Chapter 2

The deputy director stood there, furious and out of options in equal measure.

I gave a faint smile and pointed at the door. “Don't let me keep you.”

He ground his teeth, then finally turned to go.

But before he stepped out.

He left me one more warning.

“Examiner Delgado, there is nothing wrong with Cornelia Pruitt's certification file.”

“Her practical exam and her written exam.”

“Both are fully documented.”

“Blocking her certification on purpose is an abuse of authority.”

“We can report you to your superiors at any time.”

“When we do, you won't just lose your chief examiner status.”

“You could even end up in prison.”

“We'll give you one day to think it over carefully.”

“I'll be back tomorrow.”

After the deputy director left.

My secretary stepped out and pulled the door shut for me.

I took a few yellowed files from the drawer.

One of them held the complete surgical record from eighteen years ago, when my mother died despite treatment.

On the surface, the surgical record looked clean.

But after years of relentless effort.

I had finally traced the flaw buried inside it.

At the time, my father was busy operating on the one who got away.

He had no attention to spare for my mother.

So he handed her surgery to his assistant.

His assistant's certification rank wasn't high enough.

An attending physician with three full years of service could be granted Level III surgical privileges.

But my mother's operation was Level IV.

An ultra-high-risk major surgery!

By rank, my father's assistant could only serve as an assistant on a Level IV procedure.

He was in no way qualified to lead one.

So the surgery they performed on my mother that day.

Was nothing less than an unauthorized procedure.

And it was the root cause of why her surgery failed!

Only because my father was a chief physician.

He buried the whole thing.

Apart from the few people who knew at the time.

No outsider had any way of learning the truth.

The hospital was afraid the case would blow up into a public scandal.

So they didn't dare make the facts known either.

And because I was only a child then, I had no way to pursue it.

In the end, it all faded away with nothing done.

I studied hard for eighteen years.

All to bring the people whose unauthorized procedure killed my mother on that operating table to justice!

I had planned to go after Cole Pruitt once the certification exams were over.

But whether it was fate at work, I couldn't say.

Cole Pruitt's daughter wanted to pass the physician-licensing exam.

And I just happened to be her chief examiner!

Word spread quickly.

That I had refused to sign off, citing Cornelia Pruitt's failure to meet the certification standards.

A superior made a point of coming to see me.

Asking for the details.

I knew he'd been sent by Cole Pruitt, pulling strings to sound me out.

I kept my mouth shut and answered with a single line.

“I have my own standards.”

It came off as high-handed.

But as long as the disciplinary inspection team hadn't opened an internal investigation, hadn't stripped me of my chief examiner authority.

I had the power to decide, with one word, who passed and who didn't!

But Cole Pruitt was no pushover, and his counterstrike came fast.

The next morning.

The deputy director showed up at my office, this time with the disciplinary inspection team.