Reborn, I Dumped My Doctor

Eight years into our relationship, I took a knife for my doctor boyfriend, Ethan.

He promised I could ask for anything in return.

Everyone expected me to demand a proposal.

Instead, I calmly said,

"Let's break up."

Then I turned and walked away.

Ethan smirked and bet everyone,

"She's just a lovesick puppy fishing for attention. I bet she'll come crawling back, begging me to take her in three days…"

He was wrong.

I had a secret—I'd been given a second chance.

In my past life, we got engaged, but then Ethan's dream girl, Olivia, jumped off a building and killed herself.

He took all his anger out on me.

On our wedding night, he slashed my face and locked me in a dark, cramped basement.

When I got pregnant, he forced me to eat massive amounts of supplements.

By the time I went into labor, the baby was too big. I couldn't deliver.

I bled out, my body torn apart in a horrific stillbirth.

This time, I was back on the day I took that knife for Ethan—and I did exactly what he wanted.

In the surgeon's office, a sharp pain in my arm brought me back to reality.

The nurse finished wrapping the bandage and gently warned me to keep it dry.

Ethan sat in the chair beside her and sneered,

"It's just a scratch. Why are you acting so precious?"

I stayed quiet. The other doctors in the room exchanged uneasy glances.

They'd all been there during the attack.

The attacker was a hulking ex-con who'd been released two years earlier.

That foot-long fruit knife had sliced clean through my arm. I needed twenty stitches.

The man's original target was Ethan's heart.

My silence only made him angrier. His handsome face turned icy.

"Claire, don't play games. I told you—you saved me, you can ask for anything. Still not satisfied? What's with the attitude?"

Somewhere along the way, Ethan's tone with me had become superior and condescending.

All his tenderness was reserved for Olivia—the orphaned girl he'd sponsored after a flood relief effort, the one he called his dream girl.

My eyes landed on the pink bunny hair tie around his wrist.

Ignoring the bitterness swelling in my chest, I looked up and smiled.

"Anything at all?"

Ethan hesitated. Something flickered behind his eyes. He glanced at the hair tie, his expression troubled for a moment before he regained his cool.

He gritted his teeth, then nodded with a resigned sigh.

"Yes."

One of Ethan's med school buddies chimed in,

"Well then, Dr. Hayes, you better make an honest woman out of her!"

Others joined in, laughing.

"Yeah, Dr. Hayes, it's about time you two tied the knot!"

"I've already got my wedding gift ready! When's the big day?"

Just as the teasing continued and I was about to break up with him, a young nurse rushed in:

"Dr. Hayes! Olivia is trying to kill herself!"

…Again.

If my count was right, this was Olivia's one hundred and eighth suicide attempt.