Chapter 16: Chapter 16

Harry’s expression changed at the sight of Rufus, and he stepped forward to shield Byron while asking, “Doctor Byron, should we call for security?”

“You’d better call the reporters and let Doctor Byron talk about how he’s cheated with my wife on me. My ex–wife divorced me because she wants to marry Doctor Byron. They‘ ve been together for a long time,” Rufus accused, standing in the crowd, and fanning the flames.

d, and fan

The crowd stepped back one after another and started pointing fingers at the side.

Rufus held up his phone and said, “Does the hospital dare to release this video of Doctor Byron and my ex–wife walking out of the hotel room, one after the other?”

Clenching his fists, Harry said, “You’re just a big fat liar. Your wife divorced you because you cheated on her. So, you deserved it! Doctor Byron wasn’t aware of it to begin with.”

“Do you know Candice? You should be quite familiar with her, huh? Have you been the smokescreen for their rendezvous?” Rufus said, raising his chin like a gangster.

Byron touched his cigarette case, looked down and pulled

one out with his mouth. However, after glancing at the no- smoking sign on the wall, light it, and instead walked towards a window at the end. Throughout the process, he didn’t even take a single glance at Rufus.

Rufus chased after him without hesitation and kept half a meter away from him until Byron stopped in his tracks.

“Don’t you have a family?”

Byron didn’t respond.

“Did you seduce Candice first or the other way around?”

Gritting his teeth, Rufus continued, “It turns out that she insisted on taking me to the urologist because she was looking for a chance to hook up with you. How long have you two been committing adultery right under my nose?”

With his back facing the corridor and his hands in the pockets of his uniform, Byron remained silent.

A few nurses came upstairs and slowed down when they witnessed the scene.

“Who’s his ex–wife? Is she from another department?”

“A woman who once delivered food for Doctor Harry.”

“Did she hook up with Doctor Byron too?”

Standing there, Byron looked dashing and taut. Even after making a turn, the nurses couldn’t help but take another glance at him.

“I doubt Doctor Byron would do such a thing. He avoids physical contact with women and even makes it a point to not touch our clothes when he’s around us.”

“They say you shouldn’t date your co–workers. He’s going to lose his job if things are blown out of proportion.”

Byron removed his cigarette and threw it on the windowsill.

Getting impatient while waiting for his answer, Rufus said, “You’re stalling for time, huh? Are you planning to call for help? You’d better admit to it if you don’t want to ruin yourself, Byron Wilson.”

Staring at him through the projection on the glass, Byron said, “What do you mean? Just get straight to the point.”

For some reason, Byron had a hidden, resolute, and ruthless aura within him even though he looked civilized and lean. In particular, his eyes were as deep as black holes, causing Rufus to feel incredibly uneasy when they made eye contact.

’80 grand. Give me 80 grand and Candice will be all yours

Chaha Homan at time

from now on. You can toy with her for all I care.”

Byron dusted off some ashes from his hem and said, “You’re in no position to control who she belongs to.”

“You won’t give me any money, huh?” Rufus said sullenly.

“Why should I give you money?”

Rufus took another step forward and said, “Don’t you need to pay for a good time with a woman?”

Byron glared at him.

“I can’t let myself be made a cuckold for nothing, can I?”

Seeing the obnoxious way Rufus was behaving, Byron suddenly took great pity on Candice.

After a long time, Byron turned to the side and said, “I have a surgery to perform this afternoon.”

“Pay up and I won’t keep you from your work,” Rufus said as he reached his hand out.

Byron tossed his cigarette into the trash and said, “Meet me in three days‘ time.”

Rufus thought to himself that Byron probably felt that it wouldn’t make sense to give him 80 grand in cash right on the spot. Thus, he nodded in agreement.

“Okay, I’ll give you three days.”

Byron returned to the office and a patient at the door asked, “Doctor Byron, did you get into a conflict with a patient?”

“It’s nothing,” he said in a mellow tone of voice.

