The Surgeon He Betrayed Now Belongs to a CEO novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Suspended

The centennial committee dinner was held in the ballroom of the Seaport Hotel, with sixty guests and a long table down the middle.

I wore the only black dress I owned, and it had been folded in a duffel bag for three years.

Declan sat at the head of the table, and I had been placed at his right.

He hadn't spoken to me since the car.

He had nodded when I came in, shaken my hand, and turned to the donor on his left.

Desmond was halfway down the table with Fiona.

My grandfather had taken the chair opposite mine, with his cane against his knee.

He ate his soup and did not look at me once.

Fiona waved at me over a centerpiece of white roses.

I smiled back and wished I hadn't.

"Dr. Vaughan," said the woman beside me, a donor with a lot of silver bracelets. "Tell me. Is it true what they say, that you saved a hospital in the desert with a flashlight?"

"A boy saved it. I held the scalpel."

"And Mr. Maddox brought you home." She turned down the table. "Declan, how did you find her?"

The conversation along the table stopped, because it was Declan's habit to say very little, and everybody knew it.

He set down his glass.

"I read three years of her records," he said, "and I picked the one surgeon I'd trust with anything that belongs to me."

"Anything?" the donor said, delighted.

"Anything at all."

He didn't look at me when he said it.

Under the table, his knee had come against mine, and he did not move it.

I did not move mine.

I lifted my water glass, and my hand was not quite steady, and he watched the water move.

When the waiters took the plates, he leaned back to let the main course be set down, and his mouth came a few inches from my ear.

← Chapter 8 · All chapters · Chapter 10 →

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