Chapter 18
eighteen
NATHALIE
“Well, I didn’t think that I’d have to come all the way down here just to get you to answer a few questions.”
Nathalie spun around in the hallway at the practice and came face-to-face with none other than Abagail, the current bane of her existence. She’d avoided the phone calls, the emails, the text messages, and now she couldn’t avoid the woman in question any longer.
“What are you doing here?” Nathalie pursed her lips but held her own. She wasn’t going to give an inch to this woman. She didn’t like that she had to work with her, she didn’t like the fact that Abagail seemed far more like a bully than anything else, and she really didn’t like that Abagail was nit-picking Nathalie’s life and actions every single damn day.
“You refuse to answer me, then I have to come down and see what the problem is.” Abagail put her hands on her hips and surveyed the practice. “Seems there’s a lot of problems .”
They were short staffed that morning, which wasn’t helping anything. Two nurses had called out sick with the flu, two receptionists were out, and they were working with a temp, which was probably how Abagail managed to get into the back hallway to begin with, and Lachlan was… Nathalie had to work hard to remember that one. Was she in a procedure or was she just seeing patients this morning?
“So where’s your office so we can talk?” Abagail shoved her hands into her pockets and looked around again, sneering.
What woman sneered at a doctor’s office? Then again, sometimes Nathalie thought that look was permanently on the woman’s face.
“I have patients?—”
“Then I’ll join you to observe and make sure you don’t… emotionally injure… anyone else.”
So that’s what this was about. The multitude of complaints that had come up against Nathalie, and the fact that none of them had really been dealt with yet. Nathalie glanced at her watch to check the time and held the small laptop that she brought with her into every room tightly against her chest. Her stomach roiled and threatened to make her throw up again, which was really not what she needed right now.
Then again, maybe it’d get her sent home and she could avoid this conversation for even longer.
Now that was a fine idea.
“I have a patient waiting on me. I’ll meet you in the conference room in ten minutes.” Nathalie pointed toward the door. No way in hell was she going to let Abagail have free rein in her office while she wasn’t there to supervise. For all she knew, Abagail was going to rifle through her drawers or something.
That woman wasn’t to be trusted.
That’s what Nathalie knew and that’s what she was willing to believe. She skimmed her hand down her side and gave Abagail a pointed look before ushering her into the conference room. As soon as the door was shut, Nathalie breathed a sigh of relief, even if it was only temporary. She headed off to see her patient and completely forgot that Abagail was holed up in the room.
Thirty minutes later, after a conversation about fertility and treatment options and answering literally every single question her patient had come into the room with, Nathalie stepped out of the room and was met face first with Lachlan.
Who did not look pleased.
“What?” Nathalie snapped.
“Conference room?” Lachlan raised an eyebrow in Nathalie’s direction. “And she’s not very happy about being made to wait.”
“Well, she can’t just show up unannounced and expect that I can see her immediately. I have patients. And the last thing we need is another complaint about me being late or something.”
Lachlan narrowed her gaze. “Since when do you care about being timely with patients?”
“I always care,” Nathalie fired back. Her heart raced. She and Lachlan still hadn’t talked about last weekend and the fact that she had willingly stood in that doorway far longer than she should have and watched Greer fuck one of her best friends. And they really needed to do that.
Rolling her eyes, Lachlan snagged Nathalie’s wrist and shoved her toward the conference room. “We’re meeting with Abagail now.”
“I thought you had a procedure?—”
“I moved it back a couple hours.” Lachlan dragged her, not giving her an inch to back out or leave the vicinity. Which Nathalie hated, because she absolutely was going to do that. She didn’t see the need for Abagail or the fact that she was there just to stir up trouble.
“What about my patients?”
“You only had afternoon patients left. You scheduled yourself for charting this morning, remember? And you took that last one as an emergency appointment.”
Damn it. She had done that, hadn’t she? What had she been thinking? Now she really didn’t have an excuse, and she’d have to stay late to finish out her charts before coming back the next day.
“I need my snacks.”
Lachlan groaned, opened the door to the conference room, and pushed Nathalie inside. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Nathalie stood at the doorway and stared at Abagail, who looked far more upset now than she had thirty minutes ago when she’d shown up at the office. Nathalie clenched her jaw, took a breath, and then finally decided where she was going to sit. At the head of the table, where she could be in charge and where she could be the one to make the decisions she really didn’t want to talk about.
“So glad you could join me—again,” Abagail started.
