My mom's lumbar condition flared up so bad she could barely get out of bed without screaming in pain. I waited two whole weeks to get a hospital slot, then brought her all the way to New York for treatment. There were no regular beds available, so she had to lie on a temporary extra bed in the hallway, with barely enough space to even roll over. I grabbed my fiancé Ian Armstrong, the hospital's chief physician, by the arm. "Doesn't the hospital keep emergency family beds on reserve? Can you squeeze my mom into a proper room? The draft in this hallway is brutal."  He furrowed his brows, his face icy as he shut me down immediately. "I hate people pulling strings to cut corners more than anything. There are dozens of patients way worse off than your mom waiting for beds. Why should she get special treatment?"  My mom, Mathilda Martin, was lying on that hard cot, cold sweat beading all over her forehead from the pain, but she forced a wobbly smile to smooth things over for him. "Zoey, I'm not cold at all. The hallway's nice and breezy. Don't make things hard for Ian.” I felt a sharp sting in my nose. I rounded the corner to go get hot water, and ran straight into him pushing a wheelchair, escorting Vivian Cox's mother into the largest private single room on the ward. I froze outside the door, and I heard him speaking to her in a soft, coaxing tone. "Hey, don't panic. Your mom just twisted her ankle going down the stairs, no bone damage at all. Let her stay here as long as she needs, okay? I'll come by personally to change her dressing every single day." All the while, I could still hear my mom's quiet, pained whimpers drifting from the drafty hallway behind me. My fingers clamped around the plastic water jug so hard my knuckles turned white. For three whole years, he'd hidden behind holier-than-thou principles to turn down every small favor I'd ever asked of him, but the second Vivian's family needed something, he handed them every last bit of his special consideration without a second thought. Right then, this whole relationship suddenly felt like nothing but filthy garbage I couldn't stand to touch for one more second.