lily, you just got out of surgery. You need to stay down and rest."

Lillian spoke in a high-pitched, delicate voice, playing the victim to perfection.

"Grant, I'm okay. I just got tired of lying down. I wanted to move a bit."

She paused, biting her lip. "By the way, wasn't Jade at the hospital too? How is she?"

Grant finally seemed to remember he had a fiance. His expression shifted for a moment.

"She's probably fine. Don't worry about people who don't matter. Focus on your recovery."

Lillian's face lit up with a hidden smugness before she continued.

"Really? She looked pretty bad. I thought she was seriously hurt."

She sighed dramatically. "Jade was probably just acting out because she was jealous, right?"

"After all, you are her fianc. It's natural for her to be upset."

Grant's face darkened instantly.

"You're right. All these years, she's done nothing but pick fights with you out of spite."

He sounded genuinely disgusted. "I just didn't expect her to pull a stunt like this while you were in actual danger."

A person who doesn't matter? I was with him for five years. I was his fiance. I was carrying his child.

And I was just someone who didn't matter?

I wondered what I had ever been to him.

Grant sat by her bed, feeding her porridge spoonful by spoonful, even though there was a nurse right there.

I floated beside him, watching this touching domestic scene.

Everything I had ever begged for, Lillian got without even asking.

As Grant set the bowl down, a nurse came in to change Lillian's bandages.

Grant immediately stopped her.

"A woman's hands are her life. Especially since Lily is a pianist. We have to be extremely careful."

He reached out for the tray. "Give the medicine to me. I'll do it myself."

The nurse looked confused but handed over the supplies and left. Lillian beamed at him.

"Grant, it's such a small thing. You don't have to trouble yourself."

Grant was already focused on her hand.

"It's not a small thing. Your hands are precious. If there's even a tiny scar, you might not be able to play."

My heart ached with a dull, phantom pain. In five years, he had never shown me this kind of tenderness.

Outside the door, I could hear the hospital staff gossiping.

"Dr. Sterling is so sweet to the girl in Room 26!"

"I know, right? They look so good together. I'm so jealous of her."

Even strangers could see how much he adored her.

Grant stayed by Lillian's side all night. If you didn't know better, you'd think she was his wife.

When he finally stepped out of the room looking exhausted, the other doctors looked at him with confusion.

"Dr. Sterling? Didn't you go see your fiance?"

Grant waved them off impatiently.

"Why would I? She's fine. She's probably just sulking at home."

The group exchanged worried glances, falling silent as he walked away.

Once he was out of earshot, one whispered, "Man, Dr. Sterling is cold-blooded."

"No kidding. His fiance and their baby both died, and he's in there playing nurse to another woman?"

"Shh! Keep your voice down. If he hears us, we're dead."

I drifted among them, listening to their whispers.

In that moment, I realized I had been a clown for the past five years.

Grant was always gentle and responsible with every other patient.

But never with me. He always said, "You're a doctor too. Can't you handle a little cold?"

I shook myself out of it and followed him into his office.

Just as he sat down, his phone buzzed. It was my mother.

"Grant Sterling, aren't you coming to see Jade?"

Grant's expression stiffened.

"Mrs. Sullivan, Lillian was hurt. Her competition is next month, and I..."

My mother's voice suddenly rose to a scream.

"Lillian, Lillian, Lillian! Is that all you see? Do you have any idea that my Jade was pregnant?"

I heard my mother's sob break through the speaker.

"She was lying on that operating table all alone... do you know how scared she must have been?"

I wanted to rush to her, to hug her and tell her I wasn't scared anymore.

But every time I tried to move more than fifteen feet from Grant, my soul felt like it was being burned alive.

I tried over and over, enduring the searing pain, but I failed.

I was tethered to him. Even in death, I was trapped by his side.

Grant's face turned white. His voice trembled. "Jade was pregnant? Is... is she okay?"

There was a long, heavy silence before my mother spoke again.

"Don't you dare pretend to care now, Dr. Sterling. Go back to your precious Lillian."

Her voice was cold as ice. "My Jade is nothing to you now. Don't ever call us again."

She hung up before he could respond.

I circled Grant frantically, screaming at the top of my lungs.

"Grant! Go to her! Go check on my mom!"

"She's heartbroken because of you! Go see her now!"

My voice cracked with ghostly sobs, but he couldn't hear a word.

He just sat there, frozen in his chair.

After a long time, something seemed to click in his brain, and he bolted out of the office.

He tracked down the surgeon who had operated on me that night.

"Dr. Miller, you handled Jade Sullivan's case the other night, right?"

Dr. Miller jumped, startled by Grant's intensity. "Dr. Sterling? What's going on?"

Grant grabbed the man's arm. "Tell me about the baby. Did you save it?"

Dr. Miller sighed, his face full of pity.

"I am so sorry, Grant. By the time she got to us, the tiny life was already gone..."

Grant's body went limp, like a puppet with its strings cut. He stumbled backward.

"No... that can't be. It was just a minor accident. How could she lose the baby?"

"It's impossible..."

Watching his devastated expression, I felt nothing but contempt.

When I was alive, I begged him to help me.

But he threw me aside for two hours to fix a minor fracture on Lillian's hand.

To him, my life and our child's life weren't worth a damn compared to Lillian's piano career.

Why act like the grieving father now? It's pathetic.

If the neurology department hadn't finished their surgery early, I would have waited even longer.

Now that the baby is gone, you're finally feeling regret? Where was this heart two hours ago?

As Grant was about to leave the hospital, Lillian's high-pitched voice echoed down the hall.

"Grant! Are you leaving me?"

She was standing there in her hospital gown, looking like a wilted flower.

She looked so weak, so fragileDthe perfect damsel in distress.

Grant stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her.

"Lily, go back to your room. Something came up. I'll come back when I'm done, okay?"

Lillian's eyes welled up with tears that refused to fall. It was her signature move.

"Is it Jade? Is she trying to take you away again?"

She sniffled. "I understand. She's your fiance. I'm just an outsider your family took in."

She wiped a tear away and forced a brave smile.

"Go ahead, Grant. I'll be here waiting for you."

I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt.

Here we go again. Every single time Grant showed me a sliver of attention, she pulled this crap.

She always claimed to be an outsider, yet she acted like she owned the place.

And Grant, that idiot, fell for it every single time.

Predictably, Grant hesitated. He sighed and walked back to her, scooping her up in his arms.

He carried her back to bed and tucked her in.

"You're such a child. I'm not leaving you. Just stay here, I'll be back soon."

When he finally left the room, he pulled out his phone and called me. It rang until it went to voicemail.

He tried again and again, his frustration growing with every failed attempt.

Finally, he opened his messages and typed:

"Jade, I know you're upset about the baby, but we're young. We can have another one."

"Stop being so dramatic. Lillian is emotionally unstable right now, and I have to be here for her."

"Take care of yourself at home. I'll be back when things settle down."

He shoved the phone back in his pocket and went back into Lillian's room.

I floated next to him, laughing bitterly.

"You're so consistent, Grant. Even now, you're a hypocrite."

"I'm dead, and you don't even know. You're telling a corpse to take care of herself."

"Lillian has a bad mood, and you rush to serve her. Do you have any idea where your fiance is?"

I sighed, the anger fading into a hollow void.

"It doesn't matter. I'm dead anyway. You can love whoever you want now."