He Promised To Marry Me, Yet Favored His Female Student

1 When Ross was up for Associate Professor, a violent patient shoved me down, causing a hemorrhage and miscarriage. He told me to suck it up because he could not afford a scandal during evaluations. After surgery, my uterine lining was dangerously thin and I was still bleeding. I just wanted a prescription to recover, but he looked at me with irritation. I have a waiting room full of critically ill patients, he said coldly. If I bypass the system for you, what will people think? So I was forced to wait at the very end of the general admission line. Behind me, two nurses gossiped with envy. Chloe is so lucky. She hangs around Dr. Sullivan all day and gets personal consultations without booking. Chloe was a scholarship student from a rural town, the only female student Ross had ever publicly mentored. She had been in his office for over an hour. Through the door crack, I heard her ask, Kerry did not look happy out there. What exactly is your relationship? Ross sighed softly. We are just friends. The prescription ticket crumpled in my fist. He had promised that once he made professor, he would go public with our three-year secret relationship and marry me. Now he was letting another woman sit in his personal chair, handing her a hot water bottle for her cramps. His strict boundaries only applied to me. Standing in the crowded hallway for my IV drip, the fight drained out of me. I did not want to hold on anymore. I did not want him anymore, either. … An hour later, Ross finally noticed me leaning against the cold hallway wall with an IV needle in my hand. He frowned in confusion. "Why are you getting your IV out here? Are there no beds available?" "There are. But I gave mine up." I looked up at the ceiling. Honestly, I wasn't just giving up a hospital bed. I was giving up the three years I had spent happily eating dirt just to support his career. In the past, I would have cried and demanded an explanation. "Why is it okay for you to give your female student special treatment, but you treat me like absolute garbage?" But now, I was just too tired to ask. "Are you done playing these games?" Ross impatiently loosened his tie and snatched the paper ticket out of my hand, slamming it onto his desk. The edge of the paper was soaked with condensation, wrinkling and tearing. Much like our shattered, pathetic three-year relationship. "Kerry, you are purposely putting on this pitiful act just to guilt trip me. You think throwing your past sacrifices in my face will make me bend the rules for you?" "Well, it won't happen." He slammed his coffee mug down hard enough to spill it. "I told you, we have to keep our distance at work. Half the board is watching my every move. If I show favoritism to you even once, everything I have killed myself to achieve will be gone." It felt like a knife twisting in my gut. Bending the rules for me would ruin his career. But bending them for Chloe required no boundaries at all. She could freely waltz in and out of his office and occupy his desk for private consultations. Writing free prescriptions for personal use was a massive violation of hospital policy. Yet, whenever Chloe felt the slightest bit unwell, she would head straight to the pharmacy to grab whatever she needed. Ross saw it, knew it, and intentionally turned a blind eye. Meanwhile, when I was doubling over from post-op abdominal pain and took a single painkiller from the staff reserve, he publicly berated me. "If everyone acted as unprofessionally as you, this hospital would be shut down in a week." I was forced to grit my teeth and endure the pain, eventually passing out during clinical rounds. Instead of helping me, he used my collapse to solidify his "iron-fisted, impartial" persona in front of the entire medical staff. "As an assisting resident, failing to report your physical condition beforehand and delaying the ward rounds shows a complete lack of responsibility." "Mark it down. Deduct her entire attendance bonus for the month. If it happens again, you are off my rounds permanently." When I confronted him with red, teary eyes, asking him why he was being so cruel, he looked at me like I was being unreasonable. "Rules are rules. If everyone was as irresponsible as you, the hospital’s discipline would be a joke. What is the point of having regulations?" When a colleague tried to defend me, Ross instantly turned on him in front of the whole department. "If you have a problem with how I run my team, you are free to leave. Question my authority again, and I won't be so polite." "Fine. It won't happen again." I pulled a tissue from the box and quietly wiped up the coffee he had just spilled on his desk. I didn't look at him once. My sudden, eerie obedience made Ross freeze. It was like he hadn't expected me to be this calm. He was used to me fighting back. But then he just scoffed. "Instead of throwing these cold tantrums, you should learn a thing or two from Chloe. She knows how to protect my reputation in public, and she is sweet and knows her place in private." "She would never act as petty and calculating as you." "Would she also abort her baby for you?" I looked him dead in the eye, genuinely curious about what kind of answer he would give. "Kerry... don't push it..." Click. Before he could finish his sentence, he reached