Only Her Name on the Equity Certificate Chapter 2

If last night’s message was her one-sided fantasy, what about today?

I had barely delivered the food to the hospital when Alan made an excuse about an emergency surgery and rushed off.

I went straight back to the hospital.

Not to find Alan, but to the HR department.

“I want to file a formal complaint against Clara, a doctor in your cardiac surgery department!” I slammed both hands on the desk. “She has an unprofessional conduct and is severely harassing a colleague’s family!”

The person across from me was startled. He frowned and opened the system: “Clara? Cardiac surgery? Please wait.”

A minute later, he looked up, puzzled: “Are you mistaken? We have no doctor named Clara in our hospital system, nor any nurse.”

“Impossible!” I raised my voice. “She’s new! She’s in the same department as Alan Naughton, how could you not find her!”

“Truly, no one.” The clerk turned the monitor towards me. “The entire staff list is here. No one by that name.”

I stared at the “No matching results” message on the screen, my mind a blank.

Medical staff gradually gathered outside, curious.

“Isn’t that Dr. Naughton’s wife?”

“Why is she causing a scene here?”

“I heard her mental state isn’t very good, always suspicious…”

“Poor thing, Dr. Naughton is so brilliant, how did he end up with a crazy wife.”

…

The fragmented whispers pierced my ears.

I looked around, experiencing panic for the first time.

Just as I was on the verge of collapsing, Alan rushed in, drenched in sweat, pulling me into his arms.

He didn’t get angry at me; instead, he bowed repeatedly, apologizing to everyone around us.

“I’m so sorry, truly! My wife has been under a lot of stress lately, and hasn’t been sleeping well. She might have misunderstood something. I apologize for disturbing everyone, please don’t mind her!”

I was half-hugged, half-dragged by him into the car.

As soon as the car door closed, Alan’s eyes reddened.

“Mia, I’m sorry… I lied to you.”

I looked at him blankly.

“Clara isn’t a colleague from our hospital.” He confessed, choked up, “She’s an external pharmaceutical rep. Last night, seeing how upset you were, how much you minded this person, all my energy was spent on calming you down. I didn’t want to mention irrelevant people and upset you further, so I just casually made up a lie, saying she was a colleague, hoping to gloss over the matter…”

I remained silent, showing him the text message.

“I really did go for an emergency surgery just now!”

Alan looked up, his eyes full of sincerity and urgency.

“That car accident patient is still in the ICU! I don’t know what’s going on with the text message, she must have bribed someone, or she was staking out the hospital and saw you! Mia, I really only lied because I was afraid you’d overthink things. I swear, she and I have absolutely nothing going on!”

The warning in my mind sounded again.

[Please trust your target! Stop self-sabotage!]

I didn’t know who to believe, or even if I should trust my own judgment.

I pushed open the car door, frantically hailed a cab, and returned to my parents’ home.

This was my safe haven.

Seeing me return distraught, my sister was terrified.

After listening to my tearful account, she angrily smashed the decorative item beside her.

“That bastard Alan Naughton!”

She hugged me tightly, gnashing her teeth.

“I knew that opportunistic guy couldn’t be trusted! The whole family disagreed when you insisted on marrying down! Have you forgotten how I used to argue with him? I feared he’d show his true colors once he found success!”

I leaned in her arms, my thoughts a tangled mess.

“What should I do? I feel like I’m going crazy.”

My sister gently patted my back, her voice chilling.

“Don’t worry. Mom and Dad and I will back you up! I’ll find out right now who that vixen really is!”