Page 99 of Accidental Doctor Daddy

“Dr. Mortoli?” She glanced up from her screen. “Is everything?—”

“I’m resigning,” I said bluntly, my heart hammering. “Effective immediately.”

Her eyes widened. “But—your candidacy for admin is still under review?—”

I let out a harsh laugh. “I’m done here.”

She hesitated, as if searching for the right words. “You’re certain? This is…quite sudden.”

“Yes, I’m sure. Please email me whatever paperwork you need.” My chest felt hollow.

Her expression was heavy with concern. “Sure, but?—”

I got up and left, striding out of HR. Staff parted for me in the hallway, eyes flicking with curiosity.Let them talk. It’s not my problem anymore.

But the freedom felt suspiciously like despair. My mind flitted to the only family I had left here. I got in my car, knuckles white on the steering wheel. My phone pinged once—Gina texting me about brunch next weekend.

I swallowed, thinking how I’d rarely see her if I left. But our brunches had become an excuse for Leo to take his anger out on me and little more than that.

Ella wasn’t the only one who needed a fresh start.

I sped all the way there. Once inside the sketchy building, I climbed the rickety stairs, each creak echoing the tension in my nerves. At the door, I pounded with more urgency than usual.After an agonizing minute, it cracked open, revealing Leo’s disheveled form.

His eyes flicked over me, annoyance plain. “What do you want now, Dom?” He spat my name like an insult, refusing to call me ad.

I mustered my last few ounces of calm. “I quit the hospital.”

He blinked, crossing his arms. “So? Why should I care?”

“Because I might leave the city for good, and you’re my son, whether you accept it or not. I need to see if we can bury the hatchet.”

Leo’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t slam the door. “Fine,” he muttered, stepping aside. “If you want to talk so bad, make it quick.”

Inside, the loft was the same chaotic mess—paint cans all over, reeking of stale smoke. My eyes burned from the acrid smell, but I focused on what I came to say. “Ella left me. Took the twins somewhere. I have no clue where she went.”

He raised a brow, expression guarded. “The way you are about your partners, are you really that surprised?”

Pain flared in my chest. “I’m devastated and furious.”

Leo shrugged, though something flickered in his gaze. “So you’re alone, then. Sucks.”

“Listen, I’m not here to guilt you, or talk about Ella. I just…can’t leave Manhattan without telling you how sorry I am for everything. I couldn’t save your mom, I know you blame me. But I can’t rewrite history.”

His lips pressed into a thin line, an old bitterness returning. “You should’ve known she was sick. You’re a doctor.”

“I know that makes it hard on you?—”

He snorted in derision.

“But for once in your life, imagine how that makes me feel.”

He blinked up at me. “Not ‘imagine how that makes melook’?”

I swallowed the guilt of having said that once many years ago. Maybe that was why he hated me. In a rambling grief tirade, I’d said that to him—that her getting ill and my not noticing it meant that other doctors doubted me. Maybe that was why I had so much to prove with the admin promotion.

“I was a shitty man for saying that before, but I was a shitty man who was grieving, and I hope you never know what it’s like to say the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time the way I said that to you.” I blew out a breath to steady myself. “I would’ve done anything to save her, Leo. Anything.”

He let out a ragged breath, raking his fingers through unkempt hair. “Even after she was gone, you buried yourself in surgery. Gina and I had no one.”

---