Chapter Four
LIAM
“W hy on earth would you call the hospital in the middle of my shift to talk about marriage ?” I bark angrily into the phone as I storm into my apartment. “Mom, people are talking now. They think I’m actually engaged.”
“Oh, Liam, stop being dramatic,” Mom tuts at me as I toss my bag onto the counter. “I only told the lady I had urgent business to discuss about a marriage proposal. Not the same thing.”
My eyes nearly roll to the back of my head. I’m always a little off-center after a twenty-four-hour shift. But add the shitshow with Ella yesterday and I’m downright grumpy.
“You didn’t even have to say why you were calling,” I point out, taking off my jacket. “You could have just asked for me. By the way? It’s not acceptable for any other residents to take personal calls during their shifts.”
“I wanted you to know how important it was,” she huffs. “And, Liam, you’re not most residents. We own the hospital. You’re allowed to take advantage of the benefits.”
“I don’t think taking calls from my mom during work hours counts as a benefit,” I mutter, flopping onto my white leather couch.
It’s been like this for years. She wants me to settle down and get married so it looks good for her image. I’m not against marriage, but I don’t want to get married just so Mom looks good. The insistence has died down over the last few years, but now the mayoral reelection is coming up and her insistence is back full force.
“Oh hush,” she snaps. “What about Cora? She’s a lovely girl, and she comes from a respectable family.”
Yeah, a family she would love to be connected to politically.
“Mom, no.” My temper flares as I take in what she’s saying. “She’s a nice girl, but I’m never going to get married to anyone unless I love them. And I don’t feel that way about Cora.”
“If you just gave her a chance?—”
“No, Mom. I’m drawing the line. This is not happening. I love you, but I need to go. Goodbye.” My thumb presses the end call button so hard I’m surprised the screen doesn’t crack. Dropping my phone next to me on the couch, my head falls back as I sigh.
There couldn’t have been a worse time for her to call during my shift. God, the look of disappointment and betrayal in Ella’s eyes when she heard the word “fiancée” had gutted me. I should have just said then and there that I’m not getting married, but then she would have asked why my mom is calling about marriage, and we’d have to go into who I really am… I just wanted to wait until I could think of a better explanation to tell her. Which obviously backfired.
And now I can’t stop thinking about Ella. The way she looked when she first saw me, full of shock. But then, when I came back, she looked almost… hopeful. Hesitant, but hopeful.
Until that damn phone call came in. I can’t even get mad at the nurse for passing along the phone call. When the owner of the hospital calls, you give her whoever she wants to speak to, end of story. It’s part of the reason the other residents give me a hard time about my family name.
Shaking myself from my thoughts, I force my body off the couch and into the shower. I need to wash the last twenty-four hours of grime off before I can figure out what to do about Ella.
Ella is the only person I’ve interacted with who genuinely has no idea who I am. To the world, I’m William Stokes, billionaire, son of Mayor Allison Stokes, co-owner of Stokes Hospital, and doctor in training. To Ella though… I’ve always just been Liam. Even hearing my last name today, I don’t think she put two and two together that my family owns the hospital. She still referred to me as “Liam,” not “William,” and she acted just the same as she did four years ago, not falling over herself trying to get my attention. I could just be myself around her. There was no worry that she was only after me for my money, or my name, or what kind of life I could give her.
A life with a waterfall shower, I think to myself, stepping under the spray of my waterfall shower. The hot water washes away all the sweat and grime I’ve felt accumulating on my skin. My mind instantly flashes back to Ella, imagining how she would look under the fall of the water, glistening and naked in the shower with me. The water would plaster her hair to her face, but she would look like some kind of water goddess, with rivulets of water running down her body.
Things had been so different the night she and I spent together. I had been shocked she didn’t recognize me, since nearly everyone did back. Mom would drag me to every public event when she was first running for mayor in Boston. I’d try to casually date, but as soon as they started to catch on to how much money my family has, they’d get greedy and I’d have to end things.
I’m not interested in being someone’s ATM, and they didn’t care about me.
Only Ella did.
That’s why I haven’t been able to sleep with anyone since her. Oh, I’ve tried, but we only get so far as a hotel room before I call the whole thing off, sick to my stomach. I gave up the attempts a year after leaving Ella in Burlington. I was never able to find someone who looked at me like Ella did. Like a person and not a one-way ticket to a lavish lifestyle.