“I knew it. You’re such an upright person, Doctor Byron. How could you possibly commit adultery with his wife?”

The family member of that patient, who was in Harry’s office next door, chimed in, “It must have been a misunderstanding. How can a man like him possibly marry a decent woman? Doctor Byron will never like a woman like his wife.”

Byron kept a straight face and loosened the collar of his white shirt without making a single sound.

The nurse who was in charge of calling numbers was clearing the crowd. She turned around and noticed that Byron seemed to be distracted. Thus, she asked, “Doctor Byron, are you going to continue seeing patients?”

Byron came back to his senses and said, “Yes.” 22.19%

Byron was well–known in the hospital, and after the drama, he became even more famous.

The colleagues in the surgery department took turns to stop him to ask, “Doctor Byron, I heard from the staff at the

emergency room that you hooked up with a married woman. Is that true?”

Byron remained indifferent as he continued to write on the medical history slip without looking up.

This colleague was the deputy head of the gastroenterology department, with a pretty powerful background. During the selection of an outstanding director, he had been toe–to–toe against Byron. Later on, Byron managed to take one of the three seats, so the two had been at odds against each other since then.

However, it didn’t go beyond healthy competition. Now that Byron was involved in a scandal, he was naturally gloating.

As soon as his colleagues left, one of his suitors pushed the door open and entered.

With reddened eyes, she asked, “Professor Byron, are the rumors true?”

Byron finally reacted. He put down his pen and said, “No.”

“Is there nothing between you and that man’s ex–wife?”

“No, it’s true that there’s something between us.”

“You guys…” the girl murmured while covering her mouth.

After a moment of silence, Byron stood up to leave.

Harry ran into Byron at the cafeteria after his surgery in the, afternoon.

Seated by the window, he had two bottles of wine and a pack of cigarettes on the table in front of him.

Harry sat across from him with his tray in hand and said, “This duck confit is pretty good. It was prepared by the new chef.”

Byron glanced at Byron coldly while Harry looked out the window.

Feeling frustrated, Byron opened a bottle of ice–cold beer and said, “I don’t have any appetite.”

“Why be bothered by what he said? Rufus may be burly but you’re not a dwarf either.”

“Am I a slut then?” Byron said, his gaze turning colder.

“Well, you do look like it. Remember when you sang a love song during the hospital’s Christmas celebration last year? All the nurses were screaming their lungs out! But Candice is nothing like Cleopatra. She looks just like an innocent goody–two–shoes,” Harry said while sizing Byron up.

Byron ignored him.

The intern doctor under his mentorship came over at this moment. “Doctor Harry and Doctor Byron, Doctor Roger is looking for you.”

Before Harry even finished eating, he panicked and asked, “Has Doctor Roger been alarmed?”

After finishing the remaining wine, Byron rushed straight towards Doctor Roger’s office, only to see that there was no one inside. The intern doctor informed him that Doctor Roger was in Consultation Room 1.

He went downstairs to see Harry playfully joking with Doctor Roger and explaining for Byron.

“My dear Doctor Roger, Doctor Byron has really been wronged…”

Byron walked over and said, “Doctor Roger.”

After taking a glance at him, Doctor Roger said, “You’ve caused the reputation of the hospital to be greatly affected this time. Byron, you’re the most promising director and you’ve been nominated more than once to be my deputy. Yet, you made a mistake with your messy private life!”

Byron pressed his lips together without uttering a single word.

Harry panicked and exclaimed, “Rufus and his wife have been divorced since a long time ago! He deliberately twisted the facts to extort Doctor Byron!”

“The facts don’t matter at all in the face of festering rumors. Who would bother to find out exactly what happened? Once the reports are out, I can’t save him. There’s nothing I can do if he doesn’t take his own reputation seriously,” Doctor Roger said with disappointment.

“Doctor Roger…” Harry muttered.

He wanted to continue defending Byron but the latter held him back and turned around to return to his office.

“What’s up with you?”