for his pen, and a sleek tube of lipstick fell out of his coat pocket. Givenchy. For my birthday, I had stood at the makeup counter for half an hour, staring longingly at that exact shade. Ross had told me that the color didn't suit me, and that a luxury brand like that didn't match my skin tone or my "status." I had walked away empty-handed. And now, here it was, falling out of his pocket. "It is a gift for you." His explanation was painfully awkward. His eyes darted around, refusing to meet mine. "You stared at it for a long time at the mall, remember? I was waiting for the right moment to surprise you, but I guess it fell out first." I let out a bitter, mocking laugh. "That is the weakest lie I have ever heard. You are gifting me used makeup?" I casually popped the cap off the lipstick. "No luxury gift box? No velvet pouch? Not even the basic plastic seal from the store?" Ross’s face lost all its color, inch by inch. I stared at him. "If you tell enough lies, even you stop believing them, don't you?" Last month, the hospital managed to secure a few highly coveted spots for the state’s top medical symposium. It was a massive networking opportunity. I was thrilled. I asked him if he could bring me along just to audit and take notes. Without a second thought, he frowned and rejected me. "This forum has an extremely high barrier to entry. It is strictly for licensed attending physicians and enrolled grad students. You haven't passed your boards yet. You don't have the credentials." I believed him. I put my head down and studied harder for my exams. Just three days later, I saw a photo on the hospital’s official news page. Sitting in the very first row, looking incredibly attentive, was Chloe. She wasn't a grad student. She wasn't a licensed physician. In terms of credentials and basic medical knowledge, she was miles behind me. Yet, she felt perfectly entitled to sit in the front row. Faced with my ruthless dismantling of his lies, Ross was left completely speechless. The pale shock on his face instantly morphed into an ugly, defensive gray. "Are you seriously going to hold onto this trivial crap and not let it go? You are just looking for a fight." Seeing me just stare at him in silence, his tone grew even more self-righteous. "Fine. Yes, Chloe used it." "At the symposium, I noticed she looked a little pale, so I let her borrow it to touch up. But I bought it for you. It is just a tube of lipstick. She used it once, so what? Why do you have to be so damn dramatic about everything?" Looking at his utterly absurd justification, the very last shred of warmth I had for him turned to ice. She just borrowed it? When it came to Chloe using my things, it was no big deal. But last week, when I casually flipped through a notebook on his desk for two seconds, he screamed at me in front of four other doctors. "Do you have any concept of boundaries? Touching someone else's personal property without permission is absolutely disgraceful. Do you have no common decency?" I found out later that the notebook belonged to Chloe. Every single clinical note inside was written by him, staying up all night to personally outline key concepts for her. "Ross." I looked at him with absolute calm. "I originally thought we hadn't reached the point where we needed to completely tear each other apart." "I thought, at the very least, out of respect for the three years we spent together, and out of respect for the child that briefly existed between us, you would leave some dignity for both of us." "I thought you wouldn't let those three years become a complete joke." My throat tightened for a second. "But clearly, I was overthinking it. I let my emotions make me stupid." I grabbed the crumpled prescription ticket, threw it in the trash, and turned away, not giving him another glance. On the day of my abortion, lying on that freezing surgical table, I asked myself a question. If this baby had been born safely, would Ross have finally dropped the act? Would he have finally seen all my sacrifices and the indignities I suffered? Would he have looked me in the eye and sincerely said, "I want to marry you"? Looking back now, losing the baby was probably the best thing that could have happened to him. "Kerry, you never know when to back down. You always obsess over the smallest, most petty details. If you walk out that door, do not bother coming back." "Deal. I won't." A gust of wind blew in as I opened the door. The heavy scent of gardenias immediately caused a dense rash to break out across my forearms. I was deathly allergic to the flower. Even the slightest exposure caused severe swelling and unbearable itching. Yet, this hospital was practically overflowing with them. My original plan was to build up enough clinical experience, apply for a fellowship abroad, and leave this place for good. But for Ross, I forced myself to stay here, suffering through it for three years. "Excuse me, I am looking for Professor Davis. I am a former student of hers. My name is Kerry." After walking out of Ross's office, I didn't go straight home. Instead, I headed toward the senior professor's office. Back in college, I won the gold medal in a national medical competition with a solo research paper. My unique analytical perspective caught the attention of many senior professors in the department. Of course, that included