It makes me glad I decided to stay out of the limelight this time around during the election, despite Mom’s insistence on me finding a wife. If there’s one thing she finds more important than my marriage, it’s my career as a doctor, which made it the perfect excuse as to why I couldn’t attend any events or press conferences with her.
Seeing Ella again today reminded me of what I’ve wanted for so long. When she looked at me, she saw the guy she met four years ago. The same guy who she shared a mind-blowing connection with that I’ve never had with anyone else.
I could really see myself being happy with her. Now that I think about it, I don’t even know when the last time I was truly happy was. Probably back when I was an EMT. Going into the medical field was my way of trying to honor my dad’s legacy after he died from Alzheimer’s. Dad, being a well-known pediatric surgeon, was widely mourned when he passed, and I know that if he were still alive, he would have supported my passion for being an EMT. It’s not like our fortune was made from him being a surgeon, it was made from smart business deals and investments over generations. Dad never would have pressured me to sacrifice who I am or what I love. He also never would have tried to make me get married as a political move.
I love my mom, but after Dad died, she… changed. First, she bought the hospital, trying to spearhead new research for Alzheimer’s. Then, she started running for mayor of Boston, and everything became about image, and how things would look to the public. It had always been that way to an extent, considering she comes from a rather influential politically-minded family, but it got so much worse after Dad passed.
This whole mayoral campaign is important to her, I get that. But is it really so important it needs to affect the trajectory of my life? She’s not going to be mayor forever, but if I marry someone, I’m stuck with them for the rest of my life.
Ella is the only person I’ve ever been able to see a future like that with, and that was only from one night with her. I’ve always regretted not figuring out a way to contact her, even if she was married. The feelings she evoked in me are what I’ve been chasing after ever since… and coming up short. She’s been a constant presence in my mind since I stormed out of the hospital four years ago with a broken heart.
What if I was wrong?? What if I… what if I made assumptions? Did she ever get married? Was she even really engaged? Or was that guy who showed up just a tool? I need to figure out what happened.
After washing myself on autopilot, I turn off the water, dry off with a towel, and get dressed in sweats and a t-shirt, ready for some good sleep. I have a few things I need to do first, though.
Before leaving the hospital, I looked up Brynn Harding’s patient chart, hoping that Ella had been listed as one of her emergency contacts, and she was. Grabbing my phone from beside me, I open up my photos app and look at the picture I took of the tablet at work.
I could get in really big trouble for snagging information like this, but I won’t be able to rest until I can talk to Ella and find out the truth. If she was ever engaged, if she’s single now, and if she felt the same way about me as I did her.
Her address is listed in Ridgewood Falls, Virginia. Doing a quick internet search, I find that the nearest big hospital is UVM, a twenty-five to thirty-minute drive.
I could transfer there… and move to Ridgewood Falls. They’re a tiny town, settled forty-five minutes away from Burlington. There’s no chance that we won’t run into each other. The first thing I need to do is find out if Ella is really single, and if she is… I need to get her back.
Grabbing my laptop and sitting on my bed, I do a search for UVM’s residency director. The need to be near her is driving me crazy. It’s probably a crazy-psycho-stalker move to uproot my life and place myself in her town, but I don’t know what else to do. I’m not happy where I am, and not knowing the truth about what happened with Ella is eating me alive.
Ridgewood Falls is so small it only has three apartment buildings. Frowning, I scroll through each of their websites. Only one has any vacancies… “Ridgewood Heights.” I scroll through the pictures on their website, mentally comparing it to my own penthouse apartment. My building is all modern flair and sleek lines, brushed metal appliances, and black countertops. Even my bedroom is painted gray, with geometric bookshelves lining the walls, which is not something I picked out for myself. My mother went a little crazy and hired an interior decorator when I bought this place.
The apartments on the website are… homey. Warm and inviting. Wood floors and cabinets, warm-colored walls, and basic appliances.
It’s not a penthouse, but I’ve never been much into the opulence of my family’s life anyway.
After applying for a one-bedroom apartment in Ridgewood Heights, I send an email to Caroline Jacobs, the residency director at UVM. Not many people can get away with transferring hospitals mid-residency, but it’s finally time I use my family name for some good.