While Byron was packing his things into a cardboard box, Harry stopped him and exclaimed, “Rufus is creating

e

rumors! You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You’ve forgotten.”

Harry came to a sudden realization.

117 chers

The first time Byron and Candice got it on, it was indeed rather taboo. Now that the matter had been exposed, Rufus still kept harping on it. In principle, it was not a rumor and even if he was unaware, Rufus already had a hold on him

now.

“Are you admitting to it just like that?” Harry said helplessly with his hands on his waist.

“Yeah,” he said, rather composed.

“Well, you can take this opportunity to lay low for a while. I’m afraid there won’t be an end to this matter once Rufus. chooses to be greedy.”

After taking off his uniform, Byron went to the rooftop to calm himself down. He received a phone call while he was there.

“Where are you?”

“The hospital.”

“Why aren’t you replying to my messages?”

“I’m busy,” Byron answered indifferently.

“Don’t you have time tonight?”

“I’ll be having a woman in my bed, so I can’t make time.”

After a moment of silence, the person on the other end of the line calmed down and asked, “Are you free tonight?”

“No.”

Harry pushed open the door of the rooftop without uttering a single word.

Byron turned around and said, “I’m hanging up now.”

Holding his phone with both arms against the railing, he looked rather sullen and depressed.

“Is that your family? Get your spirits up,” Harry said as he handed him a cigarette.

Byron took it to have his back facing the direction of the wind.

“Doctor Roger is usually the most supportive of you. He’ll find a way to blow things over. His father–in–law had advanced prostate cancer, and you took over as the primary caregiver against the pressure. That has remained as a classic clinical case in our department. The five–year survival rate is less than 3%. If it wasn’t for you, would his father–in–law have lived past four years? Based on this, he would definitely try to save you.”

“I’m not worried about that. It’s Vicky,” Byron said as he ripped the cigarette paper with his eyes squinted.

“Has she gotten a divorce?” Harry asked, stunned.

“I didn’t ask.”

“You’re still thinking about her? She’s married to a rich man this time and he’s old enough to be her father. With your salary, can you afford to provide for her?”

Byron never told Harry about his family background.

Vicky wasn’t aware either.

He just didn’t bother to mention it to her. People would usually only show off what they lacked. Since he didn’t lack any money, he couldn’t be bothered at all.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford to satiate Vicky but rather,

she was too unpredictable and he had once fallen too hard for her.

Most importantly, he couldn’t accept Vicky’s marriage.

It made him feel incredibly vexed.

Harry posted a Whatsapp Moments that night, which was a photo of him and Byron together under the clinic building with the caption: [Farewell, buddy.]

Candice was greatly astonished and she left a comment immediately.

[Is Professor Wilson dead?]

Harry realized that the caption was rather ambiguous so he deleted it immediately.

The more Candice looked at it, the more she felt that something was amiss and she even began to wonder if he had gotten injured at work. However, the hospital had prevented all news from spreading.

She called Byron, only to hear that her phone had been switched off.

She didn’t sleep well the entire night and the following

morning, she rushed straight to Harry’s office, only to learn that Byron had been sacked.

Harry persuaded, “It takes two hands to clap. Doctor Byron admitted to it himself, so you don’t have to feel bad.”

After a second of hesitation, Candice asked, “In that case, I got him implicated, right?”

Harry smacked his lips and said, “t’s true that he wouldn’t have been suspended if you hadn’t pestered him. Rufus did a background check on him only because you got into his car.”

Candice looked down, feeling incredibly disappointed and awkward.

Harry couldn’t help but say, “You’re pretty normal with your courtship. Women used to pester him endlessly in the past. Some even showed up to his office in a wedding dress to propose to him, and others even said that they had prepared cars and matrimonial homes in Doctor Byron’s name. They were all crazy and obsessed.”

She laughed and asked, “What happened afterwards?”

