What Robbie McAvoy Didn't Know

Jim Hartley, the most respected veteran specialist at Lydian Medical Center, sat for his final interview before retirement. When the host asked if any patient had left a lasting impression on him, he fell silent for a long moment, then let out a heavy sigh. "There is one. My worthless daughter. "She graduated from one of the country's top medical schools, and then threw it all away to be with some penniless nobody. "I only wanted what was best for her future. The night they'd secretly arranged to meet, I locked her in the house and kept them apart. "What I never imagined was that the boy would go on to study medicine himself. These days, he's the youngest oncologist at Fairview General Hospital." A murmur rippled through the studio audience. Sensing an opening, the host pressed further. "If it were happening now, would you still keep the two of them apart?" Jim faltered. His eyes slowly reddened. "It's too late for that. My daughter died of stomach cancer three years ago." The segment went viral the moment it aired, climbing straight to the top of the trending charts. Robbie McAvoy, the story's leading man, had no idea any of it had happened. He'd just wrapped up a critical stomach cancer surgery and was on his way home to meet his wife, Whitney Portman. Chapter 1 Robbie McAvoy walked in the door just in time to catch the tail end of the interview playing on the screen. Beside him, his wife, Whitney Portman, let out a startled gasp. "Honey, isn't that your ex-girlfriend's father? I heard his daughter—" Before she could finish, Robbie's voice cut through the room, cold as ice. "I've never had an ex-girlfriend." Whitney froze. As if realizing how harsh he'd sounded, Robbie pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, and when he spoke again, his voice had softened. "Whitney, I'm sorry." He crossed the room and bent down to kiss her forehead. "Marrying you was the luckiest thing that's ever happened to me. Just promise me you won't bring up people who don't matter anymore, okay?" When he said "people who don't matter," something like hatred flickered through his eyes. My soul drifted silently at his side, and I didn't miss it. Even a heart that had stopped beating years ago could still ache. I let out a quiet sigh. Six years, and he still hated me this much. Hated me for standing him up. Hated me for vanishing when he needed me most. Hated me for letting him hear about my engagement to someone else. And most of all, hated me for failing to save his Grandma Maggie. That hatred had become the fuel that drove him to claw his way to the top. In just five years, he'd become the youngest rising star in the hospital—more celebrated than even my father had ever been, the same man who'd once looked down on him. Whitney didn't say anything else. She just patted his back gently, a small comfort. A little while later, Robbie got called in for an emergency surgery. He didn't even stop to eat—just grabbed his keys and rushed back to the hospital. The moment he stepped through the doors, he ran into my father, who'd just come from finishing his interview. Robbie's expression darkened instantly. He walked past as if he hadn't seen him at all. Only as they passed each other did he catch the old man's quiet sigh. "What happened back then—I'm the one who wronged you both." Robbie didn't break stride. "No need to apologize." He tilted his head, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "In fact, I should be thanking you for tearing me and Selena apart back then. If you hadn't, I never would have gotten where I am today, and I never would have met a wife as sweet and devoted as Whitney. "Did you know? It wasn't until after I left Selena that I realized there was a woman this perfect in the world." Chapter 2 With that, Robbie didn't spare Jim another glance. He turned and walked away without looking back. The grueling four-hour surgery wrapped up soon after. While Robbie was scrubbing out, the anesthesiologist came over and let out a long breath. "That was way too close. The patient's eyes flew open halfway through—scared me half to death." He paused. "Come to think of it, a surgery that risky... back in the day, only you and Selena Hartley could have pulled it off, right?" He shook his head. "Such a shame she'd already quit by the time you joined the hospital. Otherwise, I could've watched the two of you work together, as husband and wife—" Before he could finish, the faucet shut off with a sharp click, and silence dropped over the room. After a long moment, Robbie gave a thin smile. "You've got it wrong. She and I were never married." My soul drifted in the air, and I gave a bitter smile. He wasn't wrong. Robbie and I never made it to the altar, not even at the very end. Six years ago, Robbie didn't hate me the way he does now. Quite the opposite—he loved me more than anyone else in the world. He used to bring me home-cooked dinners whenever I worked late, pick me up from work every single day without fail, and once threw himself between