Chapter 1

At three in the morning, a piercing ringtone shattered my sleep. It was the ER.

On the other end, Nurse Brenda’s voice was frantic. "Dr. Vance, you need to get down here right now! We have two bizarre patients. Their arms... they’re literally fused together. It’s like they’re growing into one!"

I rubbed my temples as I threw on my white coat, sighing. I figured it was just another pair of wild college kids playing some stupid late-night prank.

But the moment I pushed open the trauma room doors, the annoyed expression on my face froze.

There they were, looking like a pair of grotesque, struggling conjoined twins. Their skin was weirdly blended together at the forearms. One of them was my mentor, Dr. Richard Sterling, a man who had been like a father to me.

The other was Vanessa—my wife, the woman I loved more than life itself.

It was Friday night. I had just finished lead-operating on a grueling burn-graft surgery and was about to clock out when the emergency pager went off.

"Dr. Vance! ER Bay A! Now!"

It was Jimmy, our intern. His voice was shaking violently.

My heart sank. I thought one of our recovering firefighters was having an acute rejection episode.

I rushed toward the ER while changing my clothes, trying to calm him down. "Don't panic, Jimmy. Deep breaths. What’s the situation?"

"Dr. Vance... you just have to see it for yourself," Jimmy sounded like he was on the verge of tears. "Two people... their arms are literally grown together!"

Grown together?

I stopped dead in my tracks. A million medical anomalies flashed through my mind. I had performed separation surgeries on conjoined twins before, but two adults fusing together later in life? What kind of sick joke was this?

"Is it skin adhesion? Did they get stuck together with superglue or industrial epoxy?" I pressed.

"Neither!" Jimmy cried. "They are literally joined! Flesh and blood! It’s like one continuous sheet of skin!"

I didn't have time to process it. I took the stairs three at a time and burst into the ER.

The sharp, sterile smell of bleach was mixed with low, agonizing groans.

And then, I saw it. The most absurd sight of my career.

On two adjacent gurneys lay a man and a woman. Their right and left arms, from elbow to wrist, were seamlessly bound together. The skin connecting them was smooth and perfect. There were no stitches, no scars, as if they had been born this way.

The sight was so unnatural that even after twenty years as the Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, my scalp went numb.

But a second later, when I saw the woman’s face—flushed red with a mixture of pain and shame—the blood in my veins completely turned to ice.

It was Vanessa. My wife of five years.

And the man beside her was Dr. Richard Sterling, the legendary medical pioneer who had mentored me and whom she always spoke of with the utmost respect.

"What are you staring at? Haven't you ever seen a medical experiment go wrong? Do something!"

Vanessa—the woman who was usually so soft-spoken and blushed whenever she raised her voice—glared at me. Her eyes held a venomous, hateful look I had never seen before.

Both she and Dr. Sterling were wearing messy hotel bathrobes. Their hair was damp, and they smelled faintly of cheap hotel body wash.

A loud buzz rang through my head, as if I had been struck by a sledgehammer. My legs felt weak, and I could barely stand.

"Dr. Vance," Nurse Brenda said, her expression incredibly awkward as she handed me a clipboard. "Dr. Sterling needs an emergency separation surgery immediately. But... we need a family member to sign the consent form. We can't reach his wife, Eleanor."

Vanessa shrieked, "Don't call Eleanor! She has a severe heart condition. She can't find out about this! Ethan, just sign the damn paper! You’re his protégé, you have the authority. Sign it!"

The surrounding staff looked at me. Their eyes were a mix of sympathy, pity, and a barely concealed urge to gossip.

I could practically hear their thoughts: *So, this is the sweet, devoted wife Dr. Vance always brags about.*

Just yesterday, I was bragging to my colleagues about how Vanessa had taken a day off to prepare a "special anniversary surprise" for me at home.

Well, this was the surprise. She was literally glued to another man.

I took a deep, shaky breath, forcing down the overwhelming wave of nausea and fury. "I can't sign this," I forced out.

"Why not?!" Vanessa’s voice pitched dangerously high. "Ethan Vance! Are you trying to kill Dr. Sterling? If anything happens to him, I swear... I will ruin you!"

She tried to sit up, but the movement yanked at the fused flesh. Both of them let out a painful groan.

Dr. Sterling’s face was deathly pale. Sweat dripped from his forehead, but the look he gave me was still full of condescending authority.

"Ethan," he wheezed, using his usual paternal tone to command me. "Don't act like a child. We were testing a new bio-gel formula, and there was an accident. Lives are on the line. Learn to prioritize."

A bio-gel formula?

I wanted to laugh.

That was my project. I had spent three years of blood, sweat, and tears to make a breakthrough on the core formula. Since Richard was my mentor, he had access to the files. But my project was still in the animal-testing phase.

And they were "testing" it on themselves, in a hotel room, wearing bathrobes?

"No," I repeated. My voice was quiet, but rock solid. "Hospital policy states a direct family member must sign the consent form for a high-risk experimental procedure. Otherwise, if anything goes wrong, the department cannot take the legal fall."

"You selfish bastard!" Vanessa’s face contorted with rage. She pointed her free hand at my face, screaming, "Ethan Vance, you ungrateful leech! Who got you out of that small-town clinic and secured your residency? Who funded your research? Now that we need a simple signature to save a life, you're playing bureaucracy games?!"

"Dr. Vance, maybe... maybe you should just sign it," Jimmy whispered, pulling gently on my sleeve. "Vanessa... I mean, she has a point. Dr. Sterling is your mentor. And if they file a formal complaint against you, your promotion to Chief Medical Officer this year will..."

A smug gleam flashed in Vanessa’s eyes. She knew me too well. She knew how hard I had worked for the CMO position. She was betting everything that I wouldn't risk my career.

My heart felt like it was being squeezed by an icy hand, suffocating me.

I looked at her, savoring every syllable. "Vanessa, if you say one more word, I am filing for divorce."

Then, I turned to Nurse Brenda. "Notify the administration. I am officially recusing myself from this surgery due to a personal conflict of interest."

I ripped off my white coat, threw it onto the floor, and walked out under the stunned silence of the entire ER.

**Chapter 2**