Chapter 7 — It's Too Late, Doctor Vu

Meridian Healthcare Foundation's appraisal ended successfully at the weekend, with initial positive assessments from the survey team making the hospital leadership breathe a sigh of relief. Chairman Ton Ba Thanh organized a small celebration party right in the meeting room on the top floor, not forgetting to send special praise to Dinh Vu for his excellent performance as the representative face.

But Dinh Vu no longer had the mind to enjoy that success. Over the past few days, he felt something different in Lam Nhi's attitude — not an obvious coldness, but an invisible distance, a thin but solid wall that had built up between the two of them. He intended to ask her many times, but the busy work of the appraisal swept him away, and every time he was about to speak, he reassured himself that she was probably just tired from the work pressure of the past few days.

Sunday night, after the celebration ended, Dinh Vu returned to Tay Ho villa with a relieved mood, planning to spend the entire weekend evening with his wife and children, making up for the past busy days. He bought a small bouquet of flowers on the way home, along with a princess-shaped cake that baby Mien had always wanted, planning to create a small surprise for the family.

But when he entered the house, he noticed an unusual silence. There was no sound of little Mien running out cheering like usual, no warm light from the kitchen, no familiar smell of food. The house was dark and unusually cold.

He turned on the light, walked to the second floor, and pushed open his daughter's bedroom door. The wardrobe is empty, with only a few winter clothes remaining that don't fit the child anymore. The pretty little bed with the princess-shaped sheets is still there, but little Mien's favorite teddy bear, which she never parted with, has disappeared.

Dinh Vu's heart tightened. He hurriedly ran down to the main bedroom, opened Lam Nhi's wardrobe - empty, only a few bare hangers were left hanging. On the dressing table, where she still kept small jewelry and family photos, there was now only a neatly placed white envelope with his name written on it in Lam Nhi's familiar handwriting.

Dinh Vu sat down on the edge of the bed, his hands trembling as he opened the envelope. Inside was a handwritten letter, not long, but each word was like a knife cutting into his heart.

"Mr. Vu,

When I read this letter, you and Mien had already left. I don't need you to explain anything, because I think I understand enough. The next morning, right after the night the appraisal team left our house, I went back to get things for my child and saw a woman coming out of our bedroom. I don't ask who she was, no matter what happened, because whatever the reason, I no longer had the strength to continue living in a marriage where I am never recognized, where I had to hide my own daughter like a shameful secret.

Over the past five years, I have trusted you, waited for you, and sacrificed everything because I believed that one day we would live like a normal family, openly, without needing to hide. But I realized, perhaps that day will never come. I don't blame you, because I know you also have your own pressures. But I can't let Mien continue to grow up in a lie anymore.

I submitted my resignation letter from the hospital. Me and Mien will be fine, please don't try to find us. I need time and space to think about everything, and I think you also need time to rearrange your life.

I have prepared the divorce documents, the lawyer will contact you in the near future.

Lam Nhi."

Dinh Vu sat motionless for a long time, the letter in his hand trembled, his mind reeling trying to piece together the disparate pieces of information. The woman in the bedroom? He knew absolutely nothing about this. That night, after the appraisal team left, he stayed at the hospital to handle an unexpected emergency that lasted until nearly morning, then took a few hours of sleep in the on-call room before going into the demonstration surgery at seven-thirty. He never came home that night.

So who was in your house? Who entered his bedroom, wore his shirt, and left traces that made Lam Nhi misunderstand so seriously?

He immediately called Lam Nhi, but on the other end of the line there was only a long beeping sound signaling that the phone number had been blocked. He texted and called through other applications, all to no avail. He called Bich Van, Lam Nhi's only close friend that he knew, but only received a short, cold answer.

"Sorry Dr. Vu, Nhi told me not to say where she is. She needs time alone."

"Bich Van, I know you understand what's going on." Dinh Vu tried to suppress the impatience in his voice, but still could not hide his pleading tone. "I swear to you, I don't know who that woman is. That night I never went home, I can prove it with the hospital's emergency duty records. Please, at least tell me if Mien is okay."

The other end of the line was silent for a long time, then Bich Van sighed. "She's fine, Doctor Vu, don't worry about her too much. But I don't think it's my business to intervene between the two of you. She needs time. Please don't try to contact me anymore, I won't say anything more." Then she hung up, leaving Dinh Vu standing still in the middle of the living room with the phone still hot in his hand.

He tried calling a few other mutual friends of the two, and even Mien's preschool, but everywhere he received only evasive answers or people who really didn't know anything. It seemed that Lam Nhi had carefully planned and cut off all the clues that could lead him to her, a preparation so thoughtful that it made Dinh Vu both heartbroken and surprised - the gentle wife who had always given in to him over the years turned out to be able to be so fierce when necessary.

Dinh Vu sat quietly in the darkness of the empty bedroom, the princess-shaped cake was still in the box on the table, the bouquet of flowers he had hastily bought on the way home now lay on the floor where he had dropped it when he ran in. The entire large, warm villa that had been warm for many years now only had a suffocating emptiness.

He tried to search his memory, trying to understand who could have done this, and why. He thought about his colleagues in the hospital, about the people who had keys or gate codes to the house - besides him and Lam Nhi, only the hourly maids and the villa security team had access to the security system. A vague but sharp feeling of unease began to form in his mind — this was no coincidence. Someone had deliberately arranged it all, right at the most sensitive time, right on the night he was away from home due to force majeure.

But who? And for what purpose?

Dinh Vu stood up, walked to the window and looked out at the dark surface of West Lake, where the sparkling city lit reflected on the calm water surface as if nothing had ever happened. He clutched the letter in his hand, his jaw clenched with determination. No matter what happened, no matter who was behind all of this, he will find the truth, will find his wife and children again, even if it costs him the position and career he had worked so hard to build over the years.

That night, for the first time in five years, Dinh Vu slept alone in the large villa, but he did not sleep a wink. He sat absentmindedly on the sofa in the living room, where just a few days ago little Mien was lying down laughing while watching cartoons with him, where Lam Nhi often sat and folded her child's clothes while waiting for him to return. Every corner of the house now evokes a piece of memory, and each piece of memory was like a knife cutting deeper into the regret that was gnawing in his heart.

He wondered if it was his hesitation over the past five years that pushed Lam Nhi to this point. If he had been brave enough from the beginning to make everything public, and had not let the fear of losing his position and the image he had worked so hard to build overwhelm his responsibility to his small family, perhaps there would have been no chance for anyone to take advantage of that space to cause this. The more he thought, the more clearly he saw that the strange woman was not the deepest cause - the deepest cause was the silence he had chosen to maintain for so many years.

Near dawn, when the dawn light began to filter through the window, Dinh Vu stood up, washed his face with cold water to wake up more alert, then sat at his desk and opened his laptop. He sat in front of the computer until morning, trying to retrieve the house's security camera data from that fateful night, determined to find the first clue in the journey to exonerate himself, even though he did not know where the road ahead would lead him, or whether Lam Nhi would still give him the opportunity to prove his innocence or not.