me and a knife-wielding relative of a patient without a second thought. The day his Grandma Maggie was diagnosed with stomach cancer, Robbie—a man who always had everything under control—looked lost for the first time. He sat outside the hospital alone until dark, and when I finally came out, he instinctively tried to hide the report behind his back. I snatched it away. The moment I saw the diagnosis, my chest tightened. But he was still smiling. "It's fine. The doctor said it's not serious." I didn't call him out on the lie. That night, I pulled every resource I could find and reached out to my mentors and colleagues. I stayed up for two straight nights putting together the safest possible surgical plan for her. When I dragged myself, exhausted, to see him, this man—who hadn't shed a single tear even after learning Grandma Maggie had cancer—finally let his eyes go red. Fat tears rolled down his face as he cupped my cheek. "Selena, are you tired?" I kissed the corner of his mouth and smiled. "The day Grandma Maggie's surgery succeeds, let's go get our marriage license." Robbie froze. Then, after a long moment, he broke down and cried. He told me he must have saved the galaxy in a past life to deserve me. He said the greatest happiness of his life would be making me his wife. We walked home hand in hand, looking forward to Grandma Maggie's recovery and to registering our marriage together. Then my father came back from a business trip abroad and found out I was planning to marry Robbie. He refused outright. "What's so special about some penniless nobody? I didn't raise you all these years just to watch you throw yourself away like this!" We argued, and in a fit of rage, he struck me across the face. Before I could even recover, he shoved me into my room and locked the door, determined to stop me from going through with the marriage. I pounded on the door, begging him to understand—Grandma Maggie's surgery mattered, it really mattered. I screamed myself hoarse, pleading with him to at least let me finish the operation. But my father didn't believe me. He was convinced it was nothing more than an excuse to go see Robbie. He even went so far as to drive to the hospital, where Robbie was anxiously waiting for me to come perform Grandma Maggie's surgery. By the time my father was done talking, I'd become, in his telling, a woman who was already engaged to someone else—a woman who'd never cared about Robbie or his grandmother at all. "She's happy now. I'd advise you not to go bothering her." Grandma Maggie heard every word of it. Chapter 3 Grandma Maggie's condition took a sudden, violent turn, spiraling downward without warning. Every doctor on staff tried everything they could to save her, but the surgery she needed—only I could perform it. By the time I broke through the door and ran out, my feet were bleeding. By the time I reached the hospital, it was already too late. I became the doctor responsible for a catastrophic medical error. Grandma Maggie's resuscitation failed, and she died in agony. Robbie stood at the end of the hallway, his eyes cold as ice. "I liked you. More fool me. But what did my grandmother ever do to deserve this? "The youngest oncologist at Lydian Medical Center, Selena Hartley—is this how you treat your patients? "My grandmother is dead. Are you satisfied now?" I shook my head frantically, desperate to explain. But Robbie wouldn't so much as look at me again. He turned and walked away, indifferent. Because of what happened, my father and I had a violent falling-out. I signed papers formally cutting all ties with him and left without looking back. Furious, my father used his influence to have me blacklisted from the entire medical profession. By my third year working at the factory, I couldn't stop the stomach pain, couldn't stop coughing up blood. Years of medical experience told me immediately—my body wasn't going to hold out much longer. The memory had run long. By the time I surfaced from it, Robbie had already turned the faucet back on. The anesthesiologist stood there for a long moment, looking embarrassed, and scratched his head. "Sorry—you two seemed so close back then, I just assumed..." A flicker of mockery crossed Robbie's eyes. "Close" was a word that only applied to the past. Whatever we'd once had was long gone by the time it ended. The year cancer was tearing me apart, Robbie had just pulled off an incredibly successful surgery that made him a rising star in the medical world. He was the only one who could treat what I had. But I didn't dare go find him. Three years earlier, Grandma Maggie's death had haunted me like a nightmare that wouldn't let go. Countless nights, twisted with physical pain, I woke up crying from that same dream—apologizing over and over, drowning in regret, hating my father, hating myself. But fate loves its little twists of drama. After I collapsed in my rented room, my landlady found me and immediately called an ambulance. I was rushed to the hospital, and when the doctor learned I was refusing treatment, he