6. "Now be a good girl and clean the mess you've made."
"You?!"
His dark brown eyes held vexation as they pierced right through me, yet he spoke calmly. "Is that how you greet your new CEO, doctor?"
No way.
Him?! The new CEO?! What the hell?
"W-what?" I uttered in shock.
"I bought the hospital. I'm the new owner." He replied, his gaze a menacing one as he glared at me.
"Do you know who I am?! I can have you fired from this hospital in the blink of an eye, and fired so that you would never find a job in the whole of the country ever again!"
His words echoed in my mind, and suddenly my fate seemed obvious. I was ruined.
All I had to do was shut up.
I inhaled a staggered breath. "Am... am I fired?" The words came out as a nervous whisper.
His piercing gaze never left my face for a second. More panic consumed me as a dangerous smirk formed on his stern face. "No, doctor. Humanity needs your service." His tone held slight mockery.
I blinked. "Okay?"
"What time are you going home tonight?" He asked casually.
I frowned confusedly. "8 pm. Why?"
His smirk grew. "No, you aren't, Dr. Aysel. Once you're done with your duty, you will report to me here in my office."
I frowned again. "But why?"
"You'll find out. Now go. Take care of your patients." He gestured to the door.
"You already have a massive corporation to run. What's the point in becoming CEO of this hospital?" I couldn't help but ask.
He stood up from his seat, and I took a couple steps back instinctively. "Don't worry your not-so-pretty head with that, little one. I can multitask very well."
I bit my lip to keep myself from telling him to not call me that stupid nickname he had considered me worthy of.
I turned to leave without another word, my heart sinking in my chest. My life was on its tracks before he came to the hospital that night, and was now becoming a mess.
Should I curse him or the damned idiot who shot him?
No gunshot wound, no visit to the hospital, right?
Or should I blame Dr. Bailey for entrusting this headache of a human to me?
———
It was a busy day. The patient load was immense, and while I tended to each patient in the OPD, in the back of my mind I was dreading the time when the clock would strike eight.
Anxiety was consuming my existence, and I couldn't help but overthink.
What did that man have in store for me? What was he going to do to me?
My gut feeling told me it was nothing good.
There was no reason for him to go ahead and buy the hospital all of a sudden.
The hospital I worked at. After he threatened me.
He was obviously aiming to get back at me.
But seriously though, what even did I do wrong? He kept insulting me and trying to lower my self esteem. So what if I talked back a little? He made a huge deal out of nothing. Stupid man-baby.
At precisely eight o' clock, I stood before that damned man's office again. When I walked in, I saw him typing away on his laptop.
"There you are," he said, without looking up from his laptop. I stood silently, awaiting his command. "Go get me a cup of coffee." He said, dismissing me with a gesture of his hand.
My eyebrows scrunched up together. "I'm a doctor, Mr. Knight. Not an assistant."
He finally looked up from his laptop to shoot me a menacing stare. "And I am the CEO, little one. Your boss. Do you want to keep your job or your attitude?"
My lips thinned. I could not believe that was happening to me. I bit my tongue to hold back insults, before turning to leave. I returned a few minutes later with a cup of coffee.
I took small steps towards him with the hot cup of coffee in my hands. Just as I stood before him, my grip faltered and the coffee ended up splashed over his white dress shirt.
He bolted up in shock, before a look of fury crossed over his face.
"I... I... it was an accident." It wasn't. I did it on purpose. Stupid man-child. I was not his servant. Who the hell did he think he was asking me to get him coffee? I didn't work so hard in medical school to endure this.
I watched his expression change from purely furious and strained to calm and relaxed within a minute. Something surreptitious came across in his eyes that anxiously piqued my curiosity. I had a feeling something wicked was brewing in his head.
"That's perfectly alright, Dr. Aysel. Mistakes happen. You're human after all." He responded, and to say I was shocked at his calm and humane response was an understatement.
The look in his eyes was unsettling, and did not match the words he just spoke.
I pressed my lips together, looking to the door. "Can I... go home now?"
A smirk crawled onto his face. "Already? Absolutely not," he sat back in his revolving chair, casually leaning back. "Now be a good girl and clean the mess you've made."
"Excuse me?" I uttered, baffled.
He pointed to the tissue box. "Clean the mess you've made." He drawled, menacingly yet so calmly.
