A Man with Nerves of Steel (Joseph Hart) novel Chapter 123

Chapter 123

The ICU department wasn’t just treating one patient. Everyone admitted there had one foot in the grave. Throughout the day, Joseph was either discussing treatment plans with other doctors or personally rushing into emergency rescues.

By the time he got off work, it was already 8:00 pm. The moment he walked through the front door, he noticed Cora’s scowl; it was clearly directed at him.

Joseph asked, “Did I do something?”

“Of course! What’s wrong with your classmate, Bill? He has been going around telling people that your wife is a nightclub hostess,” Cora snapped.

“Bill? What did he say? How did you hear about it?” Joseph questioned.

“Bill is spreading word of that hospital dorm incident across your alumni chat and our daughters’ parent groups. He’s even hired people to smear you online. It’s relentless! Has he lost his mind?” Cora was displeased.

Joseph understood the situation at once. It had been barely a day, yet Bill was already launching an all- out assault. How much did the man hate him? If he truly wanted vengeance, he could have come for Joseph directly. Instead, he had chosen to drag everyone else into the fray-though Joseph noted with a cynical shift in thought, Cora was hardly innocent in this either.

Joseph responded, “Bill doesn’t have the skills to work in the ICU department. Letting him into the department was a joke. I transferred him out, so now he has turned against me. However, Cora, all those rumors about you started because of your own actions.

“You sent that woman to my dorm and arranged for pictures to be taken. You spread them around the hospital afterward as well. Now, you’re asking who’s to blame? Me? No, blame yourself!”

“How could you tell people your wife was some kind of hostess?” Cora questioned.

Joseph answered, “Because she was dressed like one. If I hadn’t said she was my wife, everyone would have assumed I was fooling around with another woman in the dorm.

“The only way to shut down the rumors was to say she was my wife and that we were having a normal marital relationship. Then, it stopped being a scandal.”

“Even now, you’re still blaming me. Forget it. Just know that I intend to make Bill pay a price he won’t soon forget. Don’t blame me for what happens next.”

“What’s that got to do with me?” Joseph asked, his tone indifferent. He then walked off to heat up his food and take a shower.

Meanwhile, Cora returned to her study, still furious. She immediately gave her people orders. Crushing Bill would be no harder than crushing an ant.

Before she could react, he wrapped an arm around her waist and hoisted her onto his shoulder. A startled yelp escaped her lips.

Using his heel, he kicked the door shut behind them. Then, he carried her to the bed and dropped her onto the mattress. The bed bounced beneath her, sending ripples through her body.

When everything was over, Joseph rolled onto his back and got ready to sleep. At this moment, Cora said, “Honey, you must have something you want to ask me. Go ahead and ask. I’ll tell you.”

“Who is the man you’re seeing outside?” Joseph asked.

“I don’t have another man. I only have you. That isn’t what I meant. I meant, aren’t you curious how I dealt with Bill? Ask me, and I’ll tell you.”

“That has nothing to do with me. What matters to me is that you cheated on me.”

Cora defended herself. “I didn’t cheat on you, and I never betrayed you. I love you.”

She didn’t dare to say anything more. She curled up in the crook of Joseph’s arm. The thought of his distrust weighed heavily on her. She felt a sense of danger as if the truth she had worked so hard to hide might one day come crashing into the open. 3