"So, how was your new client? Does he look like a jerk already?" Nadia asked Stacy as they sat to eat dinner together with curiosity. Stacy came back to the hospital earlier than she predicted and had been busy since her arrival, which made it difficult for her and Nadia to hold a conversation till evening.
"The client?" Stacy stared at her blankly, with so much indecisiveness about what to say to her, "Greater than I expected," she chuckled hard.
Regardless of how happy she was that she had a friend to talk to in just a few weeks of arriving, there was no way she could tell Nadia that her new client was her ex-husband. It was nearly impossible to even explain or say. It was so hard.
Stacy's plan to switch Carlton from being her client was thwarted when she returned to the hospital that day, due to the intentions of her superiors who had assigned her as his doctor.
Julia did not pass on the proposal she submitted to the department head, who had the authority to approve her request for a new client. The most disturbing part of the situation was that she was unable to provide the actual reason for her request for a change.
"We have been married in the past, and we ended up on a bad note because his ex-girlfriend whom he was in love with came back. So, I cannot work with my ex-husband to avoid sentiment in the workplace. Thank you," Stacy imagined herself telling all of them.
'That is extremely cringey!' she screamed in her head.
Telling people that she had been married and was divorced already by the age of twenty-eight after two years of marriage, was less scandalous than the fact that she married a great man like Carlton Howard. The craziest part was that they might not believe her, and the worst of all was that the past that no one knew about her would be found out.
After her unsuccessful attempt to change Carlton from being her client, she had a late-night snack with Nadia and left the hospital later on to prepare her mind for what she would face the next day.
After she got home with so much heaviness in her heart, she resorted to drinking a bottle of wine as a way to cheer herself up and forget what awaited her next.
With every passing moment as she drank solemnly by her lonely window, the wine began to numb her senses and blur the edges of her consciousness. The room spun around her in a dizzying dance, as she sank deeper into the abyss of her despair and sadness.
Tears flowed freely and traced paths down her cheeks as she succumbed to the overwhelming weight of her sadness, and tried not to think of the thoughts that plagued her mind relentlessly. No matter how much she tried to forget the fact she was forced to reckon with her past, it was hard to let go of the resentment she had carried for years with her as she struggled to survive.
Deep down, she knew that when the morning dawned, the sadness in her would still be engraved in her. She knew it was something she could not escape if she didn't face it.
"Just why are you here now, Carlton? Why are you trying to crawl back into my life? And why do you look so pitiful?! What the heck happened to you after I left? Why are you stuck in a wheelchair?!" She threw a fit of rage as she drank.
"Huhhhh. Answer me. Why am I supposed to make you heal when I have not healed from the pain you afflicted me?!" She screamed again to no one in particular.
"Answer me, Carlton? Can you please just stay away from me, and say that you don't want me as your doctor?! I tried so hard to stand strong for myself, and built a name for myself without anyone's help. So, why are you back now? Why are you trying to stir pitiful emotions in me?! Why?!" She screamed angrily as she scattered her hair.
"And also, where the fuck is your fancy ex-girlfriend? Why is she not with you?! Why is she nowhere to be seen, Carlton? Where is the lady you chose over me?! Where the fuck is she?!" Stacy continued to scream and get angry at no one in particular, as she dragged more glasses of wine and held on to the cold breeze that blew from her window.
As the night wore on, she cried and yelled so much as she drank endlessly till she was terribly hammered. Till she couldn't lift her body from the floor and slept off.
The next morning, Stacy's head throbbed mercilessly as she awakened, and the real fear hit her when she realized that she had woken up a few minutes before 10:00 am when her work was supposed to start. Hastily, she jumped out of bed, rushed to take a shower, and struggled to dry her body and hair simultaneously.
"Gosh, Stacy. Giving a bad impression on your first day of work is bad. Can you not ruin your good record now?" She muttered endlessly to herself, as she flipped through the numerous clothes hanging in her wardrobe to find a professional dress, while thinking of the perfect heels to match her outfit.
For someone that was late already, she stood in front of her mirror for a few minutes to look at herself after dressing, as she ran the new shade of red lipstick she just got across her lips once more. Her beautiful blue plaid dress accentuated her body perfectly, and her mind wandered to the price that she had purchased just a week before.
Her luxurious life never wavered even after she was ousted from everyone's life, because it was a lifestyle that she was used to and could not deviate from. When all the circumstances around her felt like they would tear her apart after her divorce, she realized that Carlton had contributed positively to her life in one way or another.
He gifted her stocks and real estate investment trustl things on their first anniversary of marriage, which came in handy at the time she needed them the most.
With the few things that she had learned from helping him sort out files and company work, she bought company shares with the remaining money she had left in her bank account. It was a bad risk she took even when there was no hope of returns, but things turned out better than she expected.
In a few years of trading stocks and studying, Stacy climbed up her success ladder and became a wealthy young doctor. She cut down on that, and started an online business where she became a data analyst for medical professionals that she had never met before.
Stacy built a portfolio and offered worthwhile services to write medical-related analyzes, reports, and research for big money. She knew how to do it, and tweaked every detail perfectly.
She bought more shares, doubled her assets, and worked even harder,while working herself to the bone not to live in shambles anymore. So that she could prove her father wrong too.
After she started school again, she contacted her brother almost a year later, and told him that she was doing well. She called her mother to tell her the same after sending just text messages for months to reassure her, and she had always lived her life to be the best since then. To always excel at everything.
However, seeing Carlton again proved her efforts wrong. Or maybe, the lies that she told herself that she was over it. That she was doing fine now.
'You are beautiful, Stacy. You are capable, confident, and charming. You are a self-made woman. No past can cause you to stumble now. Bygones are bygones,' Stacy assured herself inwardly as she stepped out of her house, and waved away every negativity that she was channeling her energy into.
The moment she arrived at his mansion and rang his bell as his new doctor, she knew things might not go as she had strictly planned.
"We are going to review my rules as a doctor to you, Mr. Howard. Please, I expect full cooperation from you regarding, 1. Following every prescribed treatment plan, advice, drugs, and lifestyle.
2. Great communication to me would be appreciated, concerning every strictly needed information that pertains to my job here. Feelings, pains, changes, opinions, questions, all pertaining strictly to your health and well-being only.
3. Your support is greatly needed, and a positive mindset would go a long way. I know I can do whatever I set my mind to, and I truly hope that my patients will be on the same page with me to ensure absolute goal achievement.
And lastly, please the doctor and patient should refrain from talking about anything outside their business together or anything not related. Thank you for listening attentively. Please, do you have any other questions? Perhaps anything you would like to inform me about before we proceed with treatment?" Stacy asked with a straight face, as she sat right across from her ex-husband who was sitting comfortably in his wheelchair.
Though her mind thumped endlessly as she spoke in the fear that she might make mistakes, she maintained a high level of professionalism and no sense of familiarity at all. She looked so gorgeous and dazzling like a model on the cover of a magazine, that every one of her moves was so gracious as she spoke. She looked different from the meek person that she was years ago.
Her actions surprised Carlton so much that he was out of words. He didn't even know how to deal with the situation. It was crystal clear that Stacy had communicated her displeasure in talking about their past, but he could not pretend and sweep everything under the rug like their two years together meant nothing. He certainly could not.
"Yes, I do. My heart has been broken since you left, Doctor Stacy," he blurted out to her shock.
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