Page 71 of Careless Whisper

I laughed once, sharp and bitter. “You let me down again and again. You treated me like dirt again and again. You don’t do that to people you love, Elias. You do that to people you hate. I don’t know why I warrant your disdain”—I swung around to face him—“but I don’t deserve it. Remember when you started at Harper Memorial, you wanted me out of your OR? You got your wish.”

“Careful what you wish for,” he breathed and stroked a finger down my cheek.

My lungs forgot how to work for a moment. “I hate you,” I finally managed to say.

He flinched but smiled. “Iwillmake this right.”

I pressed my lips together and shook my head. Then, I let out a long breath. “Then do that. Make it right. But not for me—for yourself. Because I’m done fighting to beseen.”

I left him there with G’Mum’s special guest coffee cup. She was lucky I didn’t break the damn thing, I told myself as I marched into the sunroom where G’Mum was drinking orange juice while she readThe Times, wrapped in a silk kimono. Grandpa was swiping away at his tablet with ferocious intensity—he was probably playing Angry Birds.

“You look like someone who just dumped a banker,” G’Mum remarked.

“A surgeon.”

Grandpa grunted. “That’s the same thing.”

I flopped on a chair next to my grandma. “I have made a decision about the future.”

The idea had been percolating for the past few days—since before the Boston debacle. After, it just helped me solidify my plans.

My grandparents waited for me to reveal all.

“I’m going to San Miguel de Allende to run the clinic.”

G’Mum nodded like she was expecting this, but Grandpa grimaced. “What?”

“I think I can make a difference and?—"

“I just…I know how much you like being a surgical nurse.” Grandpa set his tablet down on the table. “I’m annoyed that these fuckers are driving you away from that.”

I lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “I need to do work that matters. Something that isn’t about politics orperformance reports or people looking at me like I’m a liability.”

“You know, Stephen and I are going on vacation in a couple of weeks. You could come to the Amalfi Coast with us instead,” G’Mum offered brightly. “Sun, spritzes, beautiful Italian men?—”

“I’ve been on vacation for months now,” I interjected. “I need to start using my brain again before it goes completely mushy.”

G’Mum tipped her chin in acknowledgment.

“I need to find out who I am without all this pain dragging behind me,” I continued in explanation.

G’Mum took my hand in hers. “You are steel, wrapped in sunlight, my darling. And I love you very much.”

CHAPTER 26

Elias

My father sat on a sleek leather couch across from me, looking uncomfortable as hell in my modern, glass-walled Seattle apartment.

Everything in here was cool and clean—minimalist furniture, a curated absence of clutter, a space with nowhere for feelings to land. It was the opposite of home. And maybe that was the point.

Dad held a glass of my single malt scotch—one of the few things in the apartment I actually chose myself—and looked out over the view like it didn’t impress him.

Rain misted the windows. Downtown glittered below us, with the Space Needle shining through the haze. He hadn’t said a word since he sat down.

I relented and became the first to speak. “You didn’t come here just to check on myfurniture.”

He glanced over. “No. I came because your mother said you were acting emotional.”

---