Ross. Back then, he was just a low-level teaching assistant. He had no title, no tenure, and zero authority to lead his own students. Yet, he waited for me outside the library every single day. He told me I was the most gifted student he had ever seen, practically begging me to give him the chance to work alongside me. Seeing the pure, unfiltered ambition in his eyes, and his worn-out, faded shirts, my heart softened, and I agreed. For countless nights after that, we squeezed into tiny, cramped study rooms, cracking impossible medical cases. We traveled to endless medical seminars together. We stayed up until 3 AM, splitting a single cup of instant ramen. On the rare occasions we finished early, we would catch a movie at a rundown, cheap theater off-campus. The days were simple, but they were the best years of my youth. Eventually, his professional admiration morphed into something more. After a movie one night, he suddenly grabbed my hand and confessed. "Kerry, I like you. From the first moment I saw you, I knew you were the one. I want to be with you." "Please give me a chance. Let me take care of you for the rest of my life. Please say yes." We kissed in the fading glow of the movie screen, sealing our relationship. But Ross was always paranoid about his lack of a solid foundation. He constantly reminded me that it wasn't the right time to go public, asking me to wait until he got his promotion so we could announce it properly. I believed him. I willingly buried our relationship in the dark. And that wait lasted three grueling years. "Are you absolutely sure about applying for the direct Ph.D. program overseas? If you leave, you won't be able to come back for five whole years. Does Ross know about this?" Professor Davis looked up at me, her tone laced with careful testing. "He doesn't know, but my mind is made up. Professor, I want to go out and build my own career. You once told me that no matter what I decided, you would support me." "I would like this to stay our little secret." No one understood my talent and potential better than Professor Davis. When I graduated with my bachelor's, she immediately secured a spot for me in the graduate program, promising me the best research resources available. But Ross's sudden intrusion brought my entire future to a screeching halt. "Alright. We leave in two days. Go home and pack your things." When I got to my dorm, the door was wide open. My clothes, my bedding, and my personal belongings were scattered all over the floor like garbage. Chloe was sitting on my bed, lazily flipping through one of my textbooks. Surrounding her were two or three female interns. They were giggling and dividing up my snacks and expensive skincare products. "What the hell do you think you are doing?" Hearing my voice, Chloe slowly looked up. Scanning my exhausted, disheveled face, she didn't show a single ounce of guilt. In fact, she looked incredibly arrogant. "Your room? Is your name painted on the wall?" "If I recall correctly, this room was assigned to Professor Sullivan. You have been mooching off his space for years. How do you still have the nerve to loiter here?" She leaned lazily against my headboard, kicking my meticulously annotated graduate prep manuals and journals onto the dirty floor. "You aren't a licensed doctor, and you aren't legally registered as a faculty dependent. You are just wasting a staff housing quota. Have you no shame?" "Yeah," the two interns quickly chimed in, eager to watch the drama unfold. "We heard you gave up grad school just to chase after Professor Sullivan." "But he has already explicitly rejected you, and you still refuse to let it go. Kerry, how can you be this pathetic?" My heart skipped a beat. Explicitly rejected? We had never even publicly announced our relationship. Where did a rejection come from? Before I could ask, Chloe pulled out her phone and shoved the screen in my face. It was the pinned, top post on the hospital’s internal forum. Posted by Ross Sullivan. "Declaration on Maintaining Professional Boundaries and Rejecting Inappropriate Harassment." "As an Associate Professor of this department, I have always strictly adhered to hospital regulations and maintained clear boundaries with my students. However, recently, I have been subjected to frequent harassment by an intern who is attempting to forcefully insert herself into my personal and professional life." "This public notice serves as a strict warning to end all such boundary-crossing behavior. I urge all students in this institution to focus on their professional development and maintain an appropriate distance from faculty members." Attached at the bottom of the post were several photos of me. The photos I had sent him, full of tender, loving words from a girlfriend. Now, under his pen, they had been twisted into evidence of my psychotic stalking. "See that? You are the laughingstock of the entire hospital now. If I were you, I would have packed my bags and disappeared ages ago. How do you still have the face to stay here?" As Chloe spoke, she lifted her foot and ground her shoe into my pillow. The pillow my mother had hand-stitched for me the night before I left for college. "Get off my bed." "Ahhh." Caught off guard, I shoved her, and Chloe tumbled backward onto the mattress. Ross happened to walk in at that exact moment. Without