The emergency alarm echoed through every corridor of Acharya Multispecialty Hospital.
"Code Blue! Emergency OT!"
Doctors and nurses immediately rushed toward the emergency ward.
Mia instinctively stood up.
She looked at the patient file that one of the junior doctors was carrying.
Her expression immediately changed.
The case was critical.
A young man had suffered severe chest trauma after a road accident. His heartbeat was dropping rapidly.
One wrong decision...
And they would lose him.
The junior doctor looked around nervously.
"Doctor Mia... we need help."
She turned toward Mayank.
Her little boy was finally sleeping peacefully.
His fever had started reducing slowly because of the IV fluids.
Leo noticed the hesitation in her eyes.
"Go."
She looked at him.
"But..."
"I'll stay with him."
"You don't even know...."
"He'll be safe."
His voice wasn't loud.
It wasn't forceful.
But somehow...
She believed him.
For the first time since entering the hospital, Mia slowly nodded.
"Please... if he wakes up..."
"I'll call you immediately."
She gave one last kiss on Mayank's forehead before rushing toward the emergency ward.
Leo quietly pulled a chair beside the hospital bed.
The room became silent once again.
Only the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor filled the air.
He looked at the little boy sleeping peacefully.
"So..."
"Our little Iron Man is fighting a fever."
A tiny smile appeared on his face.
"You'll win."
"You always do."
Unknowingly, he gently brushed a few strands of hair away from Mayank's forehead.
The gesture felt...
Natural.
Too natural.
Almost as if he had done it countless times before.
Meanwhile...
Inside the emergency room...
"His pulse is dropping!"
"BP is falling!"
The junior doctors exchanged anxious glances.
Mia immediately put on her gloves.
"Move."
Everyone stepped aside without hesitation.
"Prepare one milligram adrenaline."
"Increase oxygen."
"Charge the defibrillator."
The room moved with perfect coordination.
"Pulse?"
"We're losing him!"
Mia climbed onto the stool beside the patient and immediately began chest compressions.
"One..."
"Two..."
"Three..."
Sweat formed across her forehead.
Again.
Again.
Again.
"Come on..."
"You're not dying today."
The monitor suddenly gave a long continuous tone.
The room froze.
The junior doctor whispered,
"Doctor..."
Mia clenched her jaw.
"No."
She refused to give up.
"Continue CPR."
Another round.
Another.
Another.
Then....
Beep...
Beep...
Beep...
The monitor finally showed a steady rhythm.
"We have a pulse!"
Relief spread across the room.
The junior doctors smiled in disbelief.
One of them looked at Mia with admiration.
"You saved him."
She removed her gloves slowly.
"No."
She said softly,
"He chose to live."
Outside the operating room, she leaned against the wall for a moment, closing her eyes.
Saving lives...
This was why she became a doctor.
This was the only world she wanted.
A world where people survived.
Not one where people killed to survive.
After washing her hands, she hurried back toward Mayank's room.
As she walked through the corridor, she noticed a familiar figure sitting on the floor outside the room.
Leo.
His elbows rested on his knees.
Both hands pressed against his head.
His breathing was uneven.
He looked like he was fighting something invisible.
Mia rushed toward him.
"Leo!"
He didn't respond.
She knelt beside him.
His forehead was covered in sweat.
"What happened?"
He slowly looked up.
Pain filled his eyes.
"My..."
"My head..."
Fragments flashed before him.
White snow.
A frozen road.
Gunshots.
Blood staining the snow.
A woman in a white coat.
"Stay with me!"
Her desperate voice echoed inside his mind.
Hands pressing against his wounds.
Warm tears falling onto his face.
A silver ring shining beneath the operating lights.
Leo grabbed his head harder.
"It hurts..."
Mia instinctively held his shoulders.
"Look at me."
"Slowly."
"Breathe."
"Inhale..."
"Exhale..."
"That's it."
Her calm voice somehow reached him through the chaos.
His breathing gradually steadied.
He looked directly into her eyes.
For a long moment...
Neither of them spoke.
Then...
In a quiet, trembling voice...
Leo asked,
"Were you..."
"...the doctor who treated me in Switzerland?"
Mia's heart stopped.
Her fingers froze around his arm.
He remembered...
Not everything.
But enough.
Thousands of thoughts rushed through her mind.
If he remembered everything...
He would remember their love.
Their promise.
The child she carried.
No...
Not yet.
She forced herself to remain calm.
"Yes."
Her answer was barely above a whisper.
"I treated you."
"You had been shot."
"Seven bullets."
"You had lost a dangerous amount of blood."
Leo stared at her.
"So..."
"It wasn't a dream."
Mia slowly shook her head.
"It was real."
He looked away, trying to piece everything together.
"So that's how you knew who I was..."
Mia lowered her eyes.
"I found out after your family arrived."
"I realised you belonged to the mafia."
"I didn't want myself..."
"...or my newborn son..."
"...to become part of that world."
Leo looked at her silently.
A newborn son...
So...
She had already loved someone else.
She already had a family.
The strange pain inside his heart suddenly made sense.
Not because he had remembered love...
But because he had remembered the woman who once saved his life.
And now...
She belonged to someone else.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
It was calm.
But heartbreak hid behind it.
"I understand now."
"You were never afraid of me..."
"You were protecting your family."
He slowly stood up.
"Thank you..."
"For saving my life."
"And..."
"I'm sorry for disturbing yours."
Mia watched him quietly.
She wanted to tell him the truth.
That Mayank was his son.
That she had never married.
That she still loved him.
Instead...
She remained silent.
Because sometimes...
The hardest lies...
Were the ones told to protect the people you loved.