The Steaming Lie

Chapter 1 When Julian got home from his night shift, I had just placed a bowl of garlic butter noodles—his favorite—on the table. I wanted to tell him that my mother had finally agreed to let us get married.

Instead, he tossed his car keys onto the table and said exhaustedly, "I got married."

The noodles were still steaming, but my heart instantly turned to ice. "What?"

"I married the new nurse from the ER." "She's young, and she's completely devoted to me. I couldn't just leave her without any security."

I gripped my chopsticks, my fingertips trembling. "Then what about the eight years I spent waiting for you?"

Julian looked up at me, and actually gave a small smile. "You're different. You're the person I can never let go of." "As long as you don't make a big deal out of it, we're still family."

...

I didn't cry. I didn't smash the bowl. I simply picked up that bowl of garlic butter noodles, walked into the kitchen, and dumped it straight into the trash can.

Julian frowned. "Harper, I just worked an entire night shift. The thing I hate most is when you give me this silent treatment."

I turned to look at him. "When did you sign the papers?"

He rubbed his temples. "Yesterday at noon." "Chloe got off her night shift, City Hall wasn't busy, so we just went since it was on the way."

On the way. Yesterday at noon, I was at the hospital with my mom for her dialysis evaluation. She lay in the hospital bed, holding my hand, and said: "Harper, I've thought it over. If you're really set on Julian, then marry him." I almost cried right then and there. I texted Julian immediately. "My mom finally said yes." He never replied.

Turns out, he was at City Hall. Taking marriage certificate photos with another woman.

I asked: "Does she know about me?" Julian was silent for two seconds. "She knows."

"And she doesn't care?" "She's young. She's insecure." He sounded so exhausted saying it. As if I were the one being unreasonable. "She cried and told me she didn't want a ring, she didn't want a wedding. She just wanted the legal right to stand by my side."

I laughed. "I've stood by your side for eight years. Where do I stand now?"

Julian looked at me. "Harper, those eight years weren't for nothing." "You can keep living in this house, and your life doesn't have to change." "Don't make this sound uglier than it is."

I finally understood. His socalled "compensation" was letting me continue to live here. To keep cleaning his house. To keep taking care of him when his stomach hurt, when he pulled allnighters, when he was exhausted from his shifts. Except I was being demoted from his girlfriend to a dirty little secret hidden in the shadows.

I walked into the bedroom to pack my things. When I opened the closet, my hand froze. A row of clothes belonging to a stranger was hanging inside. A pink sweater, a floral dress, a nursing jacket. There was a pair of small white sneakers in the shoe rack. A new bottle of face wash on the bathroom counter. A thin hair tie resting on the nightstand.

I picked it up and asked him: "She's been coming here for a while?"

Julian stood in the doorway. He didn't deny it. "Chloe gets scared easily. She couldn't sleep alone in the dorms."

I nodded. "So you let her sleep in my bed?"

His face darkened. "Do you have to frame it like that?"

I took off the ring he had given me and set it on the table. It was a silver ring he bought the year he finished his residency. He promised me that once he became an attending physician, he would replace it with a diamond. When he finally became an attending, he said we needed to wait until we bought a house and settled down. After we bought the house, he said we needed to wait for my mother's approval. Now my mother had finally approved. And he was a married man.

I pulled out my suitcase. Julian suddenly panicked. He hugged me from behind. "Harper, I never wanted to lose you." "I just needed to secure things for Chloe first." "She can't survive without me. You're different. You're mature. You understand me."

Being held by him, I only felt a wave of absolute nausea. The doorbell rang. In the moment Julian let go of me, I actually wondered if he'd be too much of a coward to open the door. He opened it.

Chloe stood in the doorway. Her face was small, her eyes red from crying. She was wearing a men's jacket. It was the jacket I had waited in line for two hours in the freezing cold to buy for Julian last winter. She was holding a box of wedding favors. "Julian, I came to get my marriage certificate."

After she said that, she finally noticed me. She gave a timid, nervous smile. "Oh, Harper. You're here too."

I didn't say a word. She took off her shoes and slipped on some house slippers. They were the spare slippers I had bought for guests. She wore them naturally. Walking with complete familiarity, she went straight into the bedroom and opened the drawer of my nightstand. The marriage certificate was right there inside. Resting on top of an old photo album.

Underneath the marriage certificate was a letter. A letter my mother had written to Julian. She had just finished writing it yesterday and asked me to handdeliver it to him. The very first line on the page read:"Julian, I am entrusting Harper to you for the rest of her life."

Chloe picked up the letter and blinked innocently. "Is this a letter your mom wrote to you guys?" "Oh, I'm sorry. Was I not supposed to read this?"

I reached out to grab it back. But Julian snatched it away first. The corner of the stationary tore. He said: "Don't scare her."

Watching him stand protectively in front of Chloe, I suddenly felt like this apartment was completely foreign to me. I had lived here for five years. But standing here right now, I felt like a trespasser.

I forcefully snatched the letter back. Chloe shrank behind Julian. Julian’s expression turned ugly. "Harper, you're emotionally unstable right now. Don't go to work at the hospital tomorrow."

