Destroy (A Standalone Romance Novel)

by Adams, Claire

  Suddenly we realized that by that time we were fueling our own gossip fire. We soon returned to watching TV in silence.

  Chapter 32

  It was with some mixed feelings that I walked through the front doors of the hospital the following Monday morning. I had no idea what would happen next. What was Jeff going to do? During the weekend, he came knocking at the apartment door a couple of times only for Tiffany to tell him to go home; that I didn’t want anyone’s company and that I would see him at work.

  His insistence was disarming on the one hand, and irritating on the other. He was probably trying to show how much he cared (or didn’t have anywhere else to go) or he wanted to demonstrate that my request for him to leave me alone had not been heard.

  Either way, there I was. I went directly up to the fifth floor. I only wanted to report to Dr. Kerry that I was ready to come back to work and see my friends. I had not set eyes on any of them for a week. Corey had sent a bunch of flowers with a get-well card with everyone signature on it. So, it seemed no one was blaming me in any way for last week’s incident.

  “Ah there she is,” Corey exclaimed as he saw me come through the door of the café. “How are you?” he asked as I sat down.

  Dr. Kerry examined my face as if I were a recovering patient of hers.

  “I’m fine, guys. Thanks for the flowers. They’re really adding a bid of color to the place.”

  “By the way,” Gerald piped up, “why do you think Dr. Aldridge is still here?”

  Every gaze was suddenly riveted on our bragger. “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. He kissed you, didn’t he? And he’s not been reporting sick, has he?” He looked around the table. “Well?”

  “Simple, Gerald,” Dr. Kerry said, “He’s probably had a flu shot this year.”

  “You mean these shots work?” Annabelle Lister, another intern, sounded incredulous as she probably was.

  “Of course they do,” Corey told her.

  “Well, that’s not quite true,” Dr. Kerry interposed. “If you are vaccinated for one strain of the flu and you happen to come in contact with someone who suffers from a variant and more potent strain, you are liable to get the flu.”

  “Aren’t we supposed to be vaccinated anyway?”

  “Oh yes, Corey, we are,” Tiffany said, “but the infectious diseases department hasn’t gotten to most of us yet.”

  “How do you know this?” Gerald asked.

  “The ER is the first department to be vaccinated,” Dr. Kerry replied for Tiffany. “Anyway,” she went on, “this week we will resume our assignments. Same as last week, Heather, you’ll rejoin Dr. Elizabeth Aldridge in her department. It will be a busy week for everyone I think. And as I said, unless you’re specifically directed by your own supervising physician, you’re not working with Dr. Jeff Aldridge for the time being.”

  Everyone nodded and closed their notebooks. Some of us got up then to get a coffee or tea (as in my case) and something to eat. Toast was still on the menu for me.

  We talked about vaccinations for a bit and then it was time for each of us to get back to our respective department.

  As I opened the door of the transplant center, I heard someone ask me to make way. The nursing attendants were pushing a gurney and wanted me to hold the door for them.

  As I glanced at the patient, I was horrified. The man had been injured in some sort of accident that involved his face. Part of it was bashed in.

  Elizabeth came to meet the man and we both accompanied him to his room. The next thing I knew, another man, his identical twin, rushed in.

  “He’s going to be okay isn’t he?” The poor fellow was out of breath.

  The man needed reassurance. We could only give him a perfunctory, “Yes, of course. He’s going to be fine,” at this point. “We’ll have to see if we can save your brother’s eye. So, if you’d like to wait for a few minutes in the visitors’ lounge, Dr. Williams here”—she nodded in my direction—“will come and fetch you.”

  As soon as Mr. Wilson was out of the room and the nurses had done their work, such as taking the man’s clothes off and washing his face and hands, Elizabeth went to work. She examined the damaged eye for a few moments and then said, “Get me Dr. Olson, our ophthalmologist, in here.”

  I nodded and asked the nurse to call him for me. He came in within a few minutes. Our patient was regaining consciousness in the meantime.