Doctor Byron doesn’t sponge off women. Of course, he didn’t agree. Hundreds of people surrounded that girl and she burst into tears of embarrassment. Although he has

never treated you nicely, you’re the only woman he hasn’t completely rejected,” Harry said as he stood up to pour himself a glass of water.

Candice was too embarrassed to say that she had actually been terribly rejected by him.

She was just thick–skinned enough to have withstood it.

Candice had other reasons for courting Byron.

She had been greatly aggrieved because of Rufus and she was so indignant that she would feel depressed if she didn’t take revenge against him.

However, Candice had never thought that she would cause Byron to be suspended.

Enos said that Byron was wealthy and powerful, so he should have a way out even if he had lost his job. However, at the end of the day, she was still the cause of this unwarranted disaster.

“Do you have Professor Wilson’s address?”

Harry stopped moving and looked at her.

“I want to apologize to him in person. I can’t implicate him

for nothing.”

“He…”

Harry wasn’t sure how far Byron and Vicky had progressed, and whether Candice would be making a redundant move this time or not.

Byron’s looks were worth a lot of money in the eyes of women, and he could date anyone he wanted, whenever he wanted. However, he just couldn’t let go of his on–again, off–again relationship with Vicky.

“You just want to apologize? Nothing else?”

“You wanna know about that too?” Candice replied.

Overjoyed, Harry said, “Doctor Byron just doesn’t understand the woes of singletons like me. He’s single by choice while I’m forced to be single.”

“You have yourself to blame for having such high standards.”

Harry typed out Byron’s address and sent it to Candice before saying, “Not really. My ex–girlfriend was a forensic scientist and went abroad for her PhD, which was the reason for our breakup. My ex before her was a model. She was 5’7” with a 22.4” waist. My next girlfriend shouldn’t be

worse than them, right?”

“You can be a bachelor for the rest of your life.”

Candice turned around to leave after receiving the message.

Byron’s residence, Bourland Villa II, wasn’t part of the upscale district in the city. Rather, it was considered upper- middle class housing.

She rang the doorbell after finally finding Unit 1101 of Block C.

As soon as the door was opened, Candice looked up to see that Byron was wearing a set of home clothes that was light blue in color. He wasn’t as cold and indifferent as usual. Most importantly, he seemed a little warmer.

Even though it was just a little bit, it was rather obvious because he was usually very indifferent.

He was slightly stunned to see Candice.

“Don’t you have a peephole?” Candice asked.

He obviously didn’t know it was her.

Byron tilted his head a little without revealing anything, as if

there was something in his house that he didn’t want to reveal.

Almost instinctively, she glanced at the shoe cabinet in the foyer, and saw a pair of silvery white high heels.

Candice blurted, “There’s a woman at your place?”

Byron frowned, displeased that she was talking too much.

“What are you doing here?” he questioned.

His smile was usually warm but faint and mirthless.

To put it bluntly, it wasn’t genuine but a form of social courtesy that he was accustomed to.

However, at this moment, Byron’s warmth and emotions came from within.

After all the emotions passed through her mind, Candice calmed herself down and said, “I heard you got suspended because of me.”

“That has nothing to do with you.”

He was about to close the door after saying that but Candice grabbed his wrist and said, “Rufus is my ex–husband. How

could it have nothing to do with me?”

Byron stared at her face.

He would never touch a woman whose details were unknown, lest he couldn’t get rid of her when necessary. When Candice was tipsy and holding his waist in the hotel, she exuded a hazy sultriness that resembled Vicky from a certain angle.

After doing the deed, Byron found out that she had been married and since then, he had expected this day to come.

Since she had already slept with him, he would bear all the

consequences.

“Are you trying to comfort me?”

Candice choked.

She was purely impulsive and guilty. They had slept with. each other after all. Even if he refused to admit, she still had some unresolved ties with this man, who had taken her virginity.

“It’s just humanitarian concern,” Candice said.

Byron shrugged her hand away and said, “That’s not

necessary.

“I’m already here. Aren’t you going to invite me in?”