I looked at him. "I am a supervisor in the Pathology Lab. I don't answer to an ER doctor."

Chloe's tears started falling on command. "Harper, I really didn't want to steal anything from you." "I just love Julian too much."

I laughed out loud. "You're certainly good at loving someone. So good you loved your way right into someone else's house."

Julian lowered his voice. "Don't make this uglier than it needs to be."

My phone rang. It was the Dialysis Center. "Ms. Miller, your mother is experiencing sudden chest pain and her blood pressure is unstable. Please come immediately."

I grabbed my bag and rushed out. Julian instinctively followed me. For a split second, I actually felt a tiny wave of relief.

But the very next second, Chloe clutched her stomach and crouched down. "Julian... I feel dizzy..." "I didn't eat dinner last night. It might be my blood sugar."

Julian stopped dead in his tracks. He glanced at me. "You take an Uber." "I'm going to take her to the ER. I'll be there as soon as I can."

I didn't say a word. As the elevator doors closed, I saw him scoop Chloe up into his arms.

In the back of the taxi, I called him three times. He didn't answer.

When I got to the hospital, my mom's face was an ashen grey. The nurse slid a risk consent form across the counter to me. "Sign this. She might need to be put on life support, or we might need to resuscitate."

My hand was shaking so badly I couldn't write my own name. For eight years, Julian had always promised: "Your mom is my mom." He told me I never had to be afraid. He told me that if anything ever happened at the hospital, he would handle it. But when that day finally came, I was still the one holding the pen.

Sitting outside the resuscitation room, I opened my phone. The very first post on my Instagram feed was from Julian. In the photo, he and Chloe were holding up their marriage certificates. The caption read: For the rest of our lives. Please guide me. It had been posted exactly when I was calling him for the third time.

A bunch of his coworkers from the ER had liked it. Chloe had replied in the comments: "Thank you everyone! Julian said he's bringing wedding candy for the whole department tonight."

I stared at those words, my hands slowly going ice cold.

When my mom finally woke up, the first thing she asked was: "Where's Julian?" I hid my phone in my palm. "He's in the ER saving a patient." "Doctors are busy. I know."

The family member of the patient in the next bed suddenly leaned over. "Wait, isn't your soninlaw Dr. Vance?" "Oh man... he posted on his Instagram that he got married, but the bride isn't your daughter!" She shoved her phone screen right in front of my mom's face.

I couldn't stop her in time. The second my mom saw the photo, her breathing became violent and erratic. The heart monitor immediately started screaming.

I sprinted out to scream for a doctor. As I ran past the nurses' station, I saw Julian. He was holding Chloe's hand, handing out boxes of wedding candy to the ER staff. Stacks of little red boxes covered the desk. Someone teased him: "Dr. Vance, you kept this a secret for a long time!" Chloe leaned against him, her face flushed red.

When Julian saw me, his immediate reaction was to frown. The very first words out of his mouth were: "What did you do to make your mom this upset?"

I stood frozen. I was still gripping my mother's critical condition notice in my hand. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to slap that piece of paper directly across his face. But my mom was still fighting for her life in that room. So all I could ask was: "Julian, where do you get the nerve?"

The ER went dead silent. Chloe's tears started falling again. She whispered, "Harper, please don't blame Julian. It's all my fault."

Julian stepped protectively in front of her. "We are in a hospital. Do not cause a scene."

I looked at the wedding candy in his hands. Suddenly, I found the whole thing incredibly hilarious. In a place dedicated to saving lives, he was throwing a funeral for my eight years of devotion.

I didn't cause a scene. I simply looked at him in front of his entire department and asked: "What gives you the right to blame me?"

No one in the ER made a sound. Chloe hid behind Julian, sobbing softly. Julian lowered his voice. "Harper, stop interfering with our work."

"The only one interfering with work is you." "My mother is fighting for her life in the observation ward, and you are standing here handing out candy."

A few nurses looked down, awkwardly pretending to organize charts. Suddenly, Chloe clamped a hand over her mouth. "I feel like I'm going to throw up..."

The ER staff immediately started hooting. "Wow, good news already?" "Dr. Vance works fast!"

Julian's face changed. He immediately wrapped an arm around Chloe. "Let's get some blood drawn. We'll run a test."

My mother was still in critical observation. But Julian didn't leave Chloe's side for a single second while she got her blood drawn. Standing by the lab window, I watched him personally attach the label to her blood vial. The meticulous care in his movements was blindingly painful to watch.

The results came back. Chloe just had gastritis. She rubbed her stomach, smiling bashfully. "I wish there really was a baby."

In front of all his coworkers, Julian told her: "When we have a baby, I'll give you a proper home."

I thought that sentence had nothing to do with me. Until I went back to that apartment that night and saw a document sitting on the coffee table.Housing Arrangement Agreement. It read:In order to facilitate Chloe's pregnancy preparation and future recovery, Harper Miller voluntarily agrees to vacate the master bedroom.

