Chapter 11 - The Brother
The double doors of the trauma bay swung open, and the chaos of the room suddenly halted. A tall figure in navy blue scrubs stepped up to the gurney. The name badge clipped to his chest read: Dr. Liam Vance, Chief of Emergency Medicine.
Ethan smiled, a massive wave of relief washing over his face. He didn't recognize Liam. He had never bothered to meet my brother, dismissing my family as irrelevant the moment we were married. To Ethan, Liam was just another nameless doctor ready to be manipulated.
"Doctor, thank God," Ethan said, his voice thick with fake tears. "My wife is clumsy. She took a terrible fall in the bathroom."
Liam ignored him completely. He stopped beside my bed and looked down at me. For a split second, I saw the raw, agonizing heartbreak of a brother seeing his sister shattered. But it vanished instantly, replaced by the lethal, clinical detachment of a man going to war.
Liam’s eyes moved meticulously over my body. He noted the split, swollen lip. He saw the fading yellow bruise on my cheekbone from a week ago. Finally, his gaze locked onto the dark, distinct, finger-shaped purpura blossoming around my throat.
Shower falls do not leave handprints on a trachea.
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Liam slowly raised his head. His face emptied of all warmth, his eyes turning deadly cold as they locked onto Ethan.
"She didn’t fall," Liam said. The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
