Chapter 10
Scarlett
By the time I reach the medical school from the subway, sweat from the August heat runs down my spine.
I stop to stare up at the building. Freshman year, I felt like I was carving my name into the medical world.
Last year, when I knew I wasn’t going back in the fall, I felt every door close, that same world kicking my ass on my way out.
But now I feel like a different person.
Inside, I make my way to the administration wing. Standing in the doorway of my dad’s new office for an extra second, I watch him finish typing something on the keyboard of an outdated computer. Horn-rimmed glasses sit low on his nose. He’s too vain for bifocals.
I clear my throat. “Hi.”
“Scarlett?” he says, without looking up. “What are you doing here?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” I step inside, preparing to beg Dad to approve my reinstatement application. “I—”
He lifts a hand, silencing me. It’s not rude. Everything about my father is efficient. “Sit,” he says.
The leather chair in front of his desk swallows me, feeling snug, reminding me that I put on weight since leaving school. Being an EMT is a physical job, but we sit around a lot and snack while waiting for calls. Fancy dinners with Pierce also upped my daily calorie count.
I clasp my hands in my lap, heart pounding. Great. The perfect emotional foundation for this conversation. For begging. I might as well start crying,
Dad finally looks at me, and his jaw drops open. “What happened?” His voice softens by a microscopic degree. “You look…worn out.”
I swallow. “My EMT shifts are long and grueling. But I’m not here to complain about hard work. I wanted to tell you in person before you hear from someone else that Pierce and I are over. I packed my things a few weeks ago, and I’ve been crashing on Regan’s sofa.”
I can’t tell my father that Pierce cheated on me, or that he hit me. Rumor is there’s an adjunct professor on staff here with ties to the mafia. I also can’t tell him that I was walking the streets in the rain, got hit by a taxi, then let a strange man have his way with me in a hotel room.
So I let my father believe I slept on a sofa with cat hair in a studio apartment that is barely big enough for a litter box this whole time.
My father meets my gaze, and I can see he wants to say something about Pierce, but instead, he asks, “Where does Regan live, again?”
“Near the station.”
“In the Bronx?”
“Dad…” I cock my head. “Yorktown.”
Dad’s nostrils flare. “Is her apartment safe?”
“She’s an EMT, too, remember? If someone breaks in, we’ll hit them with an oxygen tank.”
My father’s eyes narrow on me. “Is that supposed to be funny?”
“I can take care of myself.”
“I lost your mother. I can’t lose you, too.
” Pain flashes across his face so fast I almost miss it.
He turns away from his computer to give me his full attention.
“Marrying a Langston would have set you up for life. Even if I didn’t approve of what that shit-for-brains did to you.
It took a lot of restraint on my part not to put him through a wall for convincing you to take a leave of absence from medical school.
You were in the top five of your class, for crying out loud. ”
“Pierce is an asshole, but I assure you, his Harvard Medical School brain is intact.” I hate to defend Pierce, but that’s only part of the truth. Plus, I can’t have my father starting a war with the Langstons. “I needed a break.”
“Breaks can result in a loss of focus.”
“Come on, Dad. I’m not the only student who’s ever taken time off.” He buried himself in work after Mom died. And he expected me to do the same. Only, I couldn’t.
His gaze flicks over my face, searching for cracks. Weakness. Doubt. “I didn’t enjoy watching you suffer, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Pierce’s idea of helping me was to control me,” I say.
“I’m glad you saw the real side of him before you married him.” He sets down his pen. “Now, what does this mean for medical school?”
My pulse spikes. Here it is.
“I want to return,” I say. “Immediately. I want to finish this journey. I want to be a doctor.”
Dad exhales through his nose because he knows this is hard. The tension in his shoulders loosens. “Good.”
“Dad… I’m not asking for special treatment. Just the chance to continue the program.”
“You already have the foundations,” he says slowly. “But coming back after a leave is a hard transition back.”
“I know.”
“You won’t have time for a social life.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s not a problem.” I’m still getting a lot of mileage out of remembering the way that tatted guy named Cormac banged me and made me come in the hotel a few weeks ago. That memory and my dildo should hold me over for the next two years.
No one can top what he did to me.
Dad sits back and twists his pen. “Your financing will have to be reactivated.”
“I already called the bank.” I sit up straighter. “They’re reinstating my private loan once the school confirms my enrollment. Then the funds should clear in a few days.”
Dad starts to sweat. “I’m still in debt, you know.”
“Dad, it’s okay.” I can’t make him feel bad for using my medical school savings to keep my mother alive. “I want to do this myself.”
