Chapter 9
Chelsea’s morning started with Sterling’s arguments and protests, added to Joel’s, yet she headed back to work, not interested in taking a day off, not even a sick day that she had unused and stacking up.
If nothing else, she wanted to ensure nobody could call her out for not doing the job that she was supposed to do, thereby risking the completion of her education. Even Scott protested when he saw her.
She smiled at him. “I’m not giving anybody an opportunity to stop me from graduating.”
He winced. “It’s not supposed to be something that you have to kill yourself over. You know that, right?”
“Maybe so,” she conceded. “It’s already been a pretty tough few weeks. So there’s no way to get out of this except to get through it.”
“Oh, that’s very well put.” He smiled. “You’re right. When it comes to shit like this, you really just have to get into it and get over it, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she muttered, “so I’m here. I will complete whatever training I need to do. Plus, I’m hoping that I still have that job offer from you.”
He looked at her, surprised. “Of course. I’ve already told HR, and we’re working on a letter for you.”
“Good.” She gave him a beaming smile. “That would be lovely.”
When she started her shift, several of the other nurses and trainees alike rallied around her.
One of the trainees asked her, “What happened? We heard that Gladys is gone.”
“I don’t know whether she’s gone or not,” Chelsea clarified, “but she attacked me in the parking lot yesterday evening and knocked me to the ground from behind. One of the security guards came out and approached her about it. Apparently he saw it happen on the security cameras.”
The other women just stared at her.
“I know. I don’t understand it either. I don’t know what’s in her head, and she wouldn’t explain, and she even lied, saying she didn’t attack me. Yet the security guard had just watched it on the camera as it happened, so what can I say?”
“That’s just unbelievable.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She shook her head, yet smiled. “I don’t have anything to add. I just want to finish my training.” And, with that, they got to work.
By the end of the day, she felt a little more settled.
Yet she had looked over her shoulder all day for Gladys.
She never saw Gladys, so now Chelsea had to wonder if her supervisor was really gone.
She wasn’t sure about that, but there should have been some repercussions for her unprovoked attack.
As it was, nobody asked Chelsea about the incident itself. Nobody asked for statements.
Richard didn’t even come to talk to her.
She figured Gladys had probably gotten off with a reprimand, and Chelsea could do nothing about it.
But did she really want to do more about it?
She didn’t know. With so much other stuff happening in her world right now, she surely didn’t need to add something that ugly to it all.
*
Walking out to the parking lot later that day, Richard pulled in beside her.
“Hey, have you got a minute?”
She frowned and then nodded. “Maybe one minute.”
He looked her over and noted, “I guess you’re still not recovered from yesterday, huh?”
“You mean, when your family member attacked me?” she asked bluntly.
He flushed and then nodded. “Yes.”
“Fun, isn’t it?” she asked, staring right at him. “It was my family member who apparently upset Gladys so much, and I don’t even know why. Yet I’m the one she took revenge on.”
He eyed her curiously. “You really don’t know, do you?”
She shook her head. “No, I have no idea.”
He frowned, thought about it, and then shrugged. “Gladys blames your mother for her husband leaving her.”
She stared at him. “Seriously?” He nodded, and Chelsea frowned, shaking her head. “But I’m not involved in my mother’s affairs. She’s had so many that I can’t keep count.”
“I told her that, and she knows it intellectually. Yet, every time she saw you, it was just one of those little burning aches. It continued to build up to the point that she couldn’t deal with it,” he explained. “Attacking you was definitely the wrong thing for her to do.”
“What about the ongoing harassment and the prior weeks of her continuous verbal threats? Comments about not getting a good grade, torturing me with the idea that I wasn’t good enough to get a nursing job?
” she added, staring at him. “What about her constantly belittling me in front of my peers and patients and others?”
He frowned. “I didn’t hear anything about that.”
“Well, it’s not as if you came and talked to me either, even after she attacked me. What gives, Richard?” she snapped. “You’re too busy protecting your family, and yet I’m not even allowed to stand up and explain or be let off the hook for my family?”
He groaned. “Things get very complicated quickly in small towns.”
