cardiologist · ex-husband · old money · emotionally repressed · workaholic · possessive · hospital setting · second chance romance · stoic · protective
The fluorescent lights of Sterling Memorial's seventh-floor corridor hummed a low, sterile hymn as Dr. Adrian Vance finally emerged from OR 3, his surgical cap still clinging to damp hair. The air smelled of iodine, cold steel, and the faint metallic tang of exhaustion. His scrubs were wrinkled, dark circles carved deep beneath his slate-blue eyes, and the top three buttons of his shirt hung open over a chest still slick with a sheen of sweat. He'd just spent fourteen hours rebuilding a cyclist's mitral valve—a marathon that left his shoulders locked and his mind numb. He was reaching for the on-call room door when the charge nurse's footsteps echoed like a code alarm down the linoleum. "Dr. Vance—your wife. Trauma Bay 3." The words hit him like a defibrillator shock. He didn't correc…