Chapter 14
June
D espite what Chloe told me, she seemed fit and healthy.
There was nothing I could do about it right now.
She wasn’t comfortable with me treating her.
I took it rather hard at the beginning, wondering whether it was my brother or her, or both, that didn’t want me to treat her.
I’d been tormented wondering if they thought that I wasn’t a good enough doctor.
But now, for the first time, I saw the downside of being my best friend’s doctor.
Her case wasn’t really that complicated.
Many women had gestational diabetes, and I had helped plenty give birth to beautiful babies healthily.
The worry I would have for my best friend, and my future niece and/or nephew, would be a heavy burden if I was to be responsible for Chloe’s care.
I quickly sat her down in front of the dressing table. Her face was glowing even more under the mirror lights. Pregnancy really looked good on her. I fired a series of questions at her, all about her discomfort and concerns.
“I heard that Kai is here.” Chloe said instead of answering me, clearly not willing to talk about the topic with me.
“Yes, so?” I was eager to get back to our previous topic, not wanting to talk about me or Kai.
“Well? Do you think something is going to happen between you this time? Three years ago, you guys nearly…you know?”
I sighed lightly, for two reasons.
One, I was frustrated with Kai.
Two, I knew that Chloe wasn’t going to let it go until I talked about it.
“We nearly what? Nearly slept together? Or nearly got together? I’m not even sure what happened back then. We kissed, but that’s all.”
The last time I was with Kai, I was emotional about seeing Chloe.
I thought she’d been dead for a long time.
At first, I was happy about having her back.
Then I got really angry that she couldn’t trust me enough to contact me in all that time.
For ten years, she let me think that she was dead.
She let me grieve for her. When I found out that my big brother was the one helping her disappear and lying about her being alive, I couldn’t help feeling betrayed all over again.
I had never told Chloe or Lincoln about my feelings. I’d never mentioned how they had betrayed me on some level. Or that I still felt that pang of betrayal over them keeping that secret from me.
Kai distracted me for a while. If it wasn’t for him, I’d have gone completely crazy. He helped me to contain my feelings, to focus on keeping them both safe, without making demands on me. He’d been there to feed me, talk to me, and keep me in one piece.
There were moments when we could have taken it further. Kai could have taken anything from me he wanted to, and I’d have let him. But I think we’d both known we’d regret it, and we’d both maintained control, even when we didn’t want to. The timing just wasn’t right.
When Lincoln stupidly got himself kidnapped, whether it was his fault or not, Kai had taken it as some kind of failure on his part. I’d blamed Lincoln, even if I shouldn’t. I’d been so upset about it all that my emotions didn’t make sense to me.
And poor Kai. Lincoln’s kidnapping triggered something within Kai that no one could understand.
Even though he had never seen a shrink about it, I knew for a fact that he struggled with some kind of PTSD.
Really bad. I had hinted that he needed professional help, but he just shrugged it off.
A lot of people do that. Clearly, the best way to cure a disease is to simply imagine that it wasn’t there in the first place.
Chloe brought my attention back to her with a sound of delight. “Well, finally, you admit something happened. Tell me more.”
“There’s nothing more to tell. Just a few kisses.” I felt my face going red.
“You know what he’s into right?” Chloe asked, a hint of worries in her eyes.
I nodded. I’m curious and I’m not a complete idiot. I knew what Kai liked.
“BDSM, bondage, or whatever you cool kids call it these days.” My face was practically melting now. I’d all but admitted I knew what she and my brother were into as well as Kai.
“And you know he has a reputation?”
I shook my head, no. “What reputation?”
“Oh, sweet girl.”
“What? Tell me!”
She took a deep breath in. “It depends on how you look at it.”
I could tell that Chloe was trying to find the right words, a nice way to put what she was about to tell me.
“You don’t need to protect me from him. I’m a grown up you know.”
She tilted her head slightly, giving me a sideway glance. Slowly, she nodded. “I mean a lot of those rich boys are the same, they kind of sleep around, you know.”
That didn’t really surprise me.
What surprised me was my brother’s devotion to her. I knew it was disrespectful to think of my big brother as a man slut, but I couldn’t help knowing full well that he was. Or used to be one.
“Unlike Link.” I smiled, but it wasn’t very nice.