  Since he hadn’t realized yet what happened to him, he was full of questions until he realized that he was blind in the one eye.

  “Good God, what happened?” he demanded. “One minute I was stirring some cement to patch some holes on the entrance’s walkway, and the next I’m in here.”

  “I think your brother will be able to explain what went on at the site, Mr. Wilson.”

  “You mean Ed is here?”

  Elizabeth smiled. “Yes, and we’ll call him as soon as Dr. Olson has examined your eye, okay?”

  Dr. Olson was a big fellow. Standing at six-feet-five inches, the guy dominated the room. He was not only tall, but “large”. This man would “occupy” any space with an all-imposing presence.

  “Okay, Mr. Wilson—” he began.

  “Call me Sam,” our patient interrupted.

  “Okay, Sam,” Olson went on patiently, “nothing I am going to do is going to hurt. So you just relax and let me examine your eye.”

  He did for a few seconds and then got up from Sam’s side of the bed. He turned to Elizabeth and me, and indicated for us to leave the room.

  We stood outside of Sam’s room and listened to our Titan. “I want to see if his eye recovers from the trauma first. It will take a couple of days for the inflammation and bruising around the eye socket to subside. Once it does, we’ll see. As far as I can see, there’s no damage to the optic nerve. I’d like to get an MRI done tomorrow, okay?”

  Elizabeth and I nodded.

  “I’ll get the whole thing organized,” I said and then looked up at our gigantic ophthalmologist. “What do we tell his brother?”

  “Ah yes. You’ll need to assure him that we’ll do everything possible to save his brother’s eye first. Once the swelling goes down we’ll know more about any surgeries he might need.”

  “Shall we keep him in this ward,” Elizabeth asked, “or would you prefer we send him downstairs?”

  “Do me a favor, Elizabeth, keep him here for now, please? I haven’t got a bed to spare down there. So, he better stay here, if you don’t mind.”

  “No, I don’t mind at all. We’ll look after him and call on you if and when we observe any change in his condition.”

  Once I finished talking to both Ed and Sam, I went to see Elizabeth in the Doctor’s lounge.

  “You realize, of course, Dr. Williams, that Sam will most probably lose his eye, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” I answered. “But wouldn’t Dr. Olsen be better qualified to do any surgeries with you–if there is surgery to take place, of course.”

  Elizabeth fell silent for a moment while she played with her pencil. She seemed to be pensive or perhaps deciding on what she wanted to say.

  She then looked up.

  “May I call you Heather?”

  I was taken aback. Was she going to fire me? Was addressing me by my first name a way to smooth my way out? “Yes, yes of course, you may.”

  “Well, Heather, I’ll first answer your question. If there is surgery to be done on Sam Wilson, you will be the one performing it with Dr. Olson.” She smiled at my mouth falling open, agape. “Don’t be surprised, Heather; you’re more than ready to assist Dr. Olson or any other doctor in this hospital. You have enormous talent and a good sense of the right and wrong.”

  “Thank you, Dr. Aldridge, but why should I be performing any surgery without you? Aren’t you going to be here?” I didn’t know what she was getting at, or more accurately, I didn’t want to contemplate the idea of her not being here.

  “Precisely, Heather. I am not going to be here. I handed my r
esignation to the Board last week and I should be out of your hair in another week. I could have stayed for the full month, but I think it’ll be better if I go.”

  I was horrified. “Have I done something wrong? If I have, Dr. Aldridge, I am sorry. Truly I am.”

  She shook her head. “No, Heather, it’s not you. It’s the whole situation that has become intolerable. You see, when we lost our son, Jeff became restless. At the time, I thought it was his way of grieving and it would pass eventually. But it didn’t. And when you came on board, I soon realized that my husband was gone from our marriage for good.”

  “I’m sorry, I should have—”

  She lifted a hand in front of her face, indicating that I should stop talking.

