His Secret Family Ruined Our Wedding

The whole hospital said that my fianc Fernandez blocked a knife from a violent patient for me, loving me to the bone.

I waited eight years for our wedding.

I gave everything to his medical career. Even after being stood up seven times at the marriage license office, I never complained.

I stayed up countless nights writing papers to help him get promoted to Associate Chief Physician, giving up my own advancement to stay at this small hospital.

After finishing my Valentine's Day night shift, I took out the wedding rings I'd bought, wanting to surprise him and bring up registering our marriage again.

But he just loosened his tie and irritably pushed my hand away.

"Stop making a fuss! Don't you know how busy the department has been lately?"

My heart sank with bitterness.

He went to hand over his shift. Suddenly, a message popped up on the smartwatch he'd left on the desk.

I glanced at it reflexively. The sender's name was actually "Wife."

"I've booked the Valentine's Day honeymoon suite. Our family of three can go see the ocean."

He has a wife?

My mind went blank. Then I found his other Instagram account.

The photo album was full of him in a suit, kissing another woman passionately. Yesterday he'd even posted a prenatal checkup report.

Footsteps echoed from the stairwell corridor. I threw the wedding rings into the trash.

I sent all the evidence of his embezzlement to the hospital director.

Let me send you one more big gift for your honeymoon trip. Let's see if you can handle it.

I pressed Enter. The mouse arrow froze on the words "Sent Successfully."

This was the first time in eight years I hadn't compromised.

The email attachments contained all the evidence I'd collected of Fernandez's embezzlement and illegal kickbacks.

This was enough to get him taken away by the anti-corruption department for investigation on his first day back at work.

Taking a deep breath, I suppressed my rage at being betrayed and walked toward my general practice office.

I wanted to see with my own eyes how pathetic he'd look when suspended for investigation.

I pushed open the office door. The person inside wasn't Fernandez.

My desk had been completely cleared out.

The medical textbooks that used to sit on my desk were thrown in the trash.

The matching couple's cups I'd bought were also shattered into pieces, soaking in dirty water.

Ivanka sat in my office chair.

She wore the white coat I'd stayed up all night embroidering Fernandez's name on.

She was leisurely applying lipstick using my makeup mirror.

"What are you doing? Who gave you permission to touch my personal belongings!" I strode forward and demanded sharply.

Ivanka turned her head, looked me up and down, and sneered with contempt.

"Dr. Nadal, do you still think you're the star physician here?"

"You're involved in serious misconduct. This office no longer belongs to you."

I stood there frozen, not yet understanding what she meant.

Familiar footsteps came from outside the door. Fernandez walked in with a cold expression.

He threw a disciplinary document stamped with an official seal right in my face.

The paper scraped across my cheek, stinging sharply.

I looked down at the document on the floor. The bold text was striking.

"Suspension Notice Regarding Nadal's Suspected Theft of Patient Privacy and Tampering with Department Financial Data."

"Fernandez, have you lost your mind?" I stared at him intensely.

His eyes held none of their former affection, only coldness and disgust.

"Nadal, the evidence is irrefutable. You still have the nerve to question me?"

As soon as he finished speaking, several colleagues who'd been on good terms with me crowded through the door.

Leading them was Barbara, the senior financial supervisor I'd mentored personally.

Barbara's eyes flickered away for a moment, then she pointed at me and accused loudly.

"Director Fernandez, I saw with my own eyes that Dr. Nadal used your computer to download patient information and modified last month's supply accounts!"

"When she gave them to me to sign, I thought you'd authorized it. Who knew she had such evil intentions!"

My head buzzed.

Over these eight years, to help Fernandez get promoted to Associate Chief Physician, I'd been the one covering up all his messy accounts.

When Barbara's elderly relative got sick, I'd paid her medical expenses out of my own pocket.

Now, to curry favor with the soon-to-be-promoted Fernandez, she directly came forward to give false testimony against me.

Ivanka stood up at this moment and intimately took Fernandez's arm.

She squeezed out two tears from the corners of her eyes, putting on a sympathetic act.

"Nadal, I know you're jealous that Fernandez got promoted quickly, but you can't sell patient privacy for money."

"Fernandez is a sentimental person. If you just kneel down and apologize now, he'll definitely protect you in front of the director."

She kept saying "Fernandez, Fernandez" in a way that made me sick.

"I sold privacy? These accounts were clearly..."

I pulled out my phone to retrieve the original backup from the cloud to refute them.

Fernandez didn't give me a chance to speak.

He directly called the security guards at the door.

"Security! Drag this emotionally unstable rule-breaker out. Don't let her make a scene here!"

Two security guards rushed in and clamped down on both my arms.

My phone was knocked to the ground, the screen shattered to pieces.