“Lachlan will be back in a minute.” Nathalie put down the computer, knowing it’d be useless to help her through this meeting. What she needed was the laptop from her office.
“Good, because she needs to be in on this conversation as well.”
Nathalie frowned. How bad was it that Abagail had actually driven all the way out here to have a talk? Luckily, Lachlan showed up within the minute she’d promised. She handed the small baggie of almonds over to Nathalie along with a bottle of water and her laptop. Then she sat down with her own laptop and opened the lid.
“What did you need to talk to us about?” Lachlan asked.
Nathalie flicked her gaze to Lachlan as she popped an almond between her lips. All business now, and so different from the woman who had been writhing under Greer just a few days ago. But underneath all those different facets, she was the same person—the most kind and caring person that Nathalie knew. And she made Nathalie a better person every day.
“I received fifteen complaints last week about Nathalie.”
“Fifteen?” Nathalie’s eyes widened. “I’d say I don’t think I even saw fifteen patients last week, but I know I did. But fifteen?”
Abagail hummed. She opened up her briefcase and took out a folder, laying out all of the complaints. Lachlan peered over them with Nathalie and finally pointed to one. “This is the only one I can see as being valid.”
Nathalie narrowed her gaze and shot Lachlan a dirty look. “I wasn’t short with Katie.”
“You were.” Lachlan looked back at her calmly. “Because you needed to leave the room quickly. Remember?”
“Right.” Nathalie grimaced. The nausea had been particularly bad that day, and she’d rushed out so that she could make it to the bathroom before spewing her snacks all over the pristine floor. “I might have been short with her.”
“The other complaints,” Abagail started as she collected them and fanned them out, “all seem petty and forced. You can see that in how they’re written.”
Nathalie squinted to read them, one after the other. Each one had the same key words in them, the same complaint each time. Some of the patients she hadn’t seen in weeks or even months. Nathalie frowned as she popped another almond into her mouth and chewed slowly, saying nothing.
“I think that someone is fabricating complaints. I’m not even sure if the patients who wrote this actually wrote them or if their names are just being used. They’re coming in via the online system, not phone calls.” Abagail collected the papers back up again. “I’d say that you’re being targeted.” She looked directly at Nathalie. “And I want to know why.”
“I know why.” Nathalie leaned back in her chair and sighed. She glanced at Lachlan who nodded at her. “Penny.”
“Ivy’s ex?” Abagail frowned.
How much had Ivy not told her? Nathalie spared yet another glance to Lachlan. “We’re being sued—well, I’m being sued, she hasn’t sued the practice yet—for Ivy’s shares that she sold to us right before she filed for divorce.”
“Holy shit,” Abagail muttered. “That woman really doesn’t know when to just give up, does she?”
“No.” Nathalie was pleased that Abagail at least seemed on her side for this one so far. “She hasn’t sued Lachlan yet for those shares or the practice itself. She only wants, according to her claim, fifty percent of what Ivy owned since she feels it’s her right to have it.”
“I can’t imagine her being part-owner of anything we’re involved in,” Lachlan muttered, closing her laptop lid.
“But why is she coming after you?” Abagail said, pointedly looking at Nathalie.
“Because she sees me as her biggest threat.” Nathalie knew that without a doubt. “Because when Ivy first filed for divorce, she came and stayed at my house, and when Penny showed up and tried to break down my door, I called the cops on her. And when that didn’t work, I called her place of employment and told them that she was harassing her soon-to-be ex-wife and that they needed to look at her time logs for when she was working and when she wasn’t working because she had been stealing time from them for years.”
“And did they?” Abagail asked, writing all of this down on a yellow legal pad.
“Yes. And they fired her.” Nathalie crossed her arms and glanced at Lachlan. “And when she got a new job, she tried to do it again. Ivy stayed with me for six months before she bought the house next to mine. The abuse calmed down from in-person arguments like that to more virtual threats via text message and phone calls and threatening to not give the kids back when her designated time was up.”
“Damn,” Abagail muttered. “I knew it was bad now, but I didn’t realize how far back this went.”
Nathalie frowned. “Ivy’s been through a lot, but consistently, Lachlan and I are the only ones who have stood up for her. And we will continue to do so. I don’t give in to bullies.” Nathalie paused as soon as she said that. And she looked at Lachlan, who stared right back at her. And they weren’t talking about Ivy anymore. They were talking about Greer, and this past weekend. Nathalie breathed deeply, her lips parted, and she saw the hurt in Lachlan’s gaze—hurt that she had caused.