Holding that piece of paper, I laughed for a long time. The twentythousanddollar down payment for this apartment? I paid it. The renovation costs? I put them on my credit cards. For years, I had transferred three thousand dollars to Julian every single month to cover the mortgage. But the deed only had his name on it. Because he said getting the loan approved was easier for a doctor. He said, "Harper, what's mine is yours. There's no difference between us."

Now, he was making the difference very clear. The master bedroom was for Chloe. I had to give up my own bed.

I asked: "What is the meaning of this?"

Julian sat on the sofa. "Chloe and I are legally married now. It's ridiculous for her to keep living in the dorms." "The master bedroom gets the best sunlight. It's better for her while we're trying for a baby."

I slammed the agreement down in front of him. "Where is my twenty thousand?" "Where is the mortgage money I paid you?"

He frowned. "We were together for eight years. Let's not make this transactional and ugly."

Chloe walked out of the kitchen carrying two glasses of water. She was wearing an apron, looking like the perfect lady of the house. "Don't worry, Harper. I won't stay here for free." "I'll pay you eight hundred dollars a month in rent, is that okay?"

I almost laughed in her face. "Eight hundred?" "Are you making a joke right now?" I picked up the agreement and ripped it into pieces.

Julian violently grabbed my wrist. "If you keep acting like this, I'm going to have to transfer your mom to a regular ward."

I looked up at him. He continued: "And coordinating her dialysis schedule... I'm not the only one who can do that, you know."

The room went dead silent. Chloe had stopped crying. She stood behind Julian, looking down at me. Her expression was so innocent. And so incredibly smug.

I slowly pulled my wrist out of his grip. "Julian... are you threatening me with my mother's life?"

He avoided my eyes. "I just want you to calm down."

I nodded. "Okay." "I'll calm down. I'll be so calm that you'll regret you ever met me."

The next day, I went to work at the Pathology Lab as usual. The very first thing I did when I walked into my office was export every single bank transfer I had ever sent to Julian. The down payment. The mortgage. The renovations. The medical bills I paid when his father was hospitalized. And the chat logs proving he had taken possession of my mother's medical files. I uploaded every single document to the cloud.

Julian texted me. "Don't blow this out of proportion. We'll talk when we get home tonight." I didn't reply.

At 10:00 AM, Chloe showed up at the lab window. She slid a blood requisition form across the counter. "Harper, I think I might be pregnant. Can you expedite this for me?"

The entire office went dead silent. Someone pretended to take a sip of water. Someone stared aggressively at their keyboard.

I stuck to protocol. "Register, pay the fee, and wait in line."

Chloe's eyes filled with tears. "Are you still mad at me?"

I slid the form back to her. "This is a hospital, not your living room."

She bit her lip and walked away. To avoid any accusations of a conflict of interest, I personally handed her sample to a coworker and documented the entire chain of custody on video.

The results came back at noon. HCG levels normal. Not pregnant. When Chloe saw the results, her face went completely pale.

Half an hour later, news swept through the ER. Chloe was experiencing severe abdominal pain and bleeding. A suspected miscarriage.

Julian stormed into the Pathology Lab. He was clutching a different lab report in his hand. That report showed Chloe's HCG levels were elevated, consistent with early pregnancy. And the name of the authorizing technician at the bottom was mine.

I glanced at the ID number on the report. "I didn't authorize that." "My login credentials weren't used on this terminal at noon."

Julian wasn't listening. He interrogated me in front of everyone: "Harper, why did you alter her lab results?!"

Chloe appeared, supported by a nurse. She was pale, clutching her stomach. "Harper, it's fine if you hate me." "But the baby is innocent."

The way my coworkers looked at me instantly changed. The Department Director rushed in. "Harper, you are suspended pending an investigation."

I said: "Pull the security footage. Check the login IP logs."

Julian cut me off. "Now is not the time to argue over protocol!" "Chloe lost the baby because she was so stressed by your fake report!"

I looked at him. "How can someone miscarry a baby they never had?"

Chloe sobbed hysterically. Julian slammed a stack of papers down on the counter in front of me. The papers scattered everywhere. It was my mother's dialysis deposit notice. And a hospital bed transfer request.

He stared at me coldly. "Get on your knees and apologize to Chloe right now." "And I promise your mother will still be on a dialysis machine tonight."

The entire department was staring at me. My professional reputation. My mother's life. My eight years of devotion. He was trying to crush all of it with a single apology.

I bent down to pick up the papers. Not to kneel. Just to pick them up.

At the very bottom of the pile was an ultrasound report from a different hospital. Chloe had done it last week. The conclusion read: No evidence of pregnancy.

I looked up at him. For the first time, Julian looked genuinely panicked.

Chloe screamed: "That's not mine!"

The next second, the Director's office door was pushed open. Members of the hospital's Disciplinary Committee stood in the doorway. "Harper Miller, regarding the allegations of tampering with medical reports, you are to be suspended immediately pending a formal investigation."

I looked at Julian. He wasn't looking at me anymore. He was staring at that ultrasound report. He knew the entire time.