She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 257

The other applicants exploded right along with him.

A girl in thick glasses shrieked, “We graduated from real medical schools—top of our class! We’re a hundred times better than those… those cripples!”

“Yeah,” a broad-shouldered guy chimed in, voice dripping with contempt. “Some of them don’t even have both hands. How are they supposed to hold a scalpel? With their mouths?”

Loyce’s gaze turned icy. She rose slowly, palms braced on the table, and spoke with deliberate calm. “The ‘cripples’ you’re mocking were saving lives in combat while you were still in a lecture hall memorizing textbooks.”

Oscar let out a sharp laugh. “Don’t act so righteous. We looked you up. This hospital only exists because you’ve got connections. And now you’re hiring disabled vets. What, to scam government funding?”

“Oh?” Loyce arched a brow. “Then what are you doing right now—trying to use your connections to force your way into my hospital?”

“You—!” Oscar trembled with rage, the polite mask finally cracking. “Don’t push your luck! My uncle is—”

He stopped just in time, the words “police chief” swallowed at the last second.

Loyce didn’t look impressed. “Your uncle is the chief, so you’re abusing power to threaten civilians. Is that what you meant?”

The room froze.

Oscar’s face twisted. He ground his teeth and snapped, “Fine. If you insist on being difficult, don’t blame us for what happens next.”

He turned to the officer beside him. “You saw it. She doesn’t want to cooperate. A fraud like her should be locked up.”

The officer put on a theatrical sigh. “Loyce, I’ll give you one last chance. If you keep refusing, once the oversight board joins us, you understand what that means—”

Loyce straightened and cut him off, her voice cold and precise as a blade. She stared at Oscar. “You keep bragging about your academic record. I read your master’s thesis—there are serious plagiarism issues. Forty-two percent overlap.”

Oscar’s expression drained of color.

“And the ‘hospital internship’ on your résumé?” Loyce continued. “You weren’t a clinical intern. You were a front-desk patient guide for three months.”

“How… how do you—” Oscar stammered, lips shaking, unable to form a rebuttal.

“Now,” she said, rising to her full height and looking down at them, “do you still think you deserve a position in my hospital?”

Oscar shot up, furious and humiliated, jabbing a finger at her. “You’re slandering us! I’ll sue you for defamation!”

Even the officer leaned in, threatening. “Don’t refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a punishment.”

Oscar forced his anger into a vicious sneer. “You think money makes you untouchable? In Metropia, it’s not money that matters, it’s power. I can make you rot in a cell for the rest of your life.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the mediation room door slammed open with a violent bang.

“Can you?” a low, commanding voice asked from the doorway. “Because I’d like to see who, exactly, thinks they can put her away for life.”

Everyone turned. A striking man in dress uniform strode in, stars on his shoulder boards—followed by a squad of fully armed special forces.

The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.