Chapter 4

4: 4

The ER corridor was a wall of noise. I lay on the gurney, blood spilling steadily from the corner of my mouth, soaking a raw red stain into the white pillowcase.

The nurse was about to push me into the trauma room when Lucretia hurried in, holding Julian up by the arm.

She caught sight of me covered in blood and stopped short, something startled flickering in her eyes.

But Julian spoke first.

"Connor came running here too?"

"He was perfectly fine at home a minute ago. How does he vomit this much blood the second he reaches the hospital? He's not still angry that you took me in for tests first, is he? Blowing this up on purpose?"

The hesitation in Lucretia's eyes vanished at once.

She looked down at me, her expression frighteningly cold.

"Connor, do you have any idea this is an emergency room?"

"You'd stoop to a stunt like this just to get ahead of Julian? Aren't you afraid of holding up someone who actually needs saving?"

I was shaking all over from the pain, without even the strength to explain.

The nurse couldn't hold back:

"The patient has massive gastric bleeding, and his blood pressure is dropping. He needs treatment immediately."

The head of the Emergency Department recognized Lucretia and came over quickly.

But Lucretia planted herself in front of the gurney, her voice low and firm:

"He only took a blow to the abdomen, and he's fully conscious. Run the triage assessment by protocol first."

"Julian has a record of abnormal cardiac enzymes. Give him the cardiac monitor first."

The department head looked at the shocking amount of blood on me, his face tightening with difficulty.

"Director James, this patient's condition is clearly more urgent."

"Whether it's urgent is decided by the test results, not by who makes the bigger scene."

Lucretia's brow knotted, her tone leaving no room for argument.

"Being my husband doesn't entitle him to skip the normal process."

Julian leaned against her side and added, low:

"Connor has never liked me. If I take up the machine, he'll just accuse you of playing favorites again."

Lucretia's face went colder still, and she walked him straight to the exam bed.

"We do this by the rules. No one gets to throw a fit."

I curled up against the pain, opened my mouth, and found I didn't even have the strength to speak.

So in her eyes, even vomiting blood was just me angling for her attention.

At that moment, the blood-pressure monitor let out a shrill alarm.

"Patient's blood pressure is still falling. Resuscitate, now!"

The on-call doctor shoved Lucretia away from the front of the gurney and rushed me into the trauma room.

A surgeon from the Gastroenterology Surgery Department hurried in with the test results.

"Severe gastric perforation causing massive hemorrhage. He needs a partial gastrectomy immediately, or his life is at risk!"

The nurse held out the surgical consent form.

"Mr. Cooley, you're conscious, so you can sign for yourself. Should we notify your family?"

My face was bloodless as I dragged out a smile uglier than crying.

"No need."

"I don't have any family."

As the pen dragged across the paper, a part of my own body was being cut clean out of me too.

At the same time, the funeral home still couldn't reach me, and had no choice but to call the backup number on file.

Lucretia was sitting outside the private ward, waiting for Julian's test results.

The call connected, and the staff member asked in a flat, procedural tone:

"Good evening, Ms. James. Your father-in-law's body reaches the end of its cold-storage period tonight. When will the family come to arrange the cremation?"

Lucretia shot to her feet, her face darkening fast.

"Connor put you up to this?"

"Tell him a lie like this only makes me despise him more."

The staff member paused, thrown.

"Ms. James, this is the city funeral home—"

"Enough."

Lucretia hung up and blocked the number.

After the surgery to remove part of my stomach, I lay on the cold hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling without moving.

The nurse wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth, then turned her head away, eyes reddening.

Elsewhere, Lucretia got up to fetch water from the pantry.

Passing the ER nurses' station, she walked straight into the night-shift handover.

A few nurses were keeping their voices down.

"That patient earlier, Connor Cooley, he's so pitiful. His own father died just two days ago when they couldn't save him, and today he perforates his stomach and hemorrhages himself, loses more than half his stomach."

"I heard he signed the consent form alone. Didn't even fill in an emergency contact."

Another nurse frowned.

"Isn't his wife in the hospital too?"

"She is. That Director James who said earlier he didn't meet the criteria for resuscitation."

"Her own husband has a severe ulcer and she does nothing, nearly held up the resuscitation on top of it. What kind of wife is that?"

The blood in Lucretia's body froze all at once.

The thermos hit the floor with a bang, scalding water splashing over the top of her foot, and she seemed not to feel the pain at all.

She turned stiffly, staring at the nurses with red-rimmed eyes, her voice shaking to pieces.

"Who did you just say died?"

"Who hemorrhaged?"