Chapter Eighteen
Lorelie
The next morning, I stand at the window and watch Harvey’s car pull up to the curb. Milo bursts out the front door, his little backpack bouncing against him as he yells, “Daddy!”
I watch them reunite like they haven’t seen each other in weeks instead of ten hours.
Milo forgot his anger pretty fast last night, right around the moment he realized his dad wouldn’t be reading him a bedtime story.
The tantrum that followed could’ve registered on the Richter scale.
It took hours to settle him down, and when he finally passed out, so did I.
Instead of the sleepless night I expected, I woke straight into morning sunlight.
I’m not an insomniac. But like anyone else, if something in my life is stuck in limbo, my brain won’t shut off.
I keep circling it, analyzing it, picking at it until it drives me crazy.
Yesterday, I made a decision, and soon I’ll follow through.
Until then, I keep avoiding Patrick and using our son as cover.
Milo has already handed Patrick his keys and climbed into Harvey’s car.
To Milo, nothing’s changed. His uncle will take him to school.
His grandfather will pick him up. And according to the text exchange I had with Harvey this morning, he’ll be at his parents’ house afterward so I can pick him up without having to exchange a single word with Patrick.
Tomorrow is Sunday. I have a twelve-hour shift. I expected Harvey to say Patrick wanted Milo for the whole day, but apparently skipping your nightly bottle for a second night in a row comes with consequences.
According to Harvey he was up all night, that was all he said. And I didn’t ask for more, except to reply:
Probably not a good idea to keep Milo overnight.
I watch from the window as Patrick hesitates beside his car, staring back at the house. For a second, I brace myself, expecting him to come storming inside, demanding to talk.
But he surprises me.
He gets into the car quickly and drives off without looking back.
A huge breath leaves me. I’m not stupid enough to think this will last. I need a buffer. Preferably someone who isn’t related to Patrick.
I don’t want Harvey stuck in the middle. He might like me, but Patrick is his brother. At the end of the day, that’s where his loyalty will land and it should.
I think that’s the part that hurts most. I built my whole life around his family, his village. I let it become mine. And now that I need support… I realize I might’ve boxed myself into a corner.
But I still have my own village. A small, distant one that has no idea what’s happening.
Genesis doesn’t know about any of this. I never told her about Patrick and the cheating. I know her opinion about this kind of stuff and I didn’t wanna fight about it.
All this time, I treated him like he was a victim too, hurt, insecure, broken by what we’d done to each other years ago.
But now the truth is staring me in the face.
And I can’t bury my head in the sand anymore.
“Hey!” Genesis answers on the first ring, a little out of breath.
“Hey,” I reply, surprised she picked up so fast.
She laughs. “I was doom-scrolling.”
“Oh? Anything good?”
“Nothing except Bye Bye Bye again.”
Then she breaks into it, sudden and loud:
“Baby bye bye bye!”
A helpless laugh escapes me, and I jump right in on instinct. Together, in the worst harmony imaginable, we finish the next line:
Don't wanna be a fool for you
Just another player in your game for two
You may hate me, but it ain't no lie
Baby, bye, bye, bye.
We dissolve into laughter, hers bright and chaotic, mine shaky but real. One minute into talking to her and I already feel a million times better.
“So, what’s up?” she asks once the laughter fades. “Finally ready for that baby shower yet?”
I pause, pressing the phone tighter to my ear. “Gen…”
She hears it instantly, she always has. Her tone shifts in a heartbeat.
“What’s wrong?”
I bite my lip. “There’s… some stuff I haven’t told you. About Patrick. About Patrick and me.”
I hear her breathing on the other end. No panic, no interruption, just quiet, solid waiting, the way only sisters know how to wait.
I rub a hand over my eyes, the words humiliating to say out loud, even to her. “Patrick… I guess he hooked up with someone. Or almost did. The night of his promotion ceremony. After he stormed out.”
The silence on her end makes me feel like she hung up but I know she’s there. She just lets me say it.
I keep going, because if I stop, I won’t get the next part out.
“He… he made it seem like she came onto him,” I say quietly. “That he pushed her off. He told me he didn’t even remember kissing her.” My throat tightens. “Only that’s not true.”
I inhale shakily.
“I saw the tape, Gen. She made the first move, yeah, but he kissed her first. He touched her. They disappeared into the bathroom together and… who knows what happened in there.” My voice cracks.
“The woman’s claiming he forced her, and I know the old Patrick would never do that.