I struggled to raise my head and met Fernandez's condescending gaze.

"Nadal, don't blame me for being ruthless."

"Starting today, I'll make you notorious throughout Chicago's entire medical system."

The security guards roughly dragged me out of the office. The hallway was full of doctors and patients giving me strange looks.

But I didn't expect that an even greater crisis was waiting for me outside the outpatient building.

The security guards pushed me out of the lobby without mercy.

The steps outside had just been rained on. I stumbled and fell heavily into the muddy water.

My knee scraped open, but I couldn't care about the pain.

The automatic sensing door of the outpatient building closed mercilessly behind me.

I stood dazed in the cold wind with nowhere to go.

Suddenly, a man rushed out from the shadows by the flower bed.

He was disheveled with bloodshot eyes, clutching a butcher knife.

"Nadal! Quack! I'll kill you!"

My pupils contracted.

It was the family member of a patient who'd caused a disturbance in the emergency department eight years ago over surgical complications!

That surgery was clearly performed by Fernandez.

I'd taken the family's anger for him, even spending a full day and night with him at the police station giving statements.

Why would he appear at this moment? And how did he know my name exactly?

I had no time to think. Instinct drove me to turn and run back.

The blade swept past my ear, cutting off a strand of my hair.

I ran desperately toward the side safety passage, trying to rush through the door to seek help.

Just as I was about to grasp the door handle, that heavy glass door was slammed shut from inside.

It was Fernandez.

He stood right behind the door, pulling the terrified Ivanka into his arms, dragging her into the passage and locking the safety latch.

With a "click."

The lock engaged. My last hope vanished.

He'd shut me out in the danger zone.

The violent patient's footsteps closed in behind me.

I pounded desperately on the thick glass with both hands, tears flooding my eyes.

"Fernandez! Open the door! Please open the door!"

Inside, Fernandez watched me quietly through the glass.

His eyes held no panic or compassion.

He even raised one hand to cover Ivanka's eyes.

To completely destroy my will, he pulled out his phone with his other hand and aimed it at me struggling desperately outside.

He was recording.

No, that was the hospital's internal work group livestream interface!

He explained to the camera in a calm tone.

"Colleagues, look closely. This is what happens when you violate regulations and provoke family members with a bad attitude."

"Dr. Nadal is the best cautionary tale for all of you."

"Rip!" The sound of fabric tearing.

The blade behind me viciously slashed my left arm.

Blood instantly gushed out, staining a large portion of my white shirt red.

I screamed in pain and collapsed in front of the glass door.

The patrolling SWAT officers finally arrived at this moment, pinning the family member down with riot forks.

The instant the family member was subdued, Fernandez suddenly pushed open the safety door and strode out.

He didn't glance at me lying in a pool of blood.

Instead, he walked straight to the police and pointed accusingly.

"Officers, it was Dr. Nadal's bad attitude and insulting words during communication that caused the family member to lose emotional control."

"Our hospital will fully cooperate with the police investigation."

I clutched my bleeding arm alone, trembling all over as I raised my head.

I only saw him carrying the unharmed Ivanka in his arms, striding toward the emergency department.

"Quick! Prepare a stretcher! Ivanka has been severely frightened. Her heart rate is elevated!"

The cold wind penetrated my clothes.

I vowed to make him pay the price. But as soon as I entered the treatment room, even worse news followed.

The emergency department corridor was bustling with people, but no one would stop to help me.

The nurses who used to greet me with smiles now all stayed far away.

I dragged my bleeding arm and walked alone into the empty treatment room.

I picked up the forceps and suture thread from the tray.

Without anesthesia, I gritted my teeth and pushed the bloody needle through my own flesh.

Fine cold sweat soaked through my back.

I didn't make a sound of pain.

Just as I was tying the last stitch, my phone in my pocket vibrated frantically.

The screen was shattered like a spider web, but I could barely make out it was my PhD advisor from overseas calling.

As soon as I answered, my advisor's angry voice came through.

"Nadal! You've disappointed me so much!"

"The medical association just received a transatlantic complaint letter from your fianc Fernandez."

"He's accusing you of plagiarizing all his original clinical data in every paper you published in core journals over these eight years!"

My head buzzed.

That data was clearly earned through my countless sleepless nights in the lab.

I'd even voluntarily given up first authorship for his sake.

My advisor's voice trembled with anger.

"Your hospital's internal network has already submitted evidence from your work computer."

"There's even a forged academic misconduct confession written by you!"

"I've already applied to the medical association on behalf of the academy to revoke your medical license. Do what you will!"

The call was mercilessly hung up. The dial tone stabbed at my nerves.

Good. Really good.

Destroy my career, ruin my reputation. Fernandez, you're truly ruthless.

I grabbed the medical gauze nearby and roughly wrapped it around my arm.

I stood up and kicked open the door to the emergency VIP ward.

The scene inside stung my eyes.

Fernandez sat at the bedside, holding a bowl of bird's nest soup.

He blew on it gently with a tender expression and fed it to Ivanka, who was leaning against the headboard.

As soon as Ivanka looked up and saw me covered in blood, she immediately screamed.

She dramatically clutched her stomach and burrowed into Fernandez's arms.

"Oh no! Fernandez, my stomach hurts so much. Am I going to have a miscarriage?"

Fernandez's expression changed drastically. He put down the bowl and charged over furiously.

He swung his arm and slapped me hard across the face.

Already suffering from blood loss, this slap knocked me to the ground. My ears rang.

Before I could get up, a plastic bottle hit me squarely in the face.

It was the expired folic acid I'd been about to throw in the trash this morning.

Fernandez pointed at my nose condescendingly, his voice loud enough for the entire corridor to hear.

"Nadal, what's wrong with you!"

"Ivanka is carrying my child. If you hurt her, I'll make you pay with your life!"

"Look at yourself. What good did taking folic acid for eight years do? You're a useless waste who can't even lay an egg!"

The doorway was already crowded with medical staff and patients watching the spectacle.

Mocking voices came from all around.

"So she can't have children. No wonder Director Fernandez is replacing her."

"Academic fraud, bad character, and she's infertile too."

"Poor Dr. Fernandez, entangled with this poisonous woman for eight years."

These words humiliated me deeply.

I gritted my teeth and forcibly swallowed the bloody taste in my throat, then turned and left the hospital.

But I didn't expect that even worse things were still ahead.

Covered in injuries, I returned to the rental apartment where Fernandez and I had lived together for eight years.

I'd paid the down payment for this place with my salary, but it was under his name.

I habitually entered the password, but the screen flashed with glaring red lights.

"Incorrect password."

The door lock had been changed. The new fingerprint lock refused me entry.

Footsteps came from around the corner of the hallway.

Fernandez led Ivanka by the hand, walking out unhurriedly.

Following behind them was actually my gambling-addicted uncle John.

"John? What are you doing here?"

I looked at him in shock.

John didn't look at me. His eyes were fixed on the bank card in Fernandez's hand.

Fernandez threw the card on the ground with a cold laugh.

"A hundred thousand dollars for both of Nadal's knees. You're getting a bargain."

John picked up the card, his eyes lighting up. Then he walked viciously to my side.

For that hundred thousand dollars, he kicked the back of my knee.

My legs buckled and I fell uncontrollably to my knees.

John roughly pressed down on the back of my head, forcing me to kowtow to Ivanka in public.

"Hurry up and kneel and kowtow to Director Fernandez and Miss Ivanka to apologize!"

"You unfilial girl, you dare come home after doing wrong? You've ruined their work!"

I refused to lower my head and struggled desperately.

John pulled out his phone. The screen showed a live surveillance feed from the ICU.

Inside was my only living relativemy grandmother.

"Nadal, I'll say this once."

"If you don't kneel, I'll call right now and have someone pull your grandmother's respirator!"

"That old thing has lived long enough anyway!"

I trembled violently with rage.

At this moment, Ivanka raised her phone.

The screen flashed with the red light of a live broadcast starting.

Tens of thousands of viewers flooded into the livestream instantly.

She spoke tearfully to the camera.

"This is the poisonous woman named Nadal."

"She can't have children herself, so she's jealous that I'm pregnant with Fernandez's child. She's occupying our marital home and won't leave, and she even hired someone to attack us!"

The livestream chat exploded instantly, the screen filled with cyberbullying and curses directed at me.

"Beat this homewrecker to death!"

"Skin her alive!"

To save my grandmother's life, I bit my lower lip hard until I tasted rust.

Under the condemnation of thousands, I closed my eyes. My knees fell heavily on the cold cement floor.

I happened to make eye contact with Fernandez, who was watching coldly from the crowd.

I screamed at him like a madwoman, asking why.

Eight years of my youthwhat had I done wrong to make him humiliate me like this!

But Fernandez just disgustedly shook off my clothes and wiped his hands with a tissue.

"Nadal, don't be so petty. Ivanka was just joking with you."

Suddenly, a piercing siren sounded. The hallway instantly fell silent.

Two riot police vehicles screeched to a halt downstairs. The entire building could hear footsteps rapidly approaching.

Several armed SWAT officers rushed upstairs, grabbed Fernandez's wrist, and pinned him against the wall.

"Fernandez, you're under arrest for embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, and massive commercial bribery."

The cold handcuffs made a crisp collision sound in front of the livestream camera.