He used to smirk when I cried. “Where would you go? You’re just an ordinary nurse,” he’d say after another late night that smelled like perfume and lies. I swallowed my pain—until the day he rolled into my ER, clutching his chest, begging, “Please… help me.” I snapped on gloves, leaned close, and whispered, “I know everything.” His eyes widened. The monitor screamed. And what happened next still haunts me…
He used to smirk when I cried. “Where would you go, Emily? You’re just an ordinary nurse,” Derek said like it was a punchline, tugging his tie straight after another “work dinner.” I learned to recognize the little tells—lipstick on a collar, a second phone, the way he’d shower the second he got home. Five…