asked me, stunned, why. I gave a bitter laugh and told him it was because I didn't have the money. The doctor went quiet. As I was leaning against the wall, making my way out, I ran straight into Robbie. He was dressed in a crisp white coat, discussing a cancer surgery plan with another doctor nearby. The moment he saw me, the smile vanished from his lips. "What are you doing here?" I hesitated. A thousand things I wanted to say collapsed into one sentence. "Robbie—the thing that happened three years ago. Can you forgive me?" He glanced at me once, his gaze cool and distant, and tossed out a single line without turning back. "Only if you're dead." I stood frozen, staring at his retreating back, and gave a bitter smile, thinking I would be dead soon enough. And then, maybe, he'd finally... forgive me. I blinked my dry eyes and came back to myself, looking down at Robbie. He'd already finished drying his hands and was walking out, his face blank. In the hallway, he ran into my father again, who'd come to finish up his retirement paperwork. Only then did Robbie's mouth twist into something like a smirk as he finally answered the anesthesiologist's earlier question. "There's nothing between me and someone like Selena Hartley. Never was." My father's steps faltered. He looked at Robbie, his expression complicated. After a long moment, he let out a heavy sigh. "Don't blame Selena for what happened back then. She didn't do anything wrong. It was all on me." Chapter 4 "But she'll never hear any of it now," Jim said. Robbie's movements stilled for a moment. He swept a cold glance over my father's face. Jim seemed lost in some private grief, his voice heavy. "Tomorrow I'm taking Selena's ashes and leaving the country. If there's anything you still want to say to her, you can find her at the cemetery on the west side of town..." Robbie stood rooted to the spot, the overhead light washing his face pale. He didn't know how long he'd been standing there when the anesthesiologist's hesitant voice pulled him back. "What did Dr. Hartley mean by that? Now that I think about it, I really haven't heard anything about Selena in a long time." Robbie shed his scrubs, his expression settling back into its usual indifference. He hung the garment on the rack, his tone mocking. "A woman like her always had a flair for the dramatic. Though I do need to take tomorrow off—to go to the cemetery on the west side of town." "To... confirm something?" Robbie lowered his gaze, his tone even. "Don't read into it. Tomorrow's my grandmother's death anniversary. I'm just going to see her." He added, "I just hope I don't run into anyone irrelevant while I'm there." But he was disappointed. The next day, just as Robbie finished his visit to his grandmother's grave and turned to leave, he ran into my father anyway. At the sight of him, my father's hand froze mid-motion as he was tending the grave. "You came." Robbie lowered his eyes to the small, modest headstone, his voice giving nothing away. "I didn't expect you'd actually go so far as to dig up a plot of land, just to convince me Selena is dead." He looked up. "So tell me. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?" My father was silent for a moment, then forced the words out. "Robbie, the one who did wrong all those years ago was me. Not Selena. If you want to hate someone, hate me. "Back then, if I hadn't locked her in the house, if I hadn't stopped her from going to see you, she never would have missed the window to save your grandmother's life... "It's all my fault. I'm the one who killed your grandmother. I'm the one who killed Selena..." Watching my father's stooped back, I finally understood—these three years, he'd been tormented by this too. Eaten alive by it, day after day. But Robbie just let out a cold, sharp laugh. "Shut up. You don't even deserve to speak about my grandmother. If Selena hadn't proposed what she did, my grandmother wouldn't have been left without a single piece of resuscitation equipment in the room when she stopped breathing! She's the one who killed my grandmother!" My father's mouth opened, then closed. He staggered back, clutching at his chest. It took him a long moment to steady himself. He closed his eyes and, in a hoarse voice, said, "The equipment had to be moved out of the room to make space for the surgery Selena had planned for your grandmother—that was the only way to guarantee it would go smoothly. "That day, she tried desperately to explain it to me, and I refused to listen. I was so sure it was nothing but an excuse to go see you..." Robbie crossed his arms, his tone flippant. "Enough. Stop making up such pathetic lies. Is this whole performance just to get me here? Well, I'm here now. Where's Selena? Bring out the murderer!" My father's whole body trembled. His lips shook as he reached with great effort into his coat and pulled something out. "If you refuse to believe a word I say, then look at this. "See for yourself what she actually did—and whether it matches what you've imagined all this time."