a second thought, he violently shoved me back. My forehead slammed into the metal bed frame. Blood began oozing from the cut. He didn't even glance at me. His entire focus was on pulling Chloe into his arms. And Chloe, who was just acting like a tyrannical bully two seconds ago, instantly masked her viciousness. She stood up timidly from the bed, nervously gripping the hem of her shirt. "Professor Sullivan, I am so sorry. I shouldn't have temporarily moved into Kerry's room. She... she really seems to hate me. She said some awful things to me and even pushed me. I... I should just go." Her shoulders trembled as she cried, giant tears rolling down her cheeks. She took a step toward the door. Ross quickly grabbed her wrist, stopping her. "You didn't do anything wrong. She is the one in the wrong." I stared at him in utter disbelief. "Chloe has highly sensitive skin. With the heavy rains lately, her dorm wall got moldy, and she broke out in a terrible rash. She isn't like you. You are healthy and tough. You can sleep anywhere." The blood rushed to my head, making me so dizzy I could barely stand. No one knew the significance of this dorm room better than I did. This was the room Ross fought tooth and nail to secure for me during his first, most financially unstable year as a teaching assistant. It was the only premium single room in the entire building. It was soundproof, had great natural light, and was perfectly insulated. Most importantly, it was the room closest to his own quarters. Back then, he had gently promised me. "I am giving you the best, most convenient room so you can study in peace, without anyone ever bothering you." And now, with one casual sentence, he was handing it over to Chloe. "Fine. She can have the room. But you have to sign a written agreement with me right now." "An agreement stating that as soon as her dorm airs out, you will return this room to me." I reached into my bag and pulled out the early graduation approval form I had prepared days ago, shoving it in front of him. Because I was still technically registered under him as a student, I needed his signature to formally withdraw and graduate early. But Ross was so entirely focused on comforting Chloe that he didn't even bother reading the paper. He just scoffed, thinking I was being incredibly petty and childish for making a fuss over a dorm room, and aggressively scribbled his signature at the bottom. But Ross, by signing this paper, you just ensured we will truly have absolutely nothing to do with each other ever again. "Kerry." Ross frowned, standing in the doorway. "Why can't you just understand me? I had my reasons for doing this." "Right. Posting our private texts and photos on the hospital forum, and publicly framing me as a crazy stalker, was also just you having your reasons." Ross’s self-righteous expression froze for a second. He remained silent for a long time before muttering a defense. "I admit I handled that poorly, and I am sorry. But the hospital is currently heavily promoting financial aid for underprivileged students. If rumors started spreading about us, it would ruin her chances at the scholarship and her academic future." "And?" "Anyone with eyes can see that our relationship isn't normal. If I didn't post that statement, they would keep gossiping about us. Eventually, not just Chloe, but both of us would be dragged down by the scandal." "Okay." The seven years of confusion, resentment, and desperate hope I harbored were completely flatlined in this instant. I didn't want to hear another word of his pathetic excuses. The next day, the final make-up exam list was posted. Everyone in the department knew that Chloe was the one constantly showing up late, leaving early, and failing the attendance requirements. But her name wasn't on the list. Instead, mine was. Ross had personally gone into the system and tampered with my attendance and clinical practicum records, slapping me with a completely fabricated truancy penalty. Even though my overseas Ph.D. program didn't require my domestic transcripts. This was about my final shred of dignity. I blocked Ross’s path in the hallway. "I had perfect attendance. I scored a hundred on my practicals. My thesis was rated outstanding. On what grounds did you mark me as truant?" Ross looked up at me, his eyes filled with nothing but impatience and disgust. "It is just a truancy mark, it is not a big deal. Kerry, stop obsessing over these tiny things and acting like a lunatic." So, "Do you care more about your title, or about Chloe?" He didn't answer, but his silence told me everything I needed to know. The students crowding the hallway, fueled by the narrative on the forum, started pointing fingers at me. "She fails her own classes and blames the professor. How shameless can you get? If I were her, I would have dropped out by now." "She has a rotten attitude and is just trying to find a shortcut. So embarrassing." The crowd pushed closer. In the chaos, a hand suddenly shot out and shoved me down the concrete stairs. Caught entirely off guard, I tumbled down and slammed onto the cement landing. Ross didn't even turn his head. It wasn't until I sent him one final text. "Ross Sullivan, we are done. I hope I never see your face again for the rest of my life." That his phone call finally came through. But I was already boarding my flight.