The Surgeon He Betrayed Now Belongs to a CEO novel · Chapter 11 of 24
Chapter 11: The Empty Chair
Declan's POV
I woke at six, and the bed was empty on her side.
For one second I was back in the intensive care unit, and the chair beside the bed was empty again.
Then I smelled coffee.
She was in the kitchen in my white shirt with the sleeves rolled to the elbow, standing at the counter with her back to me.
The medal lay on the marble beside her cup.
She did not turn around.
"You've been carrying that for three years," Imogen said.
"Yes."
"The chain is cut through one link. I cut it."
"I know."
"You've known since the hallway."
"Since the first photograph in the personnel file." I stopped in the doorway, because I could not make myself cross the floor. "I knew your face on the first page. I didn't know whether you'd remember mine."
"I never saw your face. You were under drapes. I saw an abdomen and a medal."
"The scar," I said.
"Is mine."
She turned.
Her eyes were red, and she did not look angry.
"You let me say it was a textbook closure," she said. "In your bed. You let me say I'd like to shake the hand."
"I wanted to hear it."
"Why?"
I had practiced the answer for three years in the shower, in the car and in board meetings with my eyes on the table.
It came out nothing like the practice.
"I woke up in the ICU two days later," I said. "A nurse told me a surgeon had saved my life. I asked for her name. She said the surgeon had left the building and nobody had her information."
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