Page 44 of Dr. Scandal Claus

"That's crap and you know it. I've seen his file. He is your child." Marvin huffed and glared at me. He looked like he knew he was going to lose but wasn't ready to concede yet. "I can't let you do that surgery. I will call the authorities and you'll not only lose your license to practice but you'll be arrested."

It was too much. I couldn't let him get me riled up. I had just found my center. I had to cut into my own son, for Christ's sake. I had to let off the steam, tell him, even if it meant he warned Fiona and she got away.

"Well, good…" I had to grit my teeth for a second to swallow down some of the rage, and then I narrowed my eyes at him. "Because they'll have to arrest your precious daughter too…"

Marvin's eyes stormed over and his nostrils flared, but before he could respond I continued.

"That's right…I have proof that she snuck into my office to plant a code on my computers that gave her access to my patient files. She switched Ethan's medication, thus preventing him from the care he needed and effectively inducing this heart failure. On top of that, she removed the paternity results from his chart, effectively removing all physical proof that I am his father. So before you start pointing fingers at me, you need to ask yourself if throwing your own daughter in jail is worth it."

With the tiniest of squeaks, he took a step backward. I didn't have the actual proof yet, but I assumed the forensic techs at the police department could decipher if Fiona was capable of doing this, and which of her computers, or her father's computers, she used to hack into my account. I watched him retreat another step before I put my back into the OR's swinging door and let myself in.

I had to shake the interaction off, but knowing he wasn't going to come charging in had already set my heart at ease. I stepped up to the table and held my hand out for the scalpel. My team and I worked seamlessly making the initial incision. Whenthe chest retractor was in place, we hooked Ethan up to the bypass and I stopped his heart. It was touch and go for a moment as his body adjusted to the heart and lung machine, but soon I was cutting into the septal muscle.

It was worse than I thought, and while I'd never give Fiona any credit for forcing the surgery to happen sooner, I was grateful that I was here at this moment doing what I could to save his life. Nearly three and a half hours in and were ready to take Ethan off bypass and suture him up. I hovered over his body, bloody gloves and sweaty forehead, and I was nervous.

Never once did I have a patient die on my table except for the strange accident that caused that patient's death, after which I was sued for malpractice. When it came down to it, there were other factors at play that weren't my fault. His other doctor had neglected to share comorbidities with me and that led to his death.

With Ethan, however, I knew his medical history inside and out. So when we had a difficult time getting his heart started again, I began to panic. Ethan's body had been chilled, as is standard procedure during a bypass like this, and warming him up wasn't causing his heart to restart. We'd removed the clamp, washed the cardioplegia, and I'd been massaging his heart for twenty minutes, but he wasn't responding.

"Sir, should we do the pacemaker?" the nurse asked me. As a perioperative nurse she had assisted me on a number of bypass surgeries, but I wasn't convinced the pacemaker was going to work. This was my son. I had his heart in my hands literally. Not many fathers could say they held their son's physical heart in their hands, and for the past nearly four hours I'd done just that.

"No, we're going straight to the paddles." I knew it was a risky choice, probably a bit extreme, but I felt the eyes of now three board members watching me from above. I knew they were there about halfway through.

"Sir…" the nurse protested and I eyed her.

"Get the paddles." I wasn't about to let my son die on my own table. I told Scarlett to trust me, and I was going to return her son to her arms. "Now," I told her.

I had to remind myself that it wasn't abnormal to struggle with getting a patient's heart started. I had to stay calm and not make mistakes. I couldn't look her in the eye again if I did. My entire life was on the line here and everyone in this room knew it.

35

SCARLETT

The emergency room entrance doors slid open with a whoosh and I ignored it. People had been in and out for hours. Nurses brought me coffee and updates. I had a donut but threw it up. My nose was raw from blowing it. My body felt like I'd been run over, and thankfully Fiona had left, and for the most part people were leaving me alone.

So when someone walked up to me and I saw their shoes on the ground in front of me, I followed their legs upward to their body and a face came into focus.

"Scar?" It was Nellie, and she looked worried. Her hair was tied up, her body cloaked in a thick winter coat. She shivered as she unzipped and plopped down into the chair next to me, handing me a cup of coffee from the bakery.

"Nellie, what are you doing here?" I asked, feeling suddenly grateful for her presence. I didn't want the pity of strangers or the hateful eyes staring at me, but Nellie had been a friend before our falling out. It was nice to see her.

"I stopped by the bakery and they said you were here." She smiled sadly and I sipped the hot coffee she brought. She knew my favorite, which was a sweet touch. "I'm failing. I want my jobback. I want our friendship back…" She sighed. "I didn't realize things with Ethan were still bad. I feel like a horrible person."

I wrapped my arms around her without thinking and I shed a few tears as she held me for a moment. "You have nothing to be sorry for." I pulled away and swiped the tears off my cheeks, noticing that she had a few too. "This was all sudden. Ethan is in surgery for his heart right now."

"What happened?" Nellie shed her coat but she stayed by my side, holding my hand, as I told her everything.

And I left nothing out. I told her about our summer, and how Ethan had improved. Then I told her about me and Nick, our almost breakup, and Fiona. I told her how someone broke into Nick's office, and how they'd painted on my car. How Fiona kissed Nick and we hadn't spoken about it yet, and now this. I vented it all out there in a big word vomit and all the while I was conscious that people were staring at us.

I didn't care anymore. Somewhere in my heart I had decided that if Ethan made it out of this, I might just close my bakery and move away from here. I wasn't sure what would happen with Nick. We had a lot of talking to do considering everything that had happened, but if we were able to work things out, maybe he would move with me. I didn't tell Nellie that though.

"I'm so sorry to hear all of that was happening. I should've been there for you, Scarlett. I was just angry and I didn't know how to handle those emotions in a healthy way."

I squeezed her hand and smiled at her. "It's okay. I put you in a difficult position way too many times. I shouldn't have done that." I sniffled and remembered Evelyn, who was at my shop now, probably helping Jeff clean up after closing for the day. "I hired someone to help. Her name is Evelyn, and I think you'll really like her."

Nellie grinned at me and nodded. "I met her. She seems nice." She took a breath and started to say something else, butNick walked into the room with his scrubs and scrub cap on and I bolted to my feet, nervously standing in one place.

Nellie stood beside me and put her arm around my waist. It was an anchor I didn't know I needed until she offered it, and I chewed the inside of my lip while she steadied me.