But drunk Patrick? If he’s capable of cheating…
” I shrug, even though she can’t see it. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Genesis is silent for a beat. Not shocked silence, listening silence. Waiting for the rest. There is more, but I can’t say it yet. Not on the phone.
She finally exhales. “Where is he right now?”
I sniff hard. “He’s staying at Harvey’s. Harvey promised I don’t have to talk to him as long as I… I don’t know… don’t tell him I’m done.”
“Okay. Good,” she says, all business now. “I’m checking flights. There’s one through New York tonight… good, there are some seats left.”
I put the phone on speaker. I can hear fast tapping on her end, her laptop keys probably.
I wait, holding my breath without realizing it.
A minute later she says, “Alright. I’m booked. I’ll be there by tomorrow morning. And we’ll figure everything out, okay?”
My lips press together as tears burn hot behind my eyes. “Thank you, Gen.”
“Don’t thank me,” she says softly. “Just hang on. I’m coming.”
Taking a deep breath, I hang up. I can do that.
By the time my shift hits the halfway mark, I’ve run the breakup speech in my head so many times it’s starting to echo.
"Patrick… we can’t keep pretending this is something it’s not."
"I love you, but love isn’t enough."
"I’m scared, and I don’t trust myself not to forgive you again."
All awful. All true. All useless.
I’m replaying version three hundred in my head when I hear my name.
“Dr. Boise.”
The sound freezes my blood. I know that voice. I would know it in a nightmare.
Murphy.
He’s striding straight toward me like a bad omen in a suit, shoulders stiff, jaw locked, eyes full of something feral.
I forget how to breathe.
He stops just a foot from me, invading my personal space like always.
“You and I,” he says loudly, “have unfinished business.”
My throat goes dry. “You’re not allowed to be here.”
He smiles, sharp and ugly. “And yet. Here I am. Since you’re apparently allowed to end my career, I figured I’m allowed to ask why.”
I can feel every nurse in the hall stop what they’re doing, even the patients stop to listen.
I steel my voice. “You got fired because of your repeated harassment and creating a hostile work environment.”
His nostrils flare. “Harassment?” His voice climbs. “Harassment? Because I refused to give you special favors? Because I didn’t bend over backwards for you just because you’re pregnant-”
“That’s not what happened,” I snap, louder than I mean to. “I never asked for special favors. I asked to be treated the same as everyone else. You treated me worse.”
He steps closer, heat rolling off him. “You weaponized HR. You cried, and complained, and got them to do your dirty work for you-”
I can feel my hands shaking, but my voice doesn’t waver.
“You should take up any discussions about your dismissal with HR.”
His face twists, red blooming up his neck. He looks like he wants to lunge, only he never gets the chance.
“Dr. Murphy.”
The voice that cuts through the hall is pure steel.
Chief Pratt.
Security flanks him on both sides as he approaches.
Murphy erupts. “It’s like that, huh? What you fu-”
“Enough,” Chief says, cutting off whatever disgusting remark Murphy was about to make, his voice is lethal when he says. “You are trespassing. You need to leave. Now.”
Security steps in, taking Murphy by the arms.
He struggles, voice cracking with rage. “She ruined my career! She-”
“You ruined your own career,” Chief says firmly. “Let’s go.”
They escort him toward the entrance as he keeps shouting, the automatic doors swallowing his voice whole.
Silence follows.
A stunned, heavy silence.
I look around at the people still staring. Only when Chief turns to them do they start to move.
“You alright?” he asks me softly.
I nod. “Yes. Thank you.”
He watches me for a second longer than usual, measuring something in my face.
“No one,” he says, “has the right to make you feel unsafe at your workplace. No one has the right to demean you for being pregnant. I’m proud of you for speaking up.”
My throat tightens so fast I nearly swallow my tongue.
“Thank you, sir,” I manage.
He gestures toward the break room. “Take a few minutes. Drink some water.”
I nod and slip away, closing the door behind me.
The second I’m alone, my whole-body sags.
I can’t believe that just happened.
Patrick
“And you feel like you’ve overcome your addiction now?”
I nod, staring at Dr. Brett across the room.
If you told me two weeks ago that I’d be sitting on a couch in Orange Cove Counseling, talking to some stranger about my life, I would’ve laughed.
But after Genesis, who used to love me like a brother, called me “gum on the bottom of her shoe for breaking her sister’s heart,” I didn’t have the guts to cancel the marriage counselling appointment.
Somehow, I wound up here talking to a different therapist.