Chapter 13 — It's Too Late, Doctor Vu

In his private office on the top floor of Anh Duong Hospital, Vuong Ba Khiem sat behind a polished mahogany desk, his fingers tapping lightly on the tabletop in a tense rhythm. In front of him, on the phone screen, was a text message he had just received from a person in the security department that he had secretly installed a long time ago - information that Dr. Kha Dinh Vu had recently shown unusual signs, frequently asking about the security camera system and showing interest in the Board of Directors' shareholding structure.

He frowned and immediately called Vuong Tuyet Nhung.

"Are you sure you didn't leave any traces?" His voice was low and wary over the phone. "Doctor Vu seems to be investigating quite deeply these days, and even seems to suspect that the camera system has been tampered with."

"I did exactly as you told me." Tuyet Nhung replied, her voice somewhat worried. "But Uncle Khiem, I'm not very comfortable with this anymore. If Dr. Vu is really investigating, everything might break out, and I—"

"Don't worry." Vuong Ba Khiem interrupted, his voice turned cold, carrying an unmistakable hidden threat. "Your family's debt is still there, Tuyet Nhung. I just need you to do one more small thing, then everything will be over, the debt will be considered wiped out."

Tuyet Nhung was silent on the other end of the line, the feeling of being trapped in an increasingly tightening trap made her suffocate, but the fear of the family's huge debt was still greater than her guilty conscience.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked, her voice had dropped, losing her initial resistance.

"Doctor Vu's wife, she is starting to waver, she may trust again if the situation continues like this." Vuong Ba Khiem said, his voice full of calculation. "We need a more decisive blow, enough to make her no longer have any room for doubt in favor of Dr. Vu. I need you to prepare some more fake images and messages, convincing enough to release at the right time, making the story even more confusing and irreversible."

Hanging up the phone, Vuong Ba Khiem stood up, walked to the office window and looked down at the panoramic view of the hospital campus below - spacious high-rise buildings, spacious parking lots, everything he had contributed to building over the course of more than twenty years, from the time he was a small shareholder until becoming the powerful Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. He doesn't think he's doing anything wrong; In a mind warped by power and fear of loss, he convinced himself that he was only protecting what was rightfully his, what he had spent his entire life building, at the risk of being diluted and marginalized by the impending influx of foreign capital.

Three days later, an anonymous social network account began posting a series of posts, accompanied by sophisticatedly edited photos showing Dinh Vu and a woman identical to Tuyet Nhung in many different intimate settings — at a luxury restaurant, in a hotel, even text messages cleverly pieced together from real conversations but with context cut out, turning ordinary sentences into sweet words hinting at an extramarital affair. stretch.

Those posts quickly spread among a closed group of medical staff and industry acquaintances, before reaching the ears of Lam Nhi's former colleagues at Anh Duong Hospital. On Bich Van was the first person to see it and quickly called Lam Nhi in a panic.

"Nhi, you have to see this now." Bich Van said, her voice trembling as she sent the links via text message. "Someone is spreading rumors about Dr. Vu and that woman, including photos and messages, which look very real."

Lam Nhi opened her phone, her hands shaking as she scrolled through each photo and each staged message. Although she still remembered in her mind the arguments Dinh Vu had presented about the possibility of someone orchestrating it, but faced with such an overwhelming and sophisticated amount of "evidence", she could not help but feel extremely confused, all the fragile rays of hope that had been rekindled in her heart over the past few days were extinguished.

Worse yet, one of the posts even mentioned her name, implying that Dr. Vu's "former assistant" had "run away with her child" after discovering the truth, accompanied by malicious comments suggesting that perhaps she had taken advantage of her job position to approach and tie down a famous doctor, and now when his real relationship with someone else was discovered, she pretended to be miserable and left.

The community health center where Lam Nhi works cannot avoid gossip. A few new colleagues began to look at her with questioning eyes, whispering behind her back every time she passed by. The center manager, although he did not say it directly, also appeared more cautious when assigning important patient care cases to her, citing the reason "it takes time to rearrange the schedule".

That night, after putting baby Mien to bed, Lam Nhi sat alone in the dark living room, her phone still displaying those heartbreaking images. She felt like she was being engulfed between two opposing streams of information — on one side, the logical, systematic evidence that Dinh Vu presented; On one side are visual, overwhelming images that strike straight at the deepest pain and insecurity in her heart.

She picked up the phone, intending to call Dinh Vu to question, but then put it down. Part of her wanted to trust him, but another part was afraid of continuing to trust only to be hurt again, deeper than the last time.

She called Bich Van, her voice choked. "Van, I don't know what to believe anymore. Those photos look scary real, but what Mr. Vu said the other day also has undeniable logic. I feel like I'm being pulled in two directions, not knowing which is the truth."

"Did you notice anything unusual in those photos?" Bich Van asked, trying to keep her voice calm to reassure her friend. "Sometimes edited photos will have details that are wrong if you look closely — the lighting doesn't match, the shadows are in the wrong direction, or the background has something unnatural about it."

Lam Nhi reopened the photos, zooming in on every detail according to your suggestion. Indeed, when she looked closely, she noticed that in a photo taken at the restaurant, the shadows of two people strangely fell in two different directions, something that could not happen if they were both standing under the same light source. A small ray of hope flashed in her heart, but was soon extinguished by a familiar fear — she was too tired to continue analyzing, continuing to hope and then possibly be disappointed once again.

At the same time, in his own office, Dinh Vu was also reviewing the posts that had just appeared with an angry and worried expression. He immediately called Phung Dac Nguyen, his voice was unusually urgent.

"They are escalating, Nguyen. This is clearly a calculated counterattack, aimed directly at Nhi to completely extinguish the possibility of her trusting me again." Dinh Vu said, his hand tightening on the phone. "We need to act faster, before the situation gets out of control."

"I agree." Nguyen replied, his voice also full of worry. "But you need to calm down, Vu. If you react publicly now, it will probably only make things more confusing, and the mastermind will have even more excuses to push the story further. We need really solid evidence before taking action, otherwise, you will be the one who will suffer the most."

Dinh Vu sat silently, clenching his hands, a feeling of helplessness rising in his heart knowing that the person behind all of this was becoming more and more daring and cruel, ready to take advantage of an innocent woman's pain to achieve his goals. He told himself, no matter what the cost, he would find enough evidence to end it all, before Vuong Ba Khiem could cause any more harm to the people he loved.

Late that night, Dinh Vu composed a message to Lam Nhi via the new phone number he had just obtained from Nguyen, who had contacted Bich Van again in an emergency situation. He wrote and rewrote many times, erased and typed again, trying to find words that could ease her confusion without seeming forced. Finally he just sent a short line: "I know you just saw those pictures. I can't prove it right now, but I ask you one thing — if you have any doubts, ask me directly before believing anything else. I will always answer you, no matter what time it is." Sending the message, he put the phone on the table, not knowing if she would read it or not, he could only wait in vain like he had been waiting for the past weeks.