Chapter 36 – Skylar
SKYLAR
Idon’t call Aston back. Not yet. I only have half an hour left on my lunch break, and time is of the essence. I make it to Dr. Weinberg’s office and greet his assistant. “Hi. Is he available? I just need a few minutes.”
“He’s in a meeting.” Then she gives me a funny look. “Are you okay? Your neck is… red.”
The blessing and curse of having fair skin. “That’s because Dr. Josh Wesley just squeezed it.”
Her eyes round and her lips part. Maybe I shouldn’t have fired that one off, but oh well.
Her eyes glue themselves to my neck, and she grimaces.
Yikes. How bad is it? I pull out my phone and use the camera app to see it.
I’ve got red lines across my neck that look like a handprint.
I snap a quick photo of it and put my phone back in my pocket.
“I’m sorry, but his meeting will have to wait. I’m on the clock.” Without waiting for her to argue with me, I burst into his office only to stumble over my feet as I come to a screeching halt. “What are you doing here?”
Michaela is sitting at the round table in the corner of the office with Weinberg directly across from her. They appear deep in conversation, and Michaela is visibly upset with tears in her eyes and staining her cheeks.
“Shut the door, Skylar,” Weinberg orders, and by some miracle, I manage the task, though I can’t remove my gaze from her. “Please, come have a seat. I believe you’re likely here to discuss the same matter Michaela is.”
My heart hammers in my chest, and my palms tingle with adrenaline as I take a seat at the table.
“What’s going on?” I ask, unable to wait another second.
Weinberg holds up his hand to stop Michaela before she can speak. “It is my understanding that Dr. Hughes told you that he believes Dr. Wesley somehow altered medication orders under Dr. Hughes’s name and tampered with OR equipment before his surgeries. Is that correct?”
“Yes,” I utter. “Dr. Hughes and I spoke about it this morning after he had equipment issues during a surgery, followed by a changed medication order. He was very upset and adamant that he never made those errors. He was paged to the ER following our conversation, and I went back to work, only to have Dr. Wesley follow me out of the building on my lunch break. He did this”—I point to my neck where it’s red—“when he squeezed my neck and pushed me harshly against a brick wall in the alley outside the hospital. He was angry with me because…” Shit.
I swallow. “Because I’m pregnant with his child and didn’t tell him because I didn’t feel safe with him knowing yet.
You see, I left him because he was emotionally and psychologically abusive with me during our relationship, and he likes to squeeze my neck, as you can see. ”
Michaela gasps and covers her face as she starts to cry again.
Weinberg wearily rubs his forehead.
“That’s only part of why I came here right now,” I continue. “The main reason, other than filing a complaint against him for his actions just now, is to inform you that Dr. Wesley admitted to me that he’s the one who altered the medication orders and tampered with the equipment.”
Weinberg hisses out an expletive. “You’re willing to make a formal statement about all of this?”
“Absolutely. Dr. Wesley is dangerous and put patients’ lives at risk to set Dr. Hughes up because he wanted to get rid of him.”
“I gave Dr. Wesley Dr. Hughes’s credentials,” Michaela admits, and my jaw unhinges for the second time in two minutes.
I shift in my chair to look at her, her expression broken and contrite.
“I was jealous of you. I had liked Josh, but he went straight for you and never noticed me. Then it happened again with Aston. I told you I liked him, and three days later you were married to him, which didn’t make any sense to me since you had told me you didn’t even like him.
Anyway, I was angry and hurt and jealous.
Josh knew I used to work in the badge office before I got my RN license.
He approached me about making a duplicate of Aston’s badge.
He told me he needed it because Aston hated him and made it impossible for him to do what he needed to do for his patients as his resident.
He said if he had the badge, then he could go around Aston and wouldn’t have to bother with him. ”
She blows out a breath and stares up at the ceiling.
We use our badges for everything. To get in and out of the floor and to log into computers and the Pyxis machine. Josh would have also needed Aston’s password, but how difficult can that be to get? He could have looked over his shoulder anytime to see it.
“He… he said all these things to me and told me, well, it’s stupid.
I should have known better, but I’ve been pretty lonely, and then he said these things to me, things I had always wanted him to say, and he told me that you were unhappy and that Aston was dangerous.
I thought I was helping him. I never knew he mistreated you that way.
” She looks at my neck. “I was bitter, and I should have known better. I should have known he wasn’t trying to go around Aston by using his credentials.
I should have known he was trying to hurt him.
Maybe part of me did. Maybe I was getting back at you and Aston.
I don’t know. I didn’t think Josh would ever put patients at risk.
Not ever, or I never would have done it.
But it’s my fault, and after what you told me today about what Josh had done, I couldn’t live with it anymore.
It all clicked into place what he had been doing and just how dangerous he is. ”
I fall back in my seat, simply blinking and staring at her. I’m shocked. I never would have imagined Michaela would do something like that. I also give her a lot of credit for coming forward about it. Many would have hidden their involvement.
