My sister-in-law was in the throes of a high-risk delivery, and as the hospital’s star obstetrician, I was the one they called to save her. My husband, Chad, was driving me, but halfway there, he took a different exit. He was taking me to deliver his childhood friend’s dog. “You’re an OB-GYN, you know what you’re doing,” he insisted. “Mimi is family to Susan. You have to save her!” I was losing my mind. “This is a life-or-death situation for a human being! Are you insane?” He just scoffed. “Mimi is a six-figure champion show dog. Do you really think some nobody at the hospital is more important?” In the end, the mother died in childbirth. We lost them both. When word got out that the patient’s family was raising hell at the hospital, Chad finally seemed to realize the gravity of what he’d done. He shielded his precious Susan and pushed me forward. “You’re the doctor,” he said. “This was your responsibility. You’re the one who needs to go beg for their forgiveness.” It wasn’t until we reached the family waiting area and he saw his own parents and his brother-in-law standing there that the color drained from his face. 1 I am the star obstetrician at City General Hospital. Today was a rare day off, but my morning was shattered by a frantic call from my department. “Dr. Hayes, we’ve got a bad one. A patient with a breech presentation took a fall, she’s in premature labor. It’s critical. We need you now!” A jolt went through me. I threw on my clothes and rushed to the garage, only then remembering my car was in the shop for the day. Just as I was about to call a cab, Chad pulled up, rolling down the window. “Heading to the hospital? I’ll give you a ride.” I didn’t waste a second, hopping into the passenger seat. We were halfway there, my phone buzzing with five missed messages from my assistant telling me the patient was already in the OR, when I urged Chad to drive faster. Just then, his phone rang. The car’s Bluetooth system answered automatically, and the tear-choked voice of his childhood friend, Susan, filled the small space. “Chad, you have to help me!” “It’s Mimi! She’s giving birth, and there’s blood everywhere! I don’t know what to do, please, you have to come help me!” Mimi was Susan’s pampered little dog. Chad’s voice immediately softened. “Hey, hey, don’t panic. It’s okay. I’m on my way.” I frowned, a familiar knot of irritation tightening in my stomach. Ever since Chad and I had gotten married, Susan had been a constant presence, a third wheel with zero sense of boundaries. And Chad, completely oblivious, catered to her every whim. Every time I got upset about it, he’d feed me the same line: “She’s like a sister to me.” His parents, who’d watched her grow up, always told me to be more understanding, which only made me feel petty and jealous. I couldn’t help but cut in. “Chad, you need to take me to the hospital first.” Susan fell silent for a moment when she heard my voice. Then, an idea seemed to strike her. “Oh, right! Evelyn, you’re an obstetrician! You must know how to deliver puppies, right?” Her voice broke into a sob. “Please, Evelyn, come with Chad. You have to save my Mimi!” Chad glanced at me, his eyes silently pleading for my agreement. “Absolutely not,” I said, my voice sharp. “There is a woman at the hospital who will die without my help. Your dog can go to a veterinary hospital.” “Chad, this is a matter of life and death. Don’t be an idiot.” 2 On the other end of the line, Susan went strangely quiet for a two-count, then burst into a full-blown wail. “I know you’re some high-and-mighty star doctor, Evelyn,” she said, her tone pitiful but laced with an undeniable arrogance. “But Mimi is my family. To me, her life is more important than anyone else’s!” Before hanging up, she shrieked at Chad, “If anything happens to Mimi, I’ll kill myself!” Chad panicked. He slammed on the brakes, pulling over to the side of the road. He frantically tried to call her back, but she rejected it every time, finally turning her phone off. He turned to me, his eyes blazing with accusation. “Evelyn, you know how much Mimi means to her. Why would you deliberately provoke her like that?” “If she does something stupid, I swear to God, I will never forgive you!” I was used to him taking her side, but the words still felt like a punch to the gut. Time was wasting. I was in no mood for this pointless argument. My face hardened. “Are you driving me or not? If not, I’m getting out.” “If you’re so worried about Susan, then go to her.” Seeing my fury, a flicker of panic crossed his face. For a second, I thought he understood. But as I reached for the door handle, he gritted his teeth and hit the central lock, trapping me inside. “Chad, what are you doing?” My eyes widened in disbelief as he stomped on the gas, cranked the steering wheel, and made a sharp U-turn, speeding in the opposite direction of the hospital. “I’m sorry, Eve, but I can’t risk it.” “Susan’s right. You’re an OB-GYN, you have experience. We’ll go to her place first, you’ll help Mimi deliver, and then I’ll take you to the hospital.” The blood rushed to my head. