My Husband Dismissed Seven Ransom Calls as AI novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Second Surgeon
Ansel's POV
Elora told me in the jail parking lot, and she told it standing up.
She did not cry and she did not touch me.
When she was done, she said, "Find out if it's true," and got into Beth's hatchback.
I found the second surgeon in the surgeons' lounge at six that evening, with his feet on a chair and a cold coffee in his hand.
He had stood across from me in OR One a month ago and taken my knife without a word.
He had been a good friend to me for nine years.
"I need to ask you about the night Elora came in," I said.
He put the coffee down.
"I wondered when you would."
That was not the answer I expected.
"Janelle told the team you were forty minutes out," I said. "In a jackknifed truck on the interstate."
"I wasn't on the interstate. I was in the cafeteria."
The words sat there between us.
"I was eating a sandwich," he said. "I had my pager on the table. At ten twenty it went off."
He took his phone from his pocket and thumbed it open.
He handed it to me, and his hand was unsteady.
The message was from the trauma desk line, with Janelle's initials at the bottom.
Dr. Erickson has this one and says no backup, no help in the room. Stay out of OR Two. He'll page if he needs you.
I read it three times.
"I never said that," I said.
"I know that now."
"I never said anything about the room."
"Ansel, I thought you had a reason." His voice was thick. "You've operated alone before. You said once you hated an audience when it's bad. I sat there and finished my sandwich, and then another one, and I went home at midnight."
"You didn't wonder why I didn't page?"
"Janelle came by at eleven and told me it was going fine." He swallowed. "She said you'd saved a Jane Doe and a baby and wanted to be left alone."
Keep reading free with an account. Start My Husband Dismissed Seven Ransom Calls as AI from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 19 · All chapters · Chapter 21 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend