I Came Back to Hear You Beg
After they destroyed my career, a crazed fan finished the job with a bottle of acid.
But then, I woke up—back on the morning of the day it all went wrong.
This time, the trap they're setting for me is one they won't be walking away from.
1
The first thing I did after I was reborn was trade my shift.
When my fiancé found out, he told me I was insane.
Kelsey, the beautiful new nurse, burst into tears.
In my last life, it had gone so differently.
A patient was rushed into the ER with acute pulmonary hypertension. He wasn’t just anyone; he was Liam Croft, Hollywood’s golden boy, fresh off a string of award season victories. A true A-lister. Every available doctor in the emergency department was pulled into the effort to save him.
After the marathon surgery, my shift began. I spent the next twenty-four hours glued to his bedside, a constant vigil to ensure his stability. But just as I was about to clock out, he coded. A sudden, catastrophic event, and he was gone.
That’s when Kelsey made her move.
“Nora has no work ethic,” she’d announced to our superiors, her voice trembling with faux sincerity. “I know she likes to slip into the hallway to play on her phone during her shifts…” Her eyes filled with tears. “But that was a human life. How could you be so negligent?”
And Ethan, my fiancé, stood right beside her. He held up his phone and played a recording of me venting after a brutal triple shift, complaining about how exhausted I was. It was his proof.
“I know you’re tired of this job, Nora,” he’d said, his voice heavy with disappointment. “But that doesn’t give you the right to be reckless with people’s lives.”
After that, it was a landslide. Liam Croft’s family and his legion of rabid fans ignored my desperate explanations, filing lawsuits and official complaints. The hospital fired me. The depression that followed was a suffocating blanket. Then came the "superfan" who showed up at my door with a bottle of industrial-strength drain cleaner.
I died in a haze of white-hot, chemical agony.
And after I died, I watched. I saw Kelsey get promoted to head nurse. I saw her marry Ethan. I saw them live a long, happy life.
Then I opened my eyes. And I was back. Back on the very day Liam Croft was wheeled into our ER, fighting for his life.
1
“We need him in Trauma Room 3! Stat!”
“Nora, what are you doing just standing there?”
The familiar controlled chaos of the ER snapped me back to reality. The sea of blue scrubs, the rhythmic beep of monitors, the urgent, clipped voices of doctors and nurses. I saw him then, lying on the gurney being rushed past me—Liam Croft. It was real.
I was reborn. And I was back on the day it all began.
“Nora, if you’re not going to help, at least get out of the way,” Kelsey snapped, bumping my shoulder as she hurried to the side of our department chief, Dr. Albright, eager to make an impression.
I watched her, the rage a furnace in my chest. She was the one who had destroyed my reputation, who had set the stage for my horrifying death. This time, I vowed silently, I won’t let either of you win.
Dr. Albright’s brow furrowed as he glanced at the vial in Kelsey’s hand. “That’s the wrong medication! Are you trying to kill him, Kelsey? Get out!”
She’d only been in the ER for three months, and her incompetence was a liability.
A cold smile touched my lips. “Chief, let me,” I said, stepping forward smoothly. I pushed past a stunned Kelsey and took my place at his side. She glared at me, her face a mask of fury, before retreating from the trauma room.
Just like last time, Liam’s surgery was a success. And just like last time, I was scheduled for the overnight watch.
Unlike last time, the first thing I did was find the head nurse and request a shift swap.
Once it was done, I drove home to my condo at Willow Creek. It was the one my parents had bought for me, paid in full. After Ethan and I got engaged, he’d made himself right at home, practically moving in. He claimed it was to take care of me, but he treated the place like it was his own.
2
In my previous life, Ethan and I had gotten together after being set up by Dr. Albright. His family was working-class, but he was ambitious and driven. We’d been dating for nearly a year, and when I told him I wanted to wait to be intimate, he said he respected my decision. Only after my death did I learn the truth: he’d been sleeping with Kelsey all along.
I slept soundly and deeply in my own bed. The next morning, on my way out, I changed the code on the keypad lock to my front door.
After that small act of liberation, I drove to the hospital. I had just changed into my scrubs when I ran into Kelsey in the hallway near the patient rooms.
“Well, well. You’re looking surprisingly fresh for someone who just pulled an all-nighter,” she said, her tone dripping with passive-aggressive sweetness. “What moisturizer do you use? You have to tell me.”
I ignored her and kept walking.
She scoffed. “Did you see the news this morning? That patient from yesterday—that was Liam Croft. The Liam Croft. The one who just won a Golden Globe.” She leaned in conspiratorially. “His fans are camped outside the hospital. If anything happens to him, they’ll tear this place apart.” She paused for effect. “So, you know, whoever is watching him needs to be extremely careful. One little mistake, and it’s over for them.”
Her words were laced with poison, a thinly veiled threat. It was as if she already knew something was going to happen. She’d said something similar to me in my past life, but I’d been too naive to understand. Now, I saw it clearly. Liam Croft’s death was no accident. And Kelsey was involved.
As I was processing this, the hospital-wide alert blared through the speakers. A code blue. Liam Croft was crashing. Massive internal bleeding.
Just like before, the hospital exploded into action. Staff from every department converged on the ICU. Kelsey, putting on a masterful performance of panic, rushed in to “help” with the resuscitation efforts. A few minutes later, she and Dr. Albright emerged from the room, their faces grim.
By then, Liam’s agent, his parents, and the president of his official fan club had arrived, crowding the hallway outside the ICU.
“What the hell happened?” his agent demanded. “Yesterday you people guaranteed us he was stable! What is going on?”
“You swore he was out of the woods!” his mother cried. “Now he’s dying? You have to give us an answer!”
Dr. Albright stood before them, his expression grave. “He was stable. His vitals were normalizing. I don’t understand how he could have declined so rapidly overnight…”
His words were cut off by Liam’s father. “My God! If my son dies, this hospital will be held fully responsible!”
The chief’s face darkened. As chaos erupted, Kelsey glanced at me, her eyes glinting, and spoke in a soft, concerned voice.
“Nora was the one on duty last night, watching him,” she murmured, just loud enough for everyone to hear. “He’s hemorrhaging, and he has a high fever with signs of a severe infection. The anti-inflammatory and fever-reducing meds were supposed to be administered every three hours. If they were given on time, this shouldn’t be happening…” She let the implication hang in the air before continuing. “The only way this could happen is if the attending nurse didn’t give him his medication on schedule.”
She took a deep breath, her gaze locking onto mine.
“Nora, I know you like to slip into the hall to play on your phone during your shifts… but that was a human life. How could you be so negligent?”
She didn’t have to say it outright. With those two sentences, she painted a target on my back. The girl I’d swapped shifts with was already home, and our head nurse was on vacation. No one else knew I hadn't been there.
“What?” Liam’s mother shrieked, her voice cracking. “You were playing on your phone while my son was dying?”
His agent saw his opening. “We’re suing this hospital for everything it’s worth. You’ll all pay for this. Especially you,” he snarled, pointing a trembling finger at me. “If Liam doesn’t make it, I will destroy you.”
I was about to speak, to defend myself, when the door to the ICU slid open. It was Ethan. He pulled his surgical mask down, his face a mask of professional sorrow. “He’s in shock,” he announced to the room. “We’re losing him.”
The family, the agent, the fan club president—they all looked as if the world had just ended.
3
Liam Croft’s parents crumpled to the floor, their bodies wracked with sobs. His agent went pale, stumbling back against the wall. The fan club president fumbled for her phone, her fingers flying across the screen, no doubt updating her network.
The scene was pure pandemonium.
Just then, the hospital administrator, alerted to the crisis, arrived on the scene. And somehow, the reporters who had been camped outside had breached security. A flood of them poured into the hallway, cameras flashing, microphones extended.
Seeing the media, Liam’s mother found a new surge of strength. She scrambled to her feet, pointing a shaking finger at me. “It was her!” she screamed, her voice raw with grief. “She was supposed to be watching my son, but she was playing on her phone! She didn’t give him his medicine! If my son dies, it’s on this hospital and this worthless bitch!”
The cameras turned to me, a blinding volley of flashes. The reporters swarmed the administrator.
“Sir, is it true your hospital is guilty of fatal negligence?”
“Why would you assign such an irresponsible nurse to a high-profile patient? Was this intentional?”
The administrator was speechless.
Liam’s mother lunged at me, grabbing the collar of my scrubs. I could barely breathe. “You murderer!” she shrieked. “Give me back my son!”
“I didn’t…” I choked out.
Hearing my denial, Kelsey’s face flushed with righteous indignation. “Don’t lie, Nora. It was your shift. I saw you this morning, right in the hallway, staring at your phone.”
“It wasn’t me…”
Before I could explain, Ethan stepped forward, holding up his phone just as he had in my last life. “Nora, you’ve gone too far this time. As a doctor, I can’t cover for you.”
He pressed play. The recording filled the tense silence—my voice, exhausted after a 72-hour stretch of shifts, complaining to him at home. I’d forgotten about that conversation. I never imagined he could be so vile as to record it.
The administrator’s face turned to stone. “Nora,” he said, his voice dangerously low. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
I let out a long, slow breath. “Do you all really think it was me?” I asked calmly.
“Listen to her attitude!” the fan club president shouted. “Someone like her should be in jail!” The reporters and paparazzi went into another frenzy, their cameras focused on me.
Ethan and Kelsey saw their moment. “There’s no use running from this, Nora,” Ethan said, his voice a perfect blend of pity and condemnation. “You brought this on yourself.”
“Just confess,” Kelsey added softly. “If you fight this, it will only be worse for you.”
“Nora, just tell the truth,” Ethan urged.
All eyes were on me, waiting for my confession. A slow smile spread across my face.
“You’re all so certain it was my fault?”
“Of course it was!” Kelsey snapped. “The patient’s condition is a direct result of the attending nurse’s negligence. You can’t talk your way out of this.”
Ethan turned to the administrator. “Sir, I recommend the immediate termination of the nurse on duty last night. This is criminal. Our hospital cannot protect someone like that.”
I had waited so long for this. It was finally here.
I didn’t get angry. I laughed. Then, in a clear, steady voice that cut through the chaos, I said, “Since you’re all so sure it’s the fault of the nurse on duty, then you should be talking to Amelia Reed. We traded shifts last night.”
The words had barely left my lips when Kelsey gasped.
“That’s impossible! I saw you in the hallway this morning playing on your phone!”
I chuckled. “That’s because I had just gotten here and was clocking in for my shift.” I turned my gaze to Dr. Albright. “Chief, Amelia is your daughter, isn’t she? I swapped with her last night.”
The effect was instantaneous.
Dr. Albright’s face went rigid. Kelsey and Ethan just stood there, their mouths hanging open, looking like they’d been turned to stone.
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