Incision of the Heart ✓

Chapter 25: Torn Between the Heart and Mind

The following days felt like a haze of conflicting emotions.

Emily woke up each morning with the weight of Liam’s words pressing on her chest, and each night, she fell asleep tangled in thoughts of him.

She knew she was doing the one thing she told herself she would never do: she was letting him affect her.

She had been so focused on proving herself, so intent on keeping her walls high and impenetrable, that she never considered the possibility of vulnerability. But now, as much as she tried to push it aside, Liam’s presence lingered.

On the surface, Emily kept it together.

She attended her rotations, engaged with the other medical students, and maintained the focused composure that had earned her the respect of her professors.

But underneath, she was constantly fighting the war that raged in her mind.

Should she give in to the undeniable pull she felt toward him, or should she push him away and stick to the plan—complete the program, become the best, and never let anyone disrupt the path she’d set for herself?

She found herself on autopilot, going through the motions but never fully invested in anything anymore.

Even during surgeries—her favorite part of the rotation—her thoughts wandered back to Liam.

Their unspoken tension still hung in the air, and she knew that any interaction with him, even a glance or a quiet word, would ignite that familiar spark.

But how could she even consider it?

How could she reconcile her growing feelings with the rivalry that had defined their relationship?

On the third day after their conversation in the hallway, Emily found herself walking toward the cardiology wing with a heavy heart.

She had just finished a lecture on heart failure and was heading to a hands-on session with the team for a procedure observation.

She was nervous, not because of the surgery itself, but because she knew that Liam would be there.

The moment she saw him, she could feel the electricity that hummed in the space between them. It was undeniable. It was powerful. But it was also dangerous.

As she rounded the corner, she saw him. Liam was leaning against the wall just outside the operating room, his hands shoved in his pockets, his expression unreadable.

But even from a distance, Emily could sense that something was different about him.

He wasn’t the stoic, composed man she had always known.

There was a certain restlessness in his posture, a vulnerability she hadn’t seen before.

It was like he was waiting for something—or someone.

As she approached, their eyes locked.

For a brief moment, the rest of the world seemed to disappear.

The bustling sounds of the hospital faded into the background, the chatter of passing students, the beeping of machines—it all quieted, leaving only the tension between them.

Emily stopped a few feet away, uncertain what to do next.

Liam opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Emily cut him off. “I don’t know if we can do this, Liam,” she said, her voice softer than she intended. She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to have this conversation. But she couldn’t avoid it any longer. “I’m not sure I’m ready to—“

“You’re not ready?” he interrupted, his voice a mix of frustration and something else she couldn’t quite place. “Emily, I don’t need you to be ready. I just need you to stop pretending like this isn’t real. Like we aren’t both feeling this. Whatever this is.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “But what if it’s just a distraction? What if this—us—is just a mistake? The consequence of being in this environment, surrounded by pressure and stress? We can’t afford distractions, Liam. We both know that.”

Liam let out a dry laugh, one that didn’t reach his eyes. “You think I don’t know that? Do you think I don’t get it? But you’re wrong, Emily. This—whatever it is—has nothing to do with the stress of this damn rotation. It’s about us. And if you keep denying it, you’re only going to make things harder. For both of us.”

Emily didn’t have an answer to that.

She didn’t know what she wanted to say. But something in his words—the raw honesty in his voice—made her pause.

She had spent so much of her life keeping control, keeping everything in its place, that she had forgotten what it was like to be spontaneous, to let herself feel something without overanalyzing it.

Was it possible that Liam was right?

That this wasn’t just the stress of the rotation but something more?

Before she could answer, a voice called from inside the operating room. “Emily? Liam? Are you two joining us or what?”

It was Dr. Clark, the attending surgeon for today’s procedure, a well-respected cardiothoracic surgeon known for his no-nonsense attitude.

He wasn’t one to tolerate distractions.

With a final glance at Liam, Emily straightened up, forcing a professional mask to fall into place.

“Coming, Dr. Clark,” she called and turned to enter the OR.

Liam followed suit, but not before he looked at her one last time, his expression a mixture of frustration and something softer.

Something she couldn’t quite name.

The procedure was long and intense.

Emily barely registered the details as she scrubbed in and observed the team work together.

She was too distracted by the image of Liam’s face, the conversation they’d just had.

Her mind kept replaying his words over and over again, as though hearing them in different tones might help her understand them better.

But it didn’t.

And by the end of the procedure, as Emily stood with the team in the recovery room, she was no closer to having an answer.

She knew only one thing for certain: She was stuck. Torn between her mind, which demanded that she remain focused and detached, and her heart, which was pulling her toward Liam in ways she couldn’t ignore.

That night, as she lay in bed, Emily stared at the ceiling, thinking about the man who had become both her rival and, in some strange way, her greatest temptation.

She wanted to hate him.

She wanted to walk away and focus on her future—in the career she had worked so hard for.

But the truth was, the more she tried to shut him out, the more she realized she couldn’t.

And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she knew that the storm inside her was only going to keep growing.

But she wasn’t ready to face it yet.