“They sure do when you let nepotism run amok,” she declared, as she glared at him. “I didn’t realize I would have to protect myself from you too.”
“You don’t,” he replied in frustration. “And that’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you. She’s really sorry for what she did.”
She raised both eyebrows at him. “Oh, come on. Surely you’re not asking me to not pursue this because suddenly Gladys is sorry?”
He stared at her and then sighed. “I guess you aren’t feeling very charitable today, are you?”
“Don’t give me that charitable nonsense.
Go talk to your aunt Gladys about being charitable.
However, since you asked about my feelings, my knees still hurt like hell,” she told him, staring him down, as he sat comfortably in his vehicle.
She raised her hands to show the bandages on each palm, then pointed to her bandaged elbow.
“I’m still stinging and in pain from all she’s done up until now, things you say that you don’t know anything about.
Yet you’re here on her guilty-as-sin behalf. ”
“No, I’m not here on her behalf,” he said sharply. “I told her that I would talk to you, but, if you have other complaints outside of what I already know, then you need to tell me. And, if you don’t feel like sharing the specifics of that information, how will I ever know?”
“She attacked me, and you never came or called or sent an underling to get my statement. Isn’t that your job?
Wouldn’t that lead you further into your so-called investigation to ask the other women I work with as well for more info?
” She glared daggers at him now. “Everybody talks so highly of you, but, now that I’ve been through this mess, I just don’t respect you anymore. ”
He stared at her for a long hard moment. “You’re not the first one to say that in the last couple days.”
“I’m sure I’m not. Did you listen to any of them?
Did you change your ways at all? Your inactions toward me and your preferential treatment of your relative, Gladys, makes me question a lot of things going on in town right now.
And maybe I won’t report you to your higher-ups, but Joel and Timber sure will speak up on my behalf.
Plus, my admin is fully aware of Gladys’s attacks on me, both verbal and physical. ”
He nodded. “I’m sorry for all that.”
She scoffed. “Now you apologize—because I have legal recourse here against you and your beloved aunt?” She shook her head.
He again nodded. “I am sorry for all that she did to you and for all that I failed to do for you,” he repeated, “because it was never my intent to be anything other than honorable. I’ve caused all kinds of chaos for myself here.
Just so you know, I told her that I would talk to you, but, if you have complaints over and above what I’ve heard about, then maybe you two need to talk. ”
Chelsea snorted. “Again, why does this fall in my lap? Did you not mention that to your aunt? How maybe she should talk before she resorts to violence and physically attacks someone? … You are asking an awful lot from the victim here,” she stated.
“If this had been a man who raped me, would you ask me to go talk to my rapist?”
He seemed to flush at that comment, but it was hard to tell with his tanned face.
She shook her head. “So, no. Not just no but hell no. I don’t really feel like talking to your aunt Gladys right now, and now that I know I can never turn my back on her as well, that’s a whole different story too.”
He nodded. “Yeah, that whole jumping you from behind was really not cool.”
“Ya think? Really not cool is your official police jargon for her attack on me? Remember that her attack was recorded for the jury trial to see, for all the townspeople to see. I have a copy of it, in case something happens to that footage, held at the hospital, where Gladys works.” She stared at him straight on.
“Why should I do anything for her when she’s been verbally threatening me for weeks as well, constantly reinforcing that silent little reminder that I’ll never get a job because I’m never getting a good reference from her? ”
He nodded. “That, of course, is an abuse of power,” he stated.
“So, I get it. If you don’t want to talk to her, you don’t have to.
The physical attack is all we can deal with from a law enforcement standpoint, but you could and should file a complaint through the hospital HR department for all the rest of it.
If you want to press charges for her attacking you,” he nodded, “that is your prerogative. And we will certainly go down that pathway, if that’s what you want to do. ”
She groaned. “If I have to press charges to get you to do your damn job, then I will,” she stated, trying not to show her frustration but failing because she was so very pissed off.
“Right about now, I want all this to go away, but I also know that Gladys won’t let it go away.
She needs to learn the hard way that she can’t keep doing this crap, even with you trying to stop those repercussions from happening.
” He looked at her in surprise, and she shook her head.
“Why is she even still working at the hospital?”