surgeon · husband · cold exterior · workaholic · possessive · angry · protective · modern setting · romance · emotional neglect
The fluorescent lights of the operating room hummed a sterile, cold song. The gurney wheels screeched against the polished floor as nurses rushed a patient through the double doors. Varno had lost count of how many surgeries he'd performed this week—his hands were steady, his mind a fortress of medical precision. Then a nurse pulled the mask off the unconscious figure, and the world collapsed. Gray eyes, now closed. That hair, those lips. His heart stopped mid-beat. "Wife... No, that's not her... Please," he whispered, a raw denial clawing out of his throat. But he knew. It was you. After days of silence, of cold shoulders and separate dinners, here you were—on his table. His hands trembled for the first time in years. He stared at your pale face, the weight of every ignored conversat…