Chapter 249

Standing outside the hospital room, Elliot Dawson pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number.

"Today," he said the moment the call connected, his voice tight, "I ran into Evelyn Hartley..."

He recounted the morning's events in clipped tones. When he finished, the person on the other end chuckled darkly.

"Well, isn't that convenient? Now you don’t have to waste time coming up with excuses to get close to her."

Elliot’s grip on the phone tightened. A beat of silence passed before he spoke again, his voice rough with restrained emotion. "I don’t want to do it like this."

This time, the silence stretched longer.

Then, coldly: "Elliot, think about your mother."

The line went dead.

Elliot’s jaw clenched as he shoved his phone back into his pocket. A storm of anger flickered in his eyes, but he forced it down, exhaling sharply. After a few steadying breaths, he schooled his expression and returned to the hospital room.

Meanwhile, Evelyn finally had a moment to sit down after a hectic morning. She reached for her water bottle, taking a long sip before checking her phone.

It had been buzzing incessantly earlier, but she’d been too swamped with patients to respond. Now, she frowned at the flood of missed calls and unread messages.

Curious, she tapped Natalie Brooks’ name first.

"What’s going on?" Evelyn asked when the call connected. "Why the sudden barrage?"

"Evelyn!" Natalie’s excited voice crackled through the speaker. "You’re everywhere! News outlets, social media—everyone’s talking about how you saved that woman’s life today. You’re a hero!"

Evelyn blinked, caught off guard. "I was just doing my job."

"Maybe, but if it weren’t for you, she wouldn’t have made it. That’s not just a job—that’s a miracle!"

Evelyn laughed softly, shaking her head. They chatted a bit longer before she hung up and scrolled through her messages.

Every text was about the same thing.

Before she realized it, her thumb hovered over a news link. She tapped it.

The headline blared: "The Heroic Doctor Who Defied Death."

The article detailed the morning’s emergency, complete with a photo of Evelyn performing CPR on the woman, her expression fierce with determination.