“I respect that.” Then, voice lowering, he says, “Though, it’s still a regret that I didn’t plan better.” He studies me for a long, uncomfortable moment. “You seem different.”
“Because I am.”
He nods, seeming to be happy. “I’ll speak with Dr. Lin and tell her to fit you into her mentor program.”
Dread heats up my spine. “Is she going to give me hell?”
“Absolutely,” he says with no hesitation.
“And you’ll let her?”
“Yes.”
I sigh. “Great.”
“You don’t need leniency. You need rigor. Rigor makes a good doctor.” He glances at his phone, like perhaps he has a meeting and I’m getting in the way. “What about housing?”
“I can stay with Regan,” I say smoothly. “Just until I find something else.”
He watches me closely. “You can’t move in the middle of a semester. You’ll be busy with classes, labs, and studying.”
“I’ll find something sooner than later.”
He gives me a warning look. I bite back the instinctive sting. Because he’s not wrong about how a move while juggling schoolwork and labs would be very bad timing.
“There’s a student-friendly building with an available studio on First Avenue, down by the UN.” I scroll on my phone and show him the building.
My father’s eyes bulge out. “No, absolutely not. There is some kind of mafia war going on in that neighborhood. Plus, with shit-for-brains—”
“Pierce,” I remind him.
“No.” He shakes his head. “I don’t want my daughter starting the hardest year of her life in some walk-up tenement house with no doorman where Langston can bother you.
It’s out of the question.” He stands up and paces behind his desk.
“I’ll get you into campus housing. It’s perfect for studying and writing papers that you’ll need to get into a good residency program. ”
It’s also terribly crowded and designed for freshmen. Four students get shoved into one ten-by-ten room. I’m over that.
“I’ll work it out. I’m twenty-five.” My throat tightens unexpectedly. “I promise to have all this taken care of before classes start next week. I just need you to sign off on the reinstatement. The registrar said they forwarded the paperwork to you.”
“I’ll look for it and approve it immediately.” He comes around the desk and rests a hand on my shoulder. “I’m proud of you for coming back.”
I swallow hard. “Thank you.”
“And Scarlett?”
“Yes?”
He hesitates. Actually hesitates. “I don’t care what Pierce’s last name is. You’re too good for him.”
I can’t stop the smile that crosses my lips. “Thanks, Dad.”
Then he releases me, and the moment is gone like it never happened.
His eyes stray to the closed door. “I’m expecting an appointment.”
Oh, thank God.
“Don’t let me keep you.” I grab my knapsack and stand up.
“I’ll have that paperwork approved by this afternoon,” he says.
I nod, heart pounding. “Thank you.”
As I head for the door to leave Dad’s office, a weight melts off my shoulders. I walked in here terrified. Now I’m leaving with a plan. Medical school isn’t going to break me this time. Nothing will.
Seeing people in the waiting room, my father straightens his shoulders before he opens the door and changes from Dad to Dean.
“Ah, it’s the infamous O’Rourke doctors from Seattle,” he says, making room in the doorway. “Come in, come in.”
O’Rourke.
I avoid eye contact with the professor, who I heard resigned last Spring. I never got a chance to check him out. He was rumored to be ridiculously handsome.
With a beautiful wife and possible ties to the mafia.
He doesn’t work here anymore, so no harm in sneaking a look.
My eyes make a slow trail up a very tall and broad frame.
Oh God!
My heart stops, looking at the man I slept with. Cormac is a professor? A married professor?
Then there’s movement next to him, and a second man comes into view.
I blink, thinking I’m seeing double, but they’re wearing different suits. Dr. O’Rourke has an identical twin?
Wait, oh my God. The twin is Cormac.
Our gazes catch, and we stare.
He doesn’t acknowledge me, and message received. I don’t acknowledge him.
But damn, in the light of day, he’s still the most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen. Jaw carved by the gods, strong cheekbones, and green eyes that can melt steel.
And we know each other’s bodies intimately.
“Oh, hi,” I say, then push on my sunglasses. Maybe he doesn’t recognize me. “Excuse me.”
Stroking my neck to calm my nerves, I walk past the O’Rourke doctors.
Dad’s greeting moments ago registers: The infamous O’Rourke doctors from Seattle
Cormac…is also a doctor. Now the picture is sharpening. Dr. O’Rourke was an adjunct professor in the Freshman program.
Will his brother be teaching here now? Taking over for him?
Thank God I’m not a freshman.
Talk about a distraction I don’t need. It’s actually a relief I’ll never lay eyes on him again.