Elias
The hospital was loud, relentless, and mercilessly busy, which usually grounded him.
But today, it just felt like noise. He moved through rounds, nodded through briefings, and scrubbed in for surgery with the mechanical precision of someone who had done it too many times to count—but his mind was somewhere else entirely.
Aliza’s face kept slipping in between heart rates and incision lines.
The way her voice had cracked when she’d said her father had threatened her.
The way she looked when she admitted she was scared.
And the way she’d still reached for his hand, as though needing his comfort anyway. That was what gutted him the most.
In the middle of a consultation, he found himself staring at the edge of a chart without reading it.
Jonnas seemed to notice. “You look like hell,” his friend muttered once they were alone in the corridor.
“And not the usual exhausted-doctor kind of hell, either. What happened to you since our talk this morning? You just don’t seem yourself. ”
Jonnas swore under his breath. “That’s not just controlling. That’s straight-up abuse.”
“I know,” Elias said tightly. “And she feels like she’s standing on a cliff. One wrong step and everything disappears. All of her hard work getting into grad school—it will all just be gone if she chooses me. So, how much of an ass does it make me that I hope like hell that she does choose me?”
“What are you going to do?” Jonnas asked, not answering his question. It was rhetorical, anyway. But Elias worried that he was being a selfish bastard. Hell, he knew that he was, but it still didn’t change what he wanted, and he wanted Aliza.
Elias hesitated. “I don’t know yet what I’m going to do.
I don’t want to be the reason she loses her future.
But I also don’t want to disappear from her life just because her father scared her.
Hell, I can pay her tuition, but I doubt that she’ll take me up on my offer.
She’ll probably think that I’m trying to buy her love, and that is the last thing that I want. ”
Jonnas clapped him on the shoulder. “Then don’t disappear.
Just don’t push her for answers. Let her know you’re there.
” That was exactly what Elias wanted to do.
He wouldn’t try to fix the situation or demand answers from Aliza.
He’d just find a way to be present for her while she navigated her way through this mess.
He stopped mid-stride and turned to face Elias. “Did you use the word love?” he asked.
“I did, but not the way you’re thinking. It’s too early to talk about love, but down the road, if we stay together, how will I know if she’s with me because she loves me? What if she sticks around because I’ve offered to help her out with her tuition?
“Yeah, that’s a fine line you’re walking, man. But you’re smart enough to figure it all out. Just don’t make any rash decisions. Nothing has to be decided tonight,” Jonnas insisted,
By early afternoon, his phone buzzed in the pocket of his lab coat. He pulled it out and checked the screen to find Aliza’s name in bold letters staring back at him. His heart did a little flip-flop as he stepped into a quiet stairwell and answered. “Hey.”
“He just called,” she whispered.
She sounded so worried that the word seemed to tilt off-axis for just a second. “Your dad?”
“Yes. He wants my answer. He said I have until tonight,” she breathed.
Elias closed his eyes, breathing through the surge of anger and helplessness that rushed through him. “That’s not fair.”
“He says I’m embarrassing him. That I’m throwing away everything he’s paid for, so he won’t give me any extra time.
” He didn’t say it out loud, but he wanted to pummel her father for treating her this way—and he didn’t even know the guy.
Hell, he barely knew Aliza, but caring about her was easy.
He wanted to help her as much as he wanted to be with her, and that said a lot about how he felt about her—even after just two dates.
“You’re not throwing anything away,” Elias said firmly. “You’re just trying to live your own life.”
“I feel like I’m betraying him,” she said softly.
“And I feel like he’s betraying you,” Elias replied. “I don’t have any kids yet, but I’m pretty sure that a parent shouldn’t put their child in a position like this.” She didn’t answer right away. He could hear her breathing on the line, shallow and uneven.
“What do you want, Aliza?” he asked gently. “Don’t tell me what he wants, or what you think you owe him. What do you want?”
There was a long silence again. Then, quietly, “I want to keep seeing you. I don’t want to walk away just because my father has scared me.”
Something fierce and steady locked into place inside Elias. “Then that’s your truth.”
“But my school—” she started to protest.
“We’ll figure it out,” he interrupted softly. “Loans, grants, work studies—there are options. Hard ones, sure, but you don’t have to give up yourself to keep someone else happy.”
Her voice wavered. “I’m terrified,” she admitted.
“I know,” he said. “But you don’t have to do this alone.” Another silence, thick with emotion, followed.
“Can you come over tonight?” she asked. “I don’t want to face him by myself.”
“Yes,” Elias said immediately. “I’ll be there at five, after work. I just need to run home, shower, and feed my cat.”
“You have a cat?” she asked. “How did I not know this about you?”
“Well, he’s kind of my cat. He just wandered into my house one day, and never left,” he admitted. “He adopted me, not the other way around.”
“What’s his name?” she asked.
“Cat,” he drawled.
“Well, I’m sure it suits him,” she teased. “I’d love to meet him.” He thought about taking her back to his place, and his heart did another little flip-flop in his chest. The idea of having her in his space was something that he actually liked.
“I’ll see you just after five,” he said. “I need to run. I have a patient waiting,” he said.
“Thanks, Elias, for everything,” Aliza said.
When the call ended, Elias leaned back against the stairwell wall, his heart pounding.
This wasn’t just about a relationship anymore.
This was about a woman learning how to choose herself for the first time—and he was damn sure he wasn’t going to abandon her in the middle of that fight.
No, instead, he’d be standing by her side as she faced down her father—and he’d be holding her damn hand.