Incision of the Heart

Chapter 17: Breaking Points

The days following the surgery were a blur. Emily found herself replaying the events in the OR over and over again, each moment dissected and analyzed.

She was used to overthinking, to replay every decision she made, but this time it felt different. The quiet acknowledgment from Liam, the unspoken change between them—she couldn’t shake it. Every time she saw him, it was like the space between them had shrunk, though neither of them was willing to name it.

Liam, on the other hand, seemed more focused than ever. His sharp intellect and precision in every task stood out even more in the days after their joint effort in the OR.

If Emily hadn’t known him so well, she might have thought he’d become more withdrawn. But it wasn’t withdrawal—there was something else in his demeanor. A quiet intensity. He was pushing himself harder, and Emily couldn’t help but wonder if that was a result of their interaction in the OR, or if it was something more personal.

---

“Emily, are you coming to the rounds today?” Dr. Patel’s voice broke through her thoughts, pulling her back to the present.

She glanced up from the chart she’d been reviewing and found herself once again looking at Liam, who stood across the room. He hadn’t even noticed her staring at him.

“Yeah,” Emily said, her voice a little too sharp for comfort.

She forced a smile and stood up, grabbing her notebook.

She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn’t realized how tense her shoulders were.

The group of premeds, including Liam, followed Dr. Patel down the hallway toward the patient ward.

Emily’s eyes remained fixed ahead, her thoughts still swirling around the surgery from days ago, wondering if Liam was thinking about it too.

They entered the room of a patient recovering from a laparotomy.

Dr. Patel began explaining the intricacies of post-op care, but Emily found it hard to focus.

She kept catching snippets of Liam’s voice, his tone commanding yet quiet, his clinical observations precise and clear.

It was hard to deny how effortlessly he could command attention, even from a group of residents.

But as the discussion continued, Emily began to feel a gnawing irritation.

Liam’s confidence, his easy manner with the doctors—it wasn’t just arrogance. It was… something else. Was he pretending not to notice her, or was he truly unaware of the tension that had been building between them?

The answer seemed unclear, and that uncertainty kept gnawing at her, pulling her focus away from the patient’s recovery.

She realized, then, that the rivalry she had been clinging to—her stubborn need to outdo Liam, to maintain the edge—had started to feel hollow.

She wasn’t just competing with him anymore. She was… something else. Confused, unsettled.

As she observed him standing next to Dr. Patel, his casual grace in the way he interacted with the residents, dawned on her: he had always been a mirror, reflecting parts of herself that she didn’t want to see.

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Later that afternoon, as the group finished rounds, Emily and Liam found themselves walking down the hospital hallway, their footsteps echoing in the silence between them.

The tension between them was palpable, thick with things left unsaid.

Emily had to break it, had to make a move—anything to address the elephant in the room.