I ran to my father’s bedside and shoved her aside. A syringe hit the floor with a sharp clink, and when I looked up, I saw my father’s oxygen mask pulled halfway off his face. My whole body shook with rage.
“What did you inject him with? Answer me!” My fists clenched until my nails dug into my palms. “Wasn’t it enough that you ruined his life and left him like this? What else do you want from him?”
Nivianne jumped at first, then when she saw it was me, her mouth curved into a cold little smile.
“Enough? No. Not enough. As long as he’s still alive, people can drag up my mistake forever. If he dies, it all dies with him. And in a year or two, I’ll be the brilliant doctor everyone admires. No one will remember some surgery that went wrong. And even if you caught me here, what can you do? Wilbert believes me. He always will.”
Her words made my blood boil. I slapped her before I could even think. The sound cracked in the room, and she stumbled to the floor, eyes wide like she couldn’t believe I’d touched her.
“You… you hit me? Anika, are you insane?”