From Heartbreak to High Stakes: The Night I Caught My Patient Standing (2 of 5)

A knot tightened in my chest. “What’s wrong?” My smile felt stiff.

Instead of answering, he reached into his coat—not for my hand, but for the velvet box. He didn’t open it. He pushed it toward me like it was evidence.

“I can’t marry you, Emily.”

Sixteen days before the wedding.

“Megan Langley and I… we’re a better match.” He said it like a business decision. Megan—the daughter of a man who practically owned half the West Coast.

I slid off the ring, placed it on the table, and walked away before the tears blurred my vision. By the time I got home, my belongings were neatly packed. His mother’s work, no doubt.

A Couch, a Cup of Tea, and No Plan

With less than a hundred dollars to my name, I called the only person who’d never shut the door on me—Margaret, my foster mom.

An hour later, I was curled on her worn couch, tea warming my hands.

“Stay as long as you need,” she said.

For three days, I moved through the hospital like a shadow. Then Rachel, our charge nurse, cornered me.