  “Let me finish, please.” She paused and I lowered my gaze. “At first I didn’t want to see what was going on. I wanted to ignore it. I even thought you were a passing fling and he would get over you, like he did with the other girl he dated for a while. That little diversion stopped the minute he learned that the young woman was going to sue him for sexual harassment.

  “Anyway, as you know now, it took me a few weeks to come to terms with what is going on between the two of you—”

  “But…” She smiled and I stopped talking instantly.

  “I know you’ve tried to keep him away from you. Since you’ve been working with me, I’ve learned a little about the way you think, so I am not surprised that you tried to push Jeff away or even get him to return home.

  “However, in time, you’ll learn that Jeff is a stubborn individual. He will not give up. He will not listen to reason. He only listens to himself. Rationalization of any problem does not help either. Believe me, I’ve tried it. Yet, and for all that, Jeff is a good man. He has the right amount of respect for our profession; he is a talented surgeon and certainly a dedicated physician.” She paused.

  “But, where will you go? I mean are you going to another hospital?”

  “I don’t know yet, Heather. I am thinking of taking a holiday in Europe first and then decide what my next stop will be. I am inclined to think that I’ll be opening a private practice in a small town, somewhere quiet. I need peace, Heather. I was a good wife and a good mother. Now that I’ve lost both my husband and son, I need to recuperate, lick my wounds, as they say, and move on.”

  We both fell silent for a long moment.

  Then I asked, “What will happen to the department; I mean who will run it?”

  “The Board hasn’t appointed anyone yet, but they have a couple of candidates in mind. I don’t know either of them personally, but I hope they get a good person what ever their choice may be. Giving a new chance at life to anyone is a privilege, Heather. I know you understand that. But not every surgeon does. He or she may be talented and have the best technique, but if they don’t grasp the extent of what they do or the impact they have on their patients, they’ll never reach the top of their profession in my book.” She got up from the chair and went to the kitchen counter. “Do you want a coffee?”

  “Yes, please, I think I can risk it. My stomach has been on a green tea diet for long enough; a fresh cup sounds like just the thing right now.”

  “Okay, here you go then,” she said, handing me a cup with a swizzle stick. “If you want milk or sugar, you can help yourself.”

  I nodded, got up and got the milk carton out of the small fridge.

  When I went back to sit down, she asked, “So, what are your plans, if I may ask.”

  “You mean with Jeff?”

  “Yes. Do you intend to pursue your relationship with him?”

  “May I speak frankly?”

  Elizabeth raised both eyebrows. “What do you think we’ve been doing thus far?”

  “Yes. Well, I first met Jeff in New York. I was on my way to visit my parents for Christmas.”

  “Oh, you mean you met Jeff before coming to this hospital?”

  “Yes. But I had no idea what he was doing for a living. And I didn’t tell him I was a physician either. We were stuck in New York at the airport and you know…”

  “Yeah…”

  “He didn’t tell you he was married? And he let you come up here without you knowing?”

  “Exactly. That only increased my resolve to break away from him. But he’s persistent.” I shook my head and drank some of my coffee. It tasted fantastic–after a week of green tea and orange juice, coffee tasted heavenly.

  “And what will happen now?”

  “If you and Jeff go through reconciliation or decide to stay together, I’ll definitely ensure that he stays as far away from me as possible.”

  “You won’t have to, Heather. I signed the divorce paper this morning.”

  “You did?” I was surprised, although I shouldn’t have been. After all the explanations she had given me in the past hour, it should have been a foregone conclusion on my part.

  Chapter 33

  My mind was abuzz with muddled thoughts.

  “Yes, I did,” Elizabeth went on. “You see, until he made it a public display of your affair, such as he did last Monday, I still had a smidgen of hope he would come back to me since you were constantly rejecting his advances. But when he kissed you on the dance floor, I knew our marriage was over. So, I signed the divorce paper this morning.”

  “Have you told him?”

  “No. I might be a bit of a sadist, because I let him stew for a week and didn’t even listen to him when he wanted to talk to me.”

  “That’s probably because the night of the dance floor episode; I told him that I didn’t want to have anything to do with him until you two were divorced.” I paused. “And I can assure you it wasn’t the first time I told him the very same thing.”

  “What he did that night was truly uncalled for,” Elizabeth agreed.

  “But could you tell me why no one is authorized to work with him these days? Has the Board gotten wind of the incident?”

  “I don’t know that they did or not. Yet, they didn’t seem surprised when I handed in my resignation. I think that, at first, they wanted Jeff to stew in his own juice for a while, but now, since they know that we’re parting company, they want him to be left on his own for now.”

  “Is that some sort of punishment, do you think?”

  “Oh no, Heather. You know as well as I do how much concentration you need during an operation. And talking about your marital problem to a colleague can be extremely distracting and very dangerous to the patient’s health. So, a bit of time on his own in the dungeon will probably be soothing for him.”

  “What about going to a psychiatrist or a psychologist?”

  “I tried that. I suggested it many times. I even went to a friend of ours for the first few weeks after Daniel died, and it helped me a great deal. But Jeff wouldn’t hear of it. And I think that’s where our marriage really went down the drain. I was recovering better and faster than he was, and he couldn’t understand how he couldn’t do the same by himself.”

  “Men are too proud sometimes, aren’t they?” I noted to Elizabeth’s smile.

  “Yes. And perhaps that’s what he’s trying to do with you. He wants to talk to someone on his terms. He wants control over everything. He would be the worse patient ever. If he ever has to go through surgery, I seriously think he would refuse to be sedated.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Oh yes. You see, Heather, Jeff’s self-dominance has no bounds. He literally wills himself out of the worst situations. Unfortunately, he lost complete control of his feelings when our son died. And he refused any help anyone could offer him.”

  “I don’t know if I will be able to get him out of the trap he set for himself.”

  “Although you’re right about the trap comparison, I think he’s reaching out to you to throw him a rope.”

  “I just hope he doesn’t hang himself with it.”

  As the day drew to a close, I was tired. I felt as if I was wearing the ills of the world on my shoulders. Since Tiffany had brought her car to
the hospital, I was glad to get a ride home with her. Once again, I saw Jeff waiting for me in front of the park. I would have liked to talk to him and tell him that everything was going to be okay, but I was too tired to contemplate another lengthy discussion with him. Somehow, I thought I was not over my flu bug yet.

  My qualms were unfortunately confirmed when we got home and Tiffany took my temperature. I had a slight fever and I had lost my appetite again. She ordered me to go to bed, which I didn’t mind at all. Bed was all I wanted actually.

  I was resting comfortably after taking a couple of Tylenol tablets when I heard the doorbell. While Jeff was on his way up, Tiffany came to my room to ask if I wanted to see him. I nodded. “Might as well,” I said. “Otherwise, he’s going to pester both of us for the rest of the week.”

  I heard him come in and thank Tiffany briefly. I truly believed he was scared of her. I mean who wouldn’t be scared of the girl in a pink robe and bunny slippers?

  I was smiling when Jeff came in. He returned the smile and asked, “What gives? I thought Tiffany was going to slam the door in my face again.”

  “No she wasn’t, Jeff. Not tonight anyway.”

  “And what are you doing in bed? Are you still sick?”

  “Yep. I thought I could just pick up where I left off, but no. I have a bit of a fever again and I don’t feel like eating.” I patted the side of the bed. “Come and have a seat. I’ve got something to say to you.”

  “Okay, I’m listening,” he replied, sitting down and taking my hand in his.

  “You’ve heard that Elizabeth is leaving, haven’t you?”

  He opened his eyes wide. Obviously, no one, including Elizabeth, had let the cat out of the bag.

  “Okay, I see you haven’t heard. Well, she’s leaving the hospital in another week–as soon as her replacement arrives. In the meantime, we’ll be tying some loose ends and getting things ready for who ever comes in.”