I Stopped Loving Him When He Let Me Bleed Out novel Chapter 66

His phone was still pressed to his ear.

Finn's deep, steady voice filtered through the speaker.

"Is anyone giving her trouble?"

"No," Isaac replied quietly. "She handled it herself."

"Good."

Isaac let out a dry, exasperated laugh.

"I don't even know what's going on anymore. Everyone's in a panic over some viral video, but no one can actually pull it up. Does this footage even exist, or is it a mass hallucination?"

"If it's gone, leave it at that," Finn deflected smoothly. "Just keep an eye on her for me. I don't want this mess affecting her work."

"Understood."

Isaac ended the call.

He flagged down Penny, who was hovering near the triage desk.

"This video everyone's gossiping about. What exactly was it?"

"It's gone," Penny whispered, eyes wide. "I don't know how, but it got completely wiped off the internet."

She leaned in, looking incredibly conspiratorial.

"I know how PR spin works. Someone dropped a massive amount of cash to bury that footage."

Isaac nodded thoughtfully. If anyone had the financial firepower to scrub the internet clean, it was Finn.

He shifted his focus back to the young nurse.

"You're close with Sienna. Make sure you check in on her when she's off the clock."

"You got it, Boss."

-

Joel's CT scans finally loaded onto the system.

Sienna scrutinized the high-resolution images. There was a microscopic mass near the ileocecal valve—so tiny it was practically invisible to the untrained eye.

She snatched up the desk phone and dialed the surgical wing.

"Patient Joel Harper. Early-stage stromal tumor in the ileocecal region. I need an immediate surgical consult and admission."

The Chief of Surgery chuckled patronizingly through the receiver.

"Dr. Sterling, that mass is negligible. It doesn't meet the clinical criteria for an emergency operation. You're overreacting. The board is heavily auditing for unnecessary procedures right now. Don't go looking for trouble."

Sienna's tone hardened to steel.

"This is not an overreaction, and it is certainly not unnecessary."

"You spent too much time practicing abroad, Sienna. You clearly aren't up to speed on domestic protocols. For a minor mass like this, standard procedure is to monitor it. We schedule a follow-up scan in three months."

He grabbed the pen and signed the consent forms without another word of protest.

Before leaving, he shot her a look brimming with absolute, profound faith.

The weight of his trust settled onto Sienna's shoulders—a heavy, unbreakable vow of responsibility.

Gossip about the radical diagnosis spread like wildfire through the department.

Several surgeons were huddled in the hall, muttering among themselves.

"Dr. Sterling has completely lost her mind. Cutting open a patient for a microscopic spot? That's textbook malpractice."

"She thinks just because she did her residency overseas, she's better than the rest of us."

"I heard she's trying to make it big as an internet influencer. No wonder her medical judgment is compromised."

Striding down the corridor, Sienna stopped dead in her tracks.

"Care to repeat that?"

She didn't give a damn about personal insults, but if a patient overheard this toxic chatter, it could destroy their confidence and jeopardize their recovery.

She could not let these reckless rumors breed.

A young female surgeon stepped forward, lifting her chin aggressively.

"Dr. Sterling, aren't you ashamed of pushing a patient into an unnecessary operation? The board has explicitly banned bullying patients into admissions. St. Jude's isn't a cash grab designed to drain patients' bank accounts. What you're doing is wildly unethical."