“Yeah, but your brother is a weirdo. But I also heard that Kai’s looking for a bride.” Her eyes cut to me, soft and gentle, despite my cattiness.
My little heart did a little dance knowing that he was finally ready to settle down.
“And I met his potential bride. Lucy something.” I didn’t know what possessed me to say that. But it was a fact. And that also killed the little dance in my heart.
“Miss me, bitch?” Shouting at the top of her lungs, Wendy barged into the room without even checking who was inside. Chloe got up from her chair and hugged Wendy. Her eyes squinted as she looked at me, telling me that we weren’t done with our conversation.
I stood up automatically to welcome Wendy, and she gave me a hug even though we were never the hugging kind of friends.
Grabbing another chair for Wendy, all three of us sat in a triangle, like we were in some tight knit gossip circle. I wanted to stay with the girls as long as I could, and I had no intention to head outside.
Out there, I would have to do mindless chit chat about my campaign. Luring and sweet-talking people into parting with their money to support us. It was all for good cause, there was no doubt about it, but I found mingling tiring – and I had hired campaign managers for that.
Chloe went on talking about her pregnancy.
Mostly the news of her carrying twins but nothing about her diabetes.
Like me, Wendy wanted to hear everything that was happening in Chloe’s life.
I knew that Wendy and Chloe were close, and I reminded myself that there was nothing to be jealous of.
Wendy had helped her when I couldn’t. Wendy protected her from troubles back when Chloe was someone else.
Roxie – the infamous pole dancing stripper.
She seldom used the name Roxie anymore, except for her stage name.
Wendy couldn’t help calling her Rox every now and then though.
“June, what the hell are you doing backstage. Everyone is looking for you. You’re up next!
” Liam stormed into the room, hissing the words at me.
I stared at the clock on the wall and realized that I had been hiding back here for half an hour.
That’s the thing, when you are with the right company, time flies.
“What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean what’s wrong? Your event is coming up. You need to be out front on the stage.” Liam said matter of factly.
“No, I don’t. The presenter will handle everything.
” I was no stranger to this kind of event.
I knew that I didn’t have to be there. Our presenter, Amelia Anderson, whom our medical group had been using for years, was very experienced in handling events like this and never once in all that time did I have to be out there on stage with her.
That was one of the reasons I chose to hire her again and again.
“Yes, but not when you’re selling your services.”
“Jeez, Liam, why do you have to make it sound dirty?” Wendy chimed in. I wasn’t sure if she was flirting with my brother, but it kind of felt like it. I thought she was dating my brother’s other best friend.
“Oh! Hi Wendy, nice to see you.” His tone changed completely, to a giddy school boy. “You look very pretty by the way.”
“You too.” Wendy showed no sign of shyness as her gaze scanned my brother up and down.
“You need to show your face.” Liam lowered his voice significantly, almost whispering or hissing at me.
Crap. I had completely forgotten that my auction item went missing and now I was auctioning my services. “I’ll be right out.”
The girls checked on my dress and make up before sending me out.
“There she is.” I heard Amelia saying and I wasn’t even on the stage yet.
Stage fright was a real thing for me. Flipping my hands vigorously, I tried to hide the shaking, which gave away how nervous I was. The spotlight stalked me as soon as I was on the stage. The strong light made me flinch and I felt really exposed.
“Do we have ten thousand?” Amelia began before I knew it. Before I had a chance to compose myself.
“Ten years of Dr. Bennet’s consultations. Ladies, you know that’s a bargain, right?” She walked around and pointed at the bidder in the distance., “Thank you madam, fifteen, anyone?”
Amelia pointed to someone else. “Twenty? How about twenty?”
“Wait, Amelia, there’s been a mistake,” I said, trying to grab her hand, but Amelia walked away, eagerly pointing at new bidders.
Did I hear her right? What was she talking about? I didn’t agree to ten years of consultation. That would be insane. I’d only agreed to a year, how had Lincoln gotten it so wrong? I’d told him about my goal to get to China to start a program there.
Fuck . This had to be Lincoln’s fault. He either thought that it was a fantastic business strategy to sell me off for ten years, or he hadn’t understood what I’d said. My guess was the first one. Business always comes first for him.
“Two hundred and fifty thousand.” Amelia repeated after someone shouted a bid.
What had just happened?