Doctor Boss Is My Baby Daddy novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Ex

Lenore tries to claim Valeria for her own service and Valeria refuses her in front of the residents; Bridget sees the vitamin bottle.

Lenore Wellington came down the last flight.

She was blonde in a way that cost money, in a cream dress under a white coat without a single wrinkle.

Her badge said Chief of Cardiology.

Her smile said she'd been looking for him.

I was still pressed against the wall, my mouth swollen, and my pregnancy test lay on the step between her shoes.

She looked down at it.

She looked at me.

Then she bent, picked it up by the edge with two fingers, and held it out to Rhys.

"You dropped something, darling," she said.

He didn't take it.

I did, fast, and shoved it into my pocket.

"Lenore," he said. "This is Dr. Hartigan, one of our interns."

"Of course she is." Lenore put out her hand. "Lenore Wellington. Rhys and I go back a long way."

"We were engaged," Rhys said flatly. "Twenty-two months ago."

"Eleven days short of the wedding," said Lenore, with a little laugh, as though it were a funny story about a lost suitcase. "Now we're colleagues. Isn't that civilized?"

I shook her hand.

It was cool and dry, and she held mine one second too long.

"A pleasure," I said.

"Is it?" Her blue eyes moved over my lips, my hair, and my coat buttoned wrong. "You look flushed, Dr. Hartigan. Are you well?"

"Stairs," I said.

"Stairs," she agreed gently.

She was already walking away, and Rhys was going with her, because the board was waiting.

He looked back once.

I held up one finger to say, Not now.

He mouthed, Later.

I went to rounds with my heart going.

The surgical residents were gathered at the nurses' station when I got there, and so was half of the floor staff.

Bridget was in the middle of them, in navy scrubs, with her red-brown hair scraped back.

She was talking about me.

I knew because she lowered her voice when she saw me.

"Valeria," she called brightly. "Mother says you didn't call her back."

"I'm working."

"Of course. Wouldn't want to miss the new boss." She turned to the nurses. "She's very ambitious. Always has been."

A few of them smiled politely.

Before I could think of an answer, the elevator opened and Lenore swept out with Rhys one step behind her.

"Everyone," Lenore said, and the station went quiet. "Dr. Gallagher and I are reorganizing the surgical interns. I'd like to borrow one for my cardiology service this month, to give the chief some breathing room."

She looked at me.

"Dr. Hartigan. You'll start with me tomorrow."

Murmurs went around the station.

Everyone knew what a month on Lenore's service meant.

Lenore's interns worked eighteen-hour days and wrote her papers, and none of them got near an operating room.

"I'm assigned to general surgery," I said.

"You're assigned wherever the department needs you."

"Dr. Wellington, with respect, my rotation was set by the match."

A few residents shifted.

Lenore's smile didn't move.

"Is this about the chief?" she asked softly, so that everyone could hear. "You'd rather stay near him?"

Heat climbed my neck.

Bridget made a small pleased sound behind me.

I could have lied.

I could have said yes ma'am, and spent a month in a basement proofreading cardiology abstracts, and hidden a pregnancy there.

My stepmother had said I would wash out by October.

I looked at Rhys.

He didn't speak.

He was waiting, I realized, to see what I would do.

That made it easier.

"No," I said clearly. "It isn't about the chief."

I took one step forward so the whole station could see me.

"It's about the match, which put me in general surgery under the attending the board assigned me. If you want me moved, Dr. Wellington, put it in writing, and I'll read it. Until then I'm due in a trauma bay."

Nobody breathed.

One of the residents coughed to cover a laugh.

Lenore's smile finally slipped, the barest flicker.

"Of course," she said. "Writing. How diligent."

She turned and walked toward her office with her heels ticking.

Rhys stood still for another second, and the corner of his mouth moved.

Then he followed her.

Jody grabbed my arm and whispered, "I love you. I'm terrified for you. Are you sleeping with him?"

"Not at work."

"Valeria."

"I'll tell you tonight."

I went to the break room to splash cold water on my face.

My vitamin bottle fell out of my coat pocket when I pulled out my phone and rolled under the table.

I was bending to find it when Bridget's shoes stopped in front of me.

She had the bottle in her hand.

She was reading the label.

Prenatal.

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