Page 9 of BillionHeir
Ethan’s eyes go wide. It is obvious he doesn’t know how to react to my praise, and I realize that maybe I have been a bit of a hard ass to the kid. Sure, he needed a heavy hand to make sure he knew what he was doing. I can’t exactly have an incompetent assistant. But now that I know he is able to do the job, it is time I start giving him more room to actually do it.
Taking some of the stress off of me will be just what I need to heal quickly and get back to work.
The double doors at my feet open to a team of people dressed in various shades of scrubs. I assume these are the ones who are going to get me back on my feet, both figuratively and literally. I couldn’t be more eager.
“Mr. Banks,” a man dressed in a rumpled black suit says as the EMTs pull me out of the ambulance. He is clearly not a nurse or a doctor, so I assume he is the CEO or something close to it. “Calvin Broadmire. It is a delight to have you here recovering with us at Sanctuary Springs. I hope your time here at ourrecovery center will be both relaxing and rejuvenating. I trust that the staff and level of care our facility will provide will be up to your standards. If you find anything amiss, here is my personal phone number. Feel free to call me at any time.”
My eyes roll into the back of my head as he thrusts his business card at me. I can’t stand brown nosers like him.
“The pleasure is all mine,” I mutter under my breath as the legs below the gurney snap into place underneath me.
Two men in green utilitarian scrubs take over, each one grabbing one of the railings on my sides and guiding me up onto the sidewalk and through a door. I can feel every movement as we bump over the threshold and down the colorful yet sterile hallway, somehow classier and yet nearly the same as every other hospital I have ever been in.
They take me down one corridor after another as the team of staff and personnel trailing after us grows steadily longer. We must make for quite the comical sight. If I wasn’t working so hard to ignore my pain, I might laugh at the thought of so many professionals chasing me down a maze of stark white hallways.
Finally, we slow down as we approach a door. There is a nurse sitting in an alcove beside the door, tapping away on a computer. She doesn’t look up when we reach her, and the men who are transporting me don’t seem to notice or care. They push right past her into the room, but not before I get a glimpse of her face.
There is something familiar about her. I feel like I have seen her somewhere before, possibly even met her.
I don’t have much time to think about it before all the people who have been following us descend on my room, each of them with something to say or do. They each wait for their turn to fiddle with my medical equipment, give me care instructions, and outline the detailed plans they have put in place to make sure I am well before I know it. One by one they file out of the room until it is just me and Ethan again.
He looks about how I feel: overwhelmed and exhausted. He turns to me and clears his throat.
“That was quite a bit to take in, but it sounds like you are in great hands.”
“I don’t want to be here,” I grumble moodily.
“I don’t blame you. But we need you to get stronger so that you can come back to work. This is the best place for that.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say, unable to keep from sounding like a petulant child.
“I will come back later. Do you want me to bring you anything?”
“Besides two fingers of Scotch?”
Ethan’s eyebrows rise, but he wisely chooses not to keep his mouth shut.
“I am good, but thanks,” I finally say, dismissing him.
“You will be out of here before you know it,” he says before he goes, obviously much more optimistic than me.
I roll my eyes, but this time I don’t have the energy to prevent them from sinking closed afterward. I relax against the pillows of my new bed in my new room on the other side of the country from where I was last night. It has been a long journey, and despite all my complaints, I am glad to be able to finally get some rest.
Just as I am starting to fall asleep, the door to my room opens again.
“Knock knock,” a woman’s soothing British voice calls into the room.
Chapter 4
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Chloe
“How was your weekend?”
I look over at Cami as we each stow our purses in the lockers at work. “Long. I worked Friday night for Keisha so she could go to her daughter’s play. Then again Saturday afternoon for Amanda. When I got home, I was so tired that I fell asleep and slept all day Sunday. I just woke up this morning before my shift. Howabout yours?”
She gets a dreamy smile on her face before answering. “Greg took me out Friday night for dinner and drinks, and we spent the whole weekend together.”
