Page 58 of Careless Whisper

“Go fuck yourself, Elias,” I advised calmly and walked away.

CHAPTER 20

Elias

Ifollowed her, past the OR board, past the hallway of residents, past Luther, whose eyes narrowed the second he saw me when she got to the nurse’s station. It was apparent from the mood and how Cindy was holding court that she’d just announced that Reggie was leaving.

Reggie ignored me and began to gather her things. She stopped suddenly and took a deep breath. She looked around the room at her colleagues.

“I want to say thank you to all of you for being amazing colleagues. As you know, I am leaving Harper Memorial and?—”

“Got fired more like it,” someone, Delaney, I think, said churlishly on a feigned cough.

Everyone froze—it was a cruel thing to do, to not even give her a chance to say goodbye with dignity. The fucking bitch!

“You know what?” Reggie seethed. “I wasn’t going to say anything. I was going to walk away like a good little nurse who knows her place. But I’ve worked too damn hard and for too damn long to go out like this.”

Her eyes bore into Delaney. “You think this can’t happen to you?”

Delaney had the decency to lower her gaze.

Reggie looked around the station, her eyes falling on me with a look that had not one affectionate thing about it.

“I became a nurse because I loved it. Because I wanted to be there when people woke up from heart surgery. Because I wanted to hold their hands when no one else would. Not to be someone’s scapegoat. Not to be thrown under the bustwiceby entitled surgeons who think their title makes them untouchable.”

She looked at Cindy and gave her a tight smile. Under normal circumstances, I knew Cindy wouldn’t allow a speech like this to be given for the morale of her nurses to be fucked with. But this was Reggie, and I think Cindy wanted everyone to know how unfairly she’d been treated.

“Delaney is right. I quit before I could be fired. Someone filed an official complaint against me—and I am here to tell you it was bogus. Still, the system says that three official complaints from three different people and I am out…oh, they’ll investigate obviously and tear my life apart and then fire meanyway.” She let out a ragged breath. “The system that’ssupposed to protect us and advocate for care, protects power—and that’s fucked up.”

The silence was thick and heavy as a couple of nurses turned away to wipe their eyes.

“I’m not bitter,” Reggie continued, her voice now subdued. “I’m justdone. Thank you for listening, and I wish you all the best.”

There was a moment’s silence and then there was thunderous applause. Several angry and accusatory looks came my way—all deserved.

My heart cracked when I saw her, noble and proud, take her things and walk out, with Luther and Nina assisting her.

Shame like I’d never felt before coursed through me. I’d let a good nurse down, and that was, from a professional perspective, unacceptable. I’d let a decent woman, one I loved, down, and that was unforgivable.

CHAPTER 21

Reggie

Idropped my stuff at home, packed a suitcase in thirty minutes, and then headed to the airport to get on the first flight to New York.

I cried throughout the flight, sobbing uncontrollably. Thankfully, I was alone in the first-class row, and the flight attendants mostly left me alone. I probably wasn’t the first person in their care to have a nervous breakdown.

By the time I got to my grandmother’s place on the Upper East Side, without warning, I was doing better, but no one who looked at me would think I was at the pinnacle of my mental health.

The security guard was new, so he didn’t know I’d spent half my childhood in this brownstone. He looked at me with concern as he called up. “A Miss Reggie Sanchez here for Mrs. Faye Lancaster, and—” His eyes widened. “Sending her up now.”

When I stepped out of the elevator, the front door was already open.

“Darling!” my grandmother called, sweeping me into a silk-and-Chanel-scented hug before I could say a word. “Tell me who to ruin. I’ve got three hours free and a grudge quota to hit.”

I sobbed out a laugh—one of those watery, body-shaking ones that you don’t know you need until they break out of you.

G’Mum pulled back and inspected my face like a Cartier diamond. “You’ve lost weight. That man must be trash.”

---