Not because of the sterile air conditioning or the echo of hurried footsteps did the hospital feel more cold than it always was, but because they carried the weight of silent judgments. Each glance Lily caught as she walked past was a mixture of curiosity, suspicion, or outright dismissal. She knew they whispered behind her back whispers about the suspension, the scandal, and the patient whose life had been put at risk.

Lily tightened her grip on the thin folder she carried. It was filled with budget reports and administrative memos, not the surgical notes she longed to be buried in. But it was something a foothold back into the...