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Are you out of your mind, Chad?” I screamed. “I’m a doctor for humans, not a veterinarian!” “There is a woman dying in the hospital, and you want me to go deliver your friend’s puppies? Stop the car! Let me out!” I rattled the handle, but the door wouldn’t budge. Chad swerved sharply, and my head slammed against the window, my vision spotting with black. He heard my cry of pain but pretended not to notice, his voice dripping with condescension. “When are you going to get off your high horse, Evelyn? Is a dog’s life really worth less than a person’s? Besides, Mimi is a champion show dog, worth six figures. You think some nobody dying in a hospital bed is more important than that?” 3 How could he say something so callous, so utterly dismissive of human life? I was stunned into silence, unable to process his words. My phone rang, snapping me back to reality. It was my assistant. “Dr. Hayes, where are you? The patient’s vitals are dropping. You’re the only one who’s handled a case like this before, you have to hurry…” Before she could finish, the phone was snatched from her hand. A woman’s panicked, sobbing voice came through the speaker. It was my mother-in-law. “Evelyn, where are you?” “It’s your sister-in-law in the operating room! It’s Sarah! She fell this morning and went into labor! The doctors say you’re the only one with a real chance of saving her. How much longer will you be?” Sarah? It hit me like a ton of bricks. The patient waiting for me, the life hanging in the balance, was my sister-in-law. Chad’s own sister. Her pregnancy had been difficult from the start. A fall, premature labor… this was the worst-case scenario. A cold sweat broke out on my palms. Before I could say a word, Chad, stopped at a red light, lunged across the console, ripped the phone from my hand, ended the call, and shut it off without a second thought. “Chad, give me back my phone!” I shrieked. “Don’t you understand? That’s your sister in there! She’s in critical condition!” A flicker of fear crossed his face, but he quickly suppressed it, his expression hardening. “I can’t believe how low you’ll sink, Evelyn. You’d even curse my own sister just to get me to take you to the hospital?” “Her due date is a month away! She has a full-time nurse at home. You couldn’t even come up with a believable lie.” I was on the verge of a breakdown. “That was your mother on the phone! If you don’t believe me, call her back right now and ask her yourself!” He sneered and pulled out his own phone. A sliver of hope rose in me. If he just called his mom, he would know. But then, he glanced at me, and with a look of grim determination, he turned his own phone off, too. He locked both of them in the glove compartment. “I know how proud Mom is that you’re a doctor at City General. She’d lie for you in a heartbeat to protect your precious career.” “But not this time, Evelyn. I’m not taking you to the hospital until I know Mimi is safe.” 4 He was a madman. A hot knot of fury tightened in my chest. I wanted to crack his skull open and see if there was anything inside but water. He saw my expression in the rearview mirror and tried to soften his tone. “Look, honey, don’t worry so much. It’s a big hospital with plenty of doctors. They can manage without you for a little while. Your colleagues might flatter you, but you can’t really believe the whole department would fall apart without you, can you?” His mind was made up. Nothing I said would change it. And with every passing minute we drove further from the hospital, the danger to Sarah and her baby grew. The doors were locked. I couldn’t jump out. There was nothing in the car I could use to break a window. My eyes scanned the interior, and my decision was made. I had to grab the steering wheel. I had to force him to stop. At the next red light, I lunged across the seat and yanked the wheel. Chad, caught by surprise, fought back. In the struggle, his foot slipped, slamming down on the accelerator instead of the brake. The car shot forward, tires screaming as it skidded across the intersection. Chad’s face went white with terror. “Evelyn, let go! Are you trying to get us killed?” “Either you pull over right now and let me out,” I snarled, “or we both die here!” “You’re a psycho!” he screamed back. Seeing the absolute resolve in my eyes, he finally broke. “Okay! Okay! Just let go! I’ll pull over!” I released my grip, my hands trembling, slick with cold sweat. The car began to slow, veering toward the shoulder. I hadn’t even had time to breathe a sigh of relief when I saw it—a small delivery truck, careening out of control, heading straight for us. There was no time to react. In that split second, Chad yanked the wheel, instinctively shielding his side of the car and leaving me to face the full force of the collision. My world exploded in a white-hot flash of disbelief and pain. Agony ripped through my body. My vision blurred with red. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was Chad, his face a mask of tears, scrambling toward me. 5 I woke up in a hospital bed. A good Samaritan had called an ambulance after the crash. I was the one who had taken the brunt of it. Multiple fractures in my arm and leg, a concussion from where my head hit the dashboard. But I was alive. Chad, who had so instinctively protected himself, had escaped with only minor scrapes. I opened my eyes to find him sitting by my bedside, his face etched with anxiety and regret. When he saw I was awake, his eyes lit up. “Honey, you’re awake! How do you feel? Does anything hurt?” My voice was a raw croak. “What time is it?” His face tensed. “You… you were out for four hours. It’s afternoon now.” A roar filled my ears. I tried to sit up, but a wave of pain forced me back down. “And the… the patient?” My voice trembled uncontrollably. “Did they… did they make it? The mother and the baby?” Chad looked completely baffled. “I… I don’t know.” “But,” he said, his tone shifting, becoming accusatory, “Susan called me before. She said Mimi didn’t make it. The mother died, and none of the puppies survived.” He shot me a look of pure hatred. “Susan is devastated. She said she’s coming here to have a word with you.” “Evelyn, this is your fault. I’ll try to smooth things over, because you’re my wife, but if Susan demands some kind of compensation, you’d better just accept it. You owe her that much.” He had barely finished his sentence when the door to my room was kicked open. Susan stormed in, her face contorted with rage, and slapped me hard across the face. “This is all your fault, Evelyn!” she shrieked, her eyes wild with hate. “Chad told me everything! If you hadn’t thrown a fit and grabbed the steering wheel, we would have gotten to my house in time! My Mimi wouldn’t be dead!” “You murdered her! I want you to pay with your life!” With the concussion and my injuries, I was helpless. As despair washed over me, I saw Chad, the man who had just promised to help me, quietly get up and close the door, sealing me in with her, letting her scream and hit me as I lay broken in the hospital bed. A cold wave of desolation washed over me. I finally understood the warning my mother had given me on my wedding day. “Marrying the wrong person will destroy you.” 6 My assistant, hearing I was awake, rushed into the room and stopped dead, seeing me being attacked. Enraged, she shoved Susan back. “Who the hell are you? What are you doing, attacking Dr. Hayes in the hospital? I’m calling security!” Chad, who had been watching impassively, finally moved. He stepped in front of Susan, shielding her. “Your Dr. Hayes, through her own negligence, caused this young lady to lose a beloved member of her family,” he said with a sneer. “She made a mistake. A little slap is nothing. Frankly, if Susan wanted her life in return, as her husband, I wouldn’t bat an eye.” My assistant, not knowing the “family member” in question was a dog, just stared in stunned silence. I had no energy for these two lunatics. “The surgery this morning,” I asked my assistant, my voice urgent. “The patient, the baby… are they safe?” Tears welled in her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. “Dr. Hayes… we… we lost them.” “We lost them both. Mother and child.” My heart seized. Chad and Susan both froze, a flicker of guilt finally flashing across their faces as they realized the magnitude of their actions. My assistant broke down completely. “Where were you this morning? Your phone was off, and then you were brought into the ER, covered in blood. The family thinks it’s your fault, that you didn’t get here in time. They’re down in the lobby, causing a scene.” She hiccupped through a sob. “They said… they said they’re coming for you. That as soon as you woke up, you had to get out there and face them.” “Dr. Hayes, what are we going to do?” I took a steadying breath, trying to calm her. “Don’t worry. Go back to the office for now. There were… extenuating circumstances. I’ll explain everything to the family.” “Really?” she asked, unconvinced. “They were so angry. They know you’re in this room. They’ll be up here any minute.” After I finally managed to coax her out of the room, I turned to Chad and Susan. “You two caused this. You’re coming with me to explain what happened.” Susan shrank behind Chad. “Why… why should we? This is your mess! It has nothing to do with me! I didn’t stop you from going to the hospital!” Chad’s eyes darted between me and Susan. From the hallway, we could hear the sound of angry, approaching footsteps. He made his choice. He roughly hauled me out of the bed and shoved me into a wheelchair. Ignoring my struggles, he pushed me toward the door. “Susan’s right. This is all your fault. It has nothing to do with us.” “You’re the doctor. You’re the one who should be on her knees, begging for forgiveness!” With that, he yanked open the door. Standing on the other side, their faces a mixture of grief and fury, were the patient’s family. Chad looked up and froze. “Dad? Mom? David? What are you guys doing here?”
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