“I’ll talk to her,” Nathalie murmured quietly.
“You better,” Lachlan responded.
“Who is her?” Abagail asked.
Nathalie shook her head. “We’re discussing another matter. Penny hasn’t liked me since before they got married, so it’s no surprise that she’s targeting me.”
“Perhaps, but I suspect she’ll focus on Lachlan when she doesn’t get anywhere with you. And I assume you and Lachlan still have the shares that Ivy sold you?”
“Yes.”
“But Baylor was asking to buy them.” Lachlan didn’t sound very confident when she said that.
Nathalie whipped her head around and glared. “I told you, I’m not selling to him.”
“It would be helpful to have a third partner in situations like these, someone else who can help share the burden and the consequences.” Lachlan fiddled with her thumbs.
“I’m not selling to Baylor.” Nathalie couldn’t make that any clearer.
“Selling the shares isn’t a bad idea, you know. Because if they’re sold, then Penny can’t sue you for them.”
Nathalie snorted full on and shook her head. “No, she’ll just sue me for the profit I made by selling them, and she’ll expect fifty percent of whatever I sell, and fifty percent of whatever Lachlan sells.” Nathalie pointed at Lachlan. “Baylor isn’t stupid. He knows that we’re weak right now, and he knows that he’s going to get exactly what he wants because you’ll roll over and give it to him.”
“I won’t,” Lachlan responded. “But he’s our longest standing doctor outside of the two of us, and he knows what he’s doing when it comes to business.”
“I don’t think he does,” Nathalie shot back. “And I refuse to sell the shares. I don’t want a third partner. I don’t want to have to deal with Baylor’s opinion any more than I already have to.”
“Nathalie, just take some time to think about it,” Abagail said.
“No. It’s thought about. And I won’t do it.” Nathalie crossed her arms, that nausea kicking into full gear again. “I need you to figure out how Penny is doing this. Is she contacting patients? Is she just falsifying complaints? If it is that, then how is she getting their names? Because that is a breach of HIPAA, and I will take down whichever employee is violating it and blacklist them.”
“I didn’t hear that,” Abagail said, continuing to write on her damn little notebook. “But yes, I’m going to work on that.”
“Good.” Nathalie snagged another almond and popped it in her mouth, hoping that it’d help with the nausea that was gurgling up again.
“I’ll need to be in this office for a few days at least in order to figure that out, and I will need access to some of your files.”
Nathalie was about to object, but Lachlan jumped in instead. “That’s fine. We can arrange for that.” Lachlan sent Nathalie a curious and confused look.
Nathalie pressed her hand to her belly, her belly that was getting harder to the touch every week, but she still wasn’t ready to tell anyone. She wasn’t ready to admit that this baby might have stuck. She rolled her shoulders and closed her eyes as another wave of desperate nausea rolled through her.
“I need to?—”
“Yes, go. We’re about done here, and I think I can handle the rest,” Lachlan interrupted her. She must have noticed.
Nathalie pushed back her chair, her hands gripping onto the edges of the table as she forced herself to stand up. God, she felt awful. Her knees were weak, her entire body was telling her to sit down and then lie down. Perhaps even curl into a ball and forget that she had work today.
“Nathalie?”
“I’m fine,” she mumbled. She finally forced herself to stand up and walked out of the conference room. She immediately went straight to the bathroom. This wasn’t going to end today. She hadn’t been able to keep up with the snacks and the food to keep anything down. And Abagail being there hadn’t helped at all.
She had no idea how long she’d been in the bathroom when Lachlan finally showed up to help her. She pressed an ice pack to Nathalie’s neck and held her hair back. Nathalie couldn’t stop the tears from forming in the corners of her eyes as she retched again.
“I’ll take your patients this afternoon.”
“I can?—”
“No, you can’t. You can’t even stand up right now.” Lachlan helped Nathalie wobble to her feet. “Lie down in your office. I’ll turn the lights off and give you a shot, and then I’ll take you home at the lunch break.”
Nathalie groaned. “This shouldn’t be so hard.”
“I know,” Lachlan answered, sympathy in her tone. “I know it shouldn’t.” She rubbed a hand along Nathalie’s back as they walked together toward Nathalie’s office. True to her word, Lachlan brought her a shot for the nausea, handed her a blanket and turned off the lights.
So much for this day.