I Stopped Loving Him When He Let Me Bleed Out novel Chapter 176

The pulse was rapid and erratic. His lips were a ghastly shade of purple, and his consciousness was fading fast.

"What is his medical history?"

"Coronary artery disease! He has three stents!"

"Where is his medication?"

"In the bag! But I can't find it!"

Sienna snatched the bag from the panicked woman's hands, practically tearing it open to find the nitroglycerin, and swiftly slipped a tablet under his tongue.

"Call an ambulance!"

No one in the crowd moved.

They were all too busy staring, mesmerized, cameras still rolling.

Sienna snapped her head up and looked right at Maeve.

"Maeve, I need your help over here right now!"

Maeve didn't even bat an eyelash.

Panic edged into Sienna's voice.

"Maeve, this is life or death!"

Maeve's response was flat and utterly detached.

"Karma never misses."

Sienna thought she had lost her mind.

"What did you just say?"

Maeve finally looked up, shooting Sienna an indifferent, icy glare.

"I'm busy. I can't step away."

Sienna glanced back down at the man's face.

The cyanosis around his lips was worsening, but he was still drawing breath.

His heart rate was dangerously high, but he hadn't gone into cardiac arrest.

He could hold on a little longer.

But she couldn't afford to take that gamble.

The sun was dipping below the horizon, Joey was nowhere to be found, and they were surrounded by nothing but a circle of useless, gawking tourists.

The only two trained medical professionals out here were herself and the veteran vet.

Sienna pleaded one last time.

"Maeve, it's a matter of triage. Given the circumstances, the deer can wait, but this man cannot."

Maeve completely ignored her.

With maddening calm, she finished tying off the suture she was working on, snipped the thread, and rose to her feet.

Realizing she was entirely on her own, Sienna desperately checked her phone. She barely had a single bar of service, but managed to dial 911, only to be told the ambulance was a brutal thirty minutes away.

Maeve let out a dark chuckle.

"He brought it on himself. Why on earth would I save him? But look at you, playing the self-righteous hero, saving absolute scum. Thanks to you, there will be more innocent animals dying at his hands in the future."

A chill ran down Sienna's spine at those words, but she refused to accept the accusation of being self-righteous.

"I am a doctor. I save lives. I don't get to choose who lives or dies based on whether they're a good person. I saved him because it's my duty. It has nothing to do with right or wrong."

Maeve stared at her in silence for several long seconds.

"Then you are you, and I am me. We walk very different paths. Don't speak to me again."

Sienna pressed on, undeterred.

"Based on the way you sutured that wound, veterinary medicine wasn't your original field of study, was it?"

Maeve's footsteps faltered for a fraction of a second.

Sienna's suspicions hardened into certainty.

"You originally studied clinical medicine. You used to be a human surgeon, didn't you?"

Maeve didn't turn around, nor did she offer a single word of confirmation. She merely stooped to pick up her medical kit and walked away into the fading light.

Watching the worn leather of that bag, Sienna's thoughts violently snapped back to the weathered photograph, a hurricane of unanswered questions raging in her mind.

Even though the woman had made it abundantly clear she wanted nothing to do with her.

Sienna gritted her teeth, chased her down, and blocked her path.

"Maeve, there is one more thing I need to ask you. In your bag..."