I gulped, unable to comprehend what was going on.
"Dr. Aysel, do you hear me? I don't believe we need an employee here who needs everything spelled out for her. Does being jobless sound very tempting?" His threats of rendering me unemployed were both getting on my nerves and beginning to genuinely scare the hell out of me.
"I don't think that's in my job description." I said bitterly.
"Neither is spilling coffee on your CEO," he said calmly. "And yet, here we are."
Swallowing my pride, I grabbed a few tissues out of the tissue box and neared him. Bending slightly to his level, I prepared to scrub his shirt, my heart beating erratically in my chest. I could feel his hard, scrutinising gaze burning through my skin. I felt hot and uneasy.
There was no point in making me do that. His shirt was already ruined and a few tissues weren't going to take the stains out of it. Of course, his purpose wasn't to get his shirt clean; it was to trample my dignity.
He tsked, shaking his head. "I think it might work if you went down on your knees."
My head snapped up in shock, meeting his mischievous gaze. "Mr. Knight, I would never go down on my knees for a man. Especially not you." I asserted.
He smirked. "Very well..." I gasped as he grabbed my wrist, pulling the tissue papers out of my grasp, and tossed them aside. I stared at him eyes wide as he let go of my wrist. "That's clearly not working. Good thing I brought back up."
"What?"
He pointed to the cupboard in the corner. "There's another shirt in there. Go get it for me." He ordered.
I frowned. "Why don't you get it yourself?"
"Why would I do that when I have you?" He replied with a condescending smirk.
My frown deepened. "I'm not your maid, Mr. Knight."
"And I'm not someone whose patience you should be testing, little one. Now go grab that shirt." He asserted.
I inhaled a sharp breath and turned on my heels. Opening the cupboard, I spotted a folded dress shirt that was white, exactly like the one he was wearing. I grabbed it and walked back to him, holding it out for him.
I stood there before him as he took it from me, and my heart also stood still in my chest. He was unpredictable, and I just knew I could expect anything from him, no matter how absurd.
"Can I go now?" I asked, a hint of irritation coating my voice.
He placed the shirt on his desk, unbuttoning the top button of the coffee-stained one he was wearing. "Go get me a new cup of coffee." He ordered.
I blinked. "I don't work for you in that way. I am not your assistant, and I'm certainly not your personal maid."
His stare was cool and unwavering. "And I'm the CEO. Which means I can ask you to do many things you may not like. Unless, of course, you're ready to hand in your resignation."
I stared at him, dumbfounded. He didn't even raise his voice. He didn't have to. His authority seeped into every word.
"I'm not here to be a source of entertainment to satisfy your sick ego." I said, straightening up.
"No," he said, folding his hands in front of him. "You're here to save lives. And I respect that. But you also work under me now. So you'll need to get used to this... dynamic."
I gave him a long, hard look. "If you're trying to intimidate me, it's not working."
He tilted his head to the side, a cruel smirk coating his features. "Is that so?"
"Yes," I shot. "I'm out of here."
With that, I turned on my heels, determined to storm out.
"Dr. Aysel," his authoritative voice stopped me mid-step. "If you walk out that door without my permission, don't bother showing up tomorrow."
I froze.
He wasn't bluffing. I could hear it in his tone. He'd destroy my career if I defied him.
Slowly, I turned to face him again, my jaw clenched. "What do you want from me?"
He walked forward, not stopping until there was barely a foot between us. His eyes scanned my face, intense and unapologetic. Then he pulled out a file stacked with numerous documents.
"I want you to work. This is all the pending documentation that you shall work on tonight." He pointed to a thick file on his desk that was stacked with numerous papers.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Patient records and stuff. You need to analyse and document them. Make sure it's done by the morning. I need this file back on my desk at 8 am sharp tomorrow."
I picked up the file, frowning as I saw the amount of papers. "This is a lot of stuff. You can't expect me to do it all in one night."
"You never fail to surprise me with how incompetent you are." He mocked.
I scowled at him. "I'm a human. Not a machine."
"Put your human brain to use, Dr. Aysel. I need this file. On. My. Desk. At. 8 am. Sharp. Tomorrow."
I took in a sharp breath, angrily gripping the file in my hand, before storming out of his office.
It was certain that I was in for a hell of a ride.