The Surgeon He Betrayed Now Belongs to a CEO novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Not in the Contract

I did not take the letter.

"You kept it for three years," I said. "Why?"

"Because if I signed it, you'd be gone."

"I was gone."

"On paper, you were on leave." His voice cracked on the last word, and he looked at the concrete floor. "I wrote it in your file myself. Leave of absence. Nobody could hire your chair out from under you while the paper was open."

"That's why the board couldn't just fill it."

"That's why I couldn't. I took the department, and I never took your name off the door."

I should have been grateful.

I stood there with my coat half on and found I was angry instead.

"You came out of your own reception," I said. "You put on a paper gown over a tuxedo. You stood at the glass for three hours."

"I did."

"What were you waiting for?"

"For you to look up."

"I didn't look up."

"I know. You kept your head down."

"You never asked me to stay," I said.

The garage went very quiet.

I had never said it aloud before, not to my own reflection, not in Kenya at two in the morning with the generator dead.

"You told me on the roof that we couldn't cross a line," I said. "I believed you. I spent two years being the kind of surgeon who wouldn't need an answer. Then my father died, and my grandfather gave you my sister, and you looked at the carpet."

"Imogen..."

"I waited for you to say my name that day, in the passage. You said it once. Then you let her walk you away."

"I was a coward."

"Yes."

"I thought if I stood outside the glass long enough, you'd end it for me.

"You'd say, stop the wedding, and I wouldn't have to be the man who did."

← Chapter 7 · All chapters · Chapter 9 →

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