“Your secret is you were engaged?”
“Well, yes, but it’s part of a bigger secret.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I was engaged to Aaron Gibbs when I was a resident at Parkside General. Well, Aaron was also a resident there, too. We met in medical school, and we just wound up together. I can’t even remember how it happened, but it was like we were suddenly dating, and then everything went so fast. We moved into together, started working our residencies, got engaged, and then...” she trailed off.
“And then what?” I asked. “What happened, Birdie?”
She opened her eyes, and a tear streaked down her cheek. “I was so stressed out trying to prove myself. It was so frustrating to see Aaron walk into Parkside and become the golden child while I could do everything, and no one saw me.”
I swiped the tear from her cheek.
“I told him. I should have been able to tell him what I was feeling, right? I wasn’t really mad at him, you know. It wasn’t his fault that the admin of the hospital was a bunch of chauvinistic assholes who only cared what was dangling between your legs.”
“What did he say?”
She sniffled and laughed flatly. “He wasn’t what he said to me that hurt. At least, not physically.”
I closed my eyes and prayed to God she was not going to say what she did next.
“We were living in a two-bedroom townhouse that was a split level. We were in the kitchen when I was venting to him about how unfairly I was being treated. I can’t even remember what I was saying, but looking back, I should have seen that with each word I said, he got angrier. We were shouting at each other, and then suddenly, his hands were on my shoulders. He shook me while he screamed at me, but my feet got tangled underneath me, and I fell. I tried to crawl away from him, but he managed to grab my arm and pulled me to my feet.”
I was ready to kill this fucker, and I was pretty sure Birdie wasn’t even to the secret she had.
“I pleaded with him to let me go, but he just laughed at me. Told me I was a shitty doctor, and that was why they didn’t like me at Parkside. He forced me to the edge of the stairs, and then, he pushed me. My head slammed into the step, and I rolled down until I hit the door at the bottom of the steps.” She laughed flatly. “I remember coming to, and he rushed down the stairs to me. I thought he was going to hit me or something, but it was like he realized what he had done. Aaron had never hit me before that night. Hell, we never really argued, but something snapped in him.”
“Please tell me you put that asshole in jail for a long fucking time, Birdie.”
She winced and shook her head. “I was in a town where I knew no one, everyone at work didn’t like me, and I didn’t know what to do. Aaron convinced me we both needed to lie about what happened because it would hurt both of our careers. I was already struggling at work and didn’t need to call negative attention to myself by putting their favorite doctor in jail.”
“Fucking hell, Birdie,” I raged.
“I left,” she interrupted. “I didn’t stay another night in that house. I promised him I would never press charges against him or say a word to anyone about what happened as long as he let me leave. Aaron made up some bogus story about needing to go home to take care of his parents, and he moved his residency there. I finished up my time at Parkside, and then, I took a job in Rockton. I put it behind me.”
I was gonna fucking kill him. I was going to find the fucker and KILL HIM.
“You know how I told you my hospital hired two new ER docs?” she whispered.
No. I closed my eyes and clenched my fists.
“He’s one of them. I don’t know how or why he came to Rockton, but he did.”
Well, it wasn’t going to take much for me to find him. “Let me up, Birdie.”
“No,” she cried. She wrapped her arms tightly around my shoulders and wound her legs around my waist. “You can’t do anything, Easy. You can’t get in trouble because of him.”
“Birdie,” I growled. “He laid his hands on you, so now I’m going to show him what it feels like.”
“No, no. I didn’t tell you so you would hurt him. That’s not what I want. I just want him to go back to wherever he came from and not work at my hospital.”
“I’ll send him to hell where he belongs.”
“Easy,” she cried. “You cannot do anything to him. I’m going to talk to the hospital and see if they’ll let him go. I have seniority, and they’ll be fools to pick him over me. I’ve already decided that I am not going to work there if Aaron is there. I just, I just had to tell you. It’s been eating at me ever since I found out, and I had to tell someone. Layla mentioned to me tonight that another nurse is going on a date with one of the new doctors.”
“No, Birdie,” I sneered. “That asshole does not get to work at your hospital, and he sure as hell doesn’t get to date.”
She reached up and held my face in her hands. “I don’t know if it’s Aaron. Layla didn’t know which doctor Bailey asked out. It could be the other guy whom I have never met before.” Her eyes connected with mine. “Please, listen to me, Easy. Let me talk to the hospital. Chuck Blain is my number one supporter at the hospital, and I know he will listen to me when I tell him about Aaron.”
“He doesn’t deserve to breathe, Birdie, let alone continue to be a doctor after he put his hands on you.”
“I know, I know. I agree with you, but maybe he didn’t know I worked there. If I talk to Chuck and explain everything to him, hopefully, the hospital will let him go, and this will be all over.”
