Chapter 77
When Valeria arrived at work, Lindsey was the first to notice the mark on her chin.
The one on her neck could be hidden with a scarf. But the faint red smear on her jaw, even though it had faded, was still visible against her fair skin.
Lindsey, the gossip queen that she was, also knew how to read the room.
Lowering her voice, she said, “Something’s going on, huh, Valeria?”
“Nothing,” Valeria replied, opening her laptop.
Lindsey leaned in. “Don’t tell me it was a mosquito bite. It’s the middle of winter. I’m not buying that.”
She squeezed Valeria’s shoulders and grinned. “But wow, that must’ve been one intense night. Biting your chin? That’s not going away anytime soon. I’ve got concealer in my bag-a super good one. Do you want to borrow it?”
She handed it over without waiting for a reply.
Valeria said quietly, “Thanks.”
From the director’s office, Sabrina’s voice echoed. Lindsey got called in. Ten minutes later, she came back out looking pale and shaken, walking on eggshells.
Queenie waved her over. “What happened, Lindsey? Why is Ms. Lawson in such a mood so early in the morning?”
Lindsey leaned in and whispered, “No idea. She might’ve had a fight with her boyfriend. She knocked everything off her desk. I had to clean it up, and she still told me to get out.”
Then she added, “I overheard her on the phone with her mom. Apparently, her boyfriend’s leaving town for some training thing and won’t be around for her birthday…”
Valeria powered on her graphics tablet and paused for several seconds.
Over the next couple of weeks, little bits of gossip trickled out of Sabrina’s office. That was how Valeria pieced it together. Sebastian had gone to Amstead.
Even though she stayed focused on her own life, it was impossible to avoid hearing about him.
…
Valeria then went to the hospital, having booked an appointment with Shawn through the hospital’s app.
Shawn flipped through Selena’s chart, then casually asked, “You’re related to Sebas, right?”
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Valeria didn’t understand why Shawn was asking that.
“Sebas showed me your daughter’s medical records.”
“We’re not related…” Valeria replied.
Shawn looked up, a little surprised. He had only asked casually at first, but now, looking at her, he gave a small smile. “Oh? Are you two dating then?”
Valeria’s eyes widened.
She hadn’t expected such a blunt question from the top heart surgeon in the city. Shawn was known for his steady, professional demeanor and precision in cardiothoracic surgery.
“No… I mean, my daughter’s six.”
“He specifically asked me to check her records and said if she needed surgery, he wanted me to do it myself.” Shawn still seemed surprised. He knew Sebastian’s personality inside and out.
Eight years ago, when Martha had cardiac surgery with only a 20% survival rate, Shawn met him for the first time. Sebastian had only been 17. But even back then, he sat across from Shawn and discussed surgical plans like a peer. 1
He had even developed a backup surgical approach using simulation models-something Shawn himself had only started doing after years of practice.
“I ran it ten times. Failed nine,” Sebastian had said calmly. “But this tenth time? I’m betting
we win, Dr. Gordon.”
That operation, done during Sebastian’s senior year of high school, had been a success.
Shawn rarely threw around the words “genius” or “prodigy”-because those words often erased the blood, sweat, and effort that got someone to that point.
He himself had once been called a medical prodigy. And he knew exactly what true genius
looked like. It looked like the 17-year-old Sebastian.
So, when Sebastian came to him before leaving for Amstead, he asked Shawn to personally
review Selena’s case. That kind of favor was pretty common in pediatric surgery.
Shawn had seen it plenty of times during consultations. For surgeries like this, he usually lets his team handle them. His team was more than capable and skilled enough to manage such
procedures with confidence and precision.
But Sebastian had specifically asked Shawn to lead the surgery himself.
Shawn chuckled and said, “What kind of friend are we talking about here? If it’s your
girlfriend’s daughter, then of course I have to say yes.”
Another doctor in the team burst out laughing.
“Dr. Gordon, what are you talking about? If she’s Dr. Grant’s girlfriend’s daughter, then what does that make Dr. Grant to her? The last time, the little girl came under Dr. Grant’s
appointment, she called him ‘Mr. Grant,’ not ‘Daddy.””
“Dr. Grant, your girlfriend’s already married and has a six-year-old kid?”
The doctors in the office had clearly found a rare opportunity to tease Sebastian-something that didn’t come often with someone as reserved and untouchable as him.
But Sebastian only responded with a faint smile.
“However you want to put it, sure. I’ll take that as a yes to the surgery,” he said calmly.
In the end, Valeria said, “Classmates.”
Then, she added, “We’re just classmates…”
Shawn nodded thoughtfully. “So, you two started dating back in school?”
At that moment, Valeria couldn’t help but see the highly respected, top-rated cardiothoracic surgeon at Slate City Medical Center in a slightly different light.
