I Won't Settle for Less Anymore

On the night before Match Day, it's 2:17 am when I find myself staring at the screenshot on my phone. For a long while, my heart refuses to calm down at all.

Ethan Blake: "Let's have a bet, guys. If Leah doesn't get a spot at Redwood General Hospital tomorrow, this will mark the end of our relationship. The starting bet is two thousand dollars. Is anyone following up on this bet?"

Already, more than a dozen people have responded to the message with various emojis. Someone even comments, "Count me in!"

I feel my nails digging into my palms.

"The end of our relationship", he says. To think that Ethan actually used this phrase.

We've been dating for four years. This is the very same man who once told me that he wanted to marry me.

Is it this easy for him to end a relationship?

I take a deep breath and force myself to calm down. There are still other medical interns in the staff room with me. I mustn't lose my composure around them.

I know that Ethan is waiting for me to react how I did in the previous times. I'd either spam his phone with missed calls, beg him to delete the message while crying, or apologize to him in an extremely humble manner.

But now…

Now, I'm really done with this relationship.

I quietly saved the screenshot, then turned off my phone.

From that moment on, I stopped paying attention to Ethan Blake.

Instead, I focused on noon tomorrow—the moment medical students across the country would log into the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) system.

Three days later, Mark Powell, one of Ethan's colleagues and a resident doctor at Redwood General Hospital, messaged me.

"Leah, Ethan's been waiting for you to reach out. The day after tomorrow is his celebration for being promoted to attending physician. Come by. You two can make up."

As I stared at the message, a mocking smile tugged at my lips.

Make up?

Why must I always be the one to give in?

I replied with only one line, "Sorry, I can't make it."

And I truly couldn't.

The day after tomorrow, I was going to be on a flight to Fedria. Northview University's affiliate hospital, Northview Memorial Hospital, was waiting for me to report for its residency program.

As Ethan wished, we would never see each other again.

…

Seven days earlier, Ethan had allowed Victoria Hartfield, his first love and the hospital board chairman's daughter, to sabotage the most important research project of my life.

​When I discovered what Victoria did, I completely broke down. She'd secretly deleted eight months of my experimental data. Even worse, she leaked my research framework to her best friend, who was also applying for the same residency program.

"Do you even understand what she did?" My voice trembled.

"She deleted my research data! My eight months of work! My paper and application for the residency program are all ruined!"

Ethan didn't