But more than that, part of this is my fault.
I left Josh, sure, but that’s all I did.
I didn’t tell anyone other than my friends and family what he did to me.
I avoided it, hoping that by leaving him, I was solving my problem.
That he’d simply fade into the background eventually and get over it.
I took the easy, passive way out. I didn’t file a restraining order, and other than avoiding him at work, I took no action against him.
I felt ashamed and hid from so much. But I’m not responsible for his actions. He is. And if I’m going to protect myself and my child, I can’t run from what he did.
“In addition to filing a formal complaint against him,” I continue, “after my shift, I’m going to be filing a restraining order with the police department.”
“You do know that with your family name, that will become public,” Weinberg tells me.
“I’m aware, and if that happens, then I’ll face it.”
Weinberg nods. “I have to speak to the chief of surgery and the resident advisor for the program, but it’s safe to say that Josh Wesley won’t be practicing medicine in this hospital again.”
Relief floods me, but there’s more to this. “What about Dr. Hughes?”
“In light of the evidence that’s been brought forth to me, he’ll be reinstated immediately.”
Fuck yeah! I inwardly fist-pump the air but work to contain my gleeful smile. “Thank you, sir. Am I permitted to tell him?”
He grins at me, clearly seeing straight through me. “Sure. In fact, why don’t you do that now? I need to finish speaking with Michaela in private.”
“Right.” I throw her a glance, but she’s not meeting my eyes now.
I still can’t believe she did what she did for Josh.
Then again, I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of his excessive and effusive affection and attention.
It’s how he ensnared me so quickly. He knows how to create an intense emotional attachment like no one else.
I stand, and without saying anything else, I leave Weinberg’s office.
Then I run for the bathroom. I have like ten minutes left before I have to get to work, which right now feels impossible with all that’s going on and all that’s rushing through my head, but that’s reality.
I pull my phone out of my pocket and immediately call Aston, who picks up right away.
“Hey. Where are you? I came looking for you, and Suzanne said you were on break, but I need to tell you—”
“Dr. Aston Hughes, I’m going to need you to return to work ASAP,” I interrupt. “Your administrative leave is officially over now that it’s been discovered that you were in fact sabotaged by Dr. Josh Wesley.”
A beat of silence. Then, “Are you serious? How would you know that?”
I launch into a fast version of what happened.
“Where are you?” he asks instead of responding to anything, his voice tight.
“Um, the bathroom outside the administrative offices on the surgical floor.”
“I’ll be there in two seconds.”
The phone disconnects, and I put my phone back in my pocket and exit the bathroom, only to immediately get picked up by a firm set of arms. Aston’s lips land straight onto mine, his arms banded tightly around me.
“Are you okay?” he murmurs around my lips.
“I’m fine. That really was like two seconds.”
“I was down the hall.” He rips himself back and examines my neck. I didn’t look too long in the mirror, but most of the redness is already gone. Still, his jaw clenches. “I want to kill him for touching you.”
I shake my head. “Not worth it.”
“No. It’s my job to protect you. I hate that you went through that, and I wasn’t there.”
“I’ve also learned how to protect myself. How to stand up for myself to him. He’s going down already by his own hand. Literally. Between what’s going to happen here in the hospital and me filing a restraining order after work, he won’t be able to hurt either of us again.”
He sets me down, and his fingers trickle along my neck, his lips following, kissing me softly.
My hands meet the back of his head, and I pull him back so I can see him. My heart thunders, but nothing has ever felt as right as saying, “I love you,” to him. “I would have told you before, but then you got paged.”
His eyes sparkle, and his expression softens. “Yeah?”
I laugh at his slightly bewildered tone. “Yep. A lot, actually.”
A smile splits his face. “Does this mean I can officially call you my wife without you arguing with me about it?”
I puff a feigned annoyed breath. “If you have to.”
“I have to. Because I’m so fucking in love with my wife.”
“Good. Because I’m so fucking in love with my husband.”
He cups my face and kisses me until we’re both breathless. “Do you have to go back to work?”
I laugh. “Yes. Like right now. But incidentally, you need to go back to work too.”
His fingers trickle along my jaw, and he stares into my eyes. “I don’t know how to thank you. I was formulating a serious battle plan, and you just kicked its ass.”
“A lot of it was Michaela, but I think it’s pretty easy to say I’d do anything for you, especially tell the truth.”
His forehead presses to mine, and his hand slips to my lower belly, where he holds me possessively. “I love you so much. You, Zoey, and our little girl in here are my world.” His thumb glides up and down. “I couldn’t handle it if anything happened to any of you.”
Damn him.
I sniffle and blink, trying to will the tears back. “You mean that? Our little girl?”
He smiles. “I thought you got that yesterday at the ultrasound, but yes, my swan, ours. You’re my love. My life. My family. My forever.”
“I want that. I want all of that with you.”
He kisses me softly. “Now I just have to tell your brother.”
Oh. Right. That.