Chapter 5

Hearing a crashing sound from the bedroom, Izaak rushed to the bedroom and found Gabriella crumpled on the floor, crying like a helpless little child. He recognized the scent of her expensive perfume. His forehead creased when he saw the mess on the floor. Aside from the broken bottle of perfume, there were drops of red liquid on the floor. “What happened?” he asked, crouching down. Gabriella looked up at him. Her eyes shined with tears, but they still looked beautiful and heartwarming. He reached out his palm to her. “Let me help you stand.” “I don’t need help,” she countered with firmness, though her voice cracked at the end. He held her rounded chin to capture her gaze. He succeeded immediately at stilling her. Both got lost in the trance of each other's eyes. “Tell me, Ella. Why are you crying?” His minty breath fanned Gabriella’s pale cheeks as he spoke, his face near her and his lips just inches away. “I hurt my hands,” she answered as she avoided his eyes. Izaak has a pair of enchanting deep eyes. Deep enough for her to drown in his gaze and enchanting enough to lose touch with reality. “You’re a freaking surgeon, Gabriella," he said with a reprimanding tone. "And you foolishly hurt your hands?” Her frail body managed to secrete the tiniest bit of strength. She pushed him away, her hands fueled with bitterness. “I know. You don’t have to scold me!” She stood up and ran away to the kitchen. She opened one of the cupboards and took out a medicine kit. She poured the disinfectant over her cuts, and she whimpered in pain. It brought tears to her eyes involuntarily. “You sure help is not needed?” Izaak asked from the kitchen door. Despite asking politely, his voice was void of any real worry. “I’m a doctor,” she only replied. “Yeah, sure. Whatever,” he coldly answered before going away. The pain from her hands couldn’t compare to the pain in her heart. Each day, her heart fell deeper into darkness. Their marriage was dying, and she could feel it. The worst death was when you could see it as it happened. A slow death. Like her marriage. It hadn’t died yet, but it was already decaying. Although both didn’t give consent to their marriage, Gabriella truly loved her husband. She sincerely wanted to be his faithful wife. Even when he was cold and harsh, even when he came home once a month, she waited for him with all her heart. She waited and waited, hoping he would learn to love her. Her grandmother had told her once that love required courage. She loved courageously, poured her heart into a man, and what she took in return was always ruthless betrayal. She loved Adrian, her ex-boyfriend, and she had marriage in mind while she dated him, yet he cheated on her with her sister. And now, Izaak. Every other month news would pop out about him having an affair with different women. All she could do was weep in silence, quietly grieve, as she was a wife who didn’t matter to her husband. After disinfecting her wounds, she wrapped her fingertips with band-aids and exited the kitchen. She found Izaak at the entrance, in a suit, ready to leave. His love for neatness was evident in how his black leather shoes shined. Tiny hesitation colored his piercing eyes as he looked at Gabriella’s puffy eyes. To him, Gabriella was a good wife. He knew she deserved better. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the better man she deserved to be with. “There’s a party this evening, and I need company,” he informed her. “I’ll pick you up at the hospital, so be ready by seven.” It wasn’t an invitation. It was an announcement and an order from him. Gabriella stared blankly at the door when Izaak left. Levi’s words replayed in her mind. Was her marriage truly worth saving? She let the thought hang in her mind as she ate breakfast alone. With the lack of sleep, she also lacked the appetite to consume anything. After the uneventful meal, she rushed to the hospital for work. “Doc, what happened to your fingers?” Erin, the intern doctor, asked. Gabriella looked at her hands. “About that… I need you to reschedule all my surgeries this week. I can’t enter the OR like this.” “I’ll dress your wounds, doc,” Erin suggested. Gabriella politely refused. “You don’t have to worry. My hands are fine.” “Doc, you can’t save patients with hands like that,” Erin insisted. “Just let me help you with it. You know how important hands are to a surgeon.” Gabriella chuckled at her persistence. “Fine. But later,” she finally agreed. She changed into her white coat, grabbed the patient charts left by the night shift doctor, and headed for the door. It was time to do her routine rounds. She had to check on her patients, which meant she also had to go to the VIP ward for Audrey Hill. When she entered the ward for VIPs, she met Levi’s eyes. He was the nurse on duty, and he was taking the patient’s temperature with a straight face. He obviously wasn't fond of the patient he was taking care of. She remembered they had a little argument yesterday, so she wasn’t sure how to react or if she should acknowledge his presence. Audrey's cheeks had a rosy blush, and all indicators said everything was good. She looked fine to Gabriella, and she was thankful for that. The surgery went well as she wished. “Miss Hill, do you feel any discomfort today?” she asked formally as a doctor. “No,” Audrey answered while raising an eyebrow. “Thanks to your husband.” A subtle whiff of mockery laced her tone. Gabriella put her hands inside the pockets of her coat to hide her uneasiness. Levi, who was giving her the looks, wasn't helping tone the situation down. “That’s good,” plainly, she answered, pretending she was unfazed. “You know it’s hard to be the wife of someone so attractive, so rich, and someone so compassionate. Everyone he helps thinks they’re in a relationship or something.” Audrey sneered in contempt at what she said. “I’m that wife,” Gabriella emphasized. “Well, I can’t blame those girls. Besides, I’m too busy saving lives in the emergency room to think about these things.” Audrey, who was a competent lawyer, couldn’t give a worthy response. Gabriella added, “So I would really appreciate it, Miss Hill, if we could just be doctor and patient inside the four corners of this room. Nothing more, nothing less.”