Page 49 of ’Til You Break

I head straight for the medical director’s office, taking slow, shallow breaths to steady my nerves. I’m far less confident than I was sitting at home in my comfy clothes with a kitten curled up in my lap. But there’s no turning back now. I’ll never move forward if I keep running away.

“Hannah?”

Eric Thompson looks up from a stack of paperwork, his nostrils flaring the moment he sees me.

“Mr. Thompson, I’m sorry for coming in unannounced, but—”

He raises a hand, silencing me before I can finish.

“You have some nerve coming back here,” he says. “And barging into my office without an appointment...” He shakes his head. “I should call security and have you charged with trespassing.”

As if acting on the threat, Eric reaches for his phone. He presses a few buttons, but I rush toward his desk, both hands raised in surrender before he has a chance to make the call.

“Mr. Thompson, please wait. I came here to explain myself, and—“

“Then I’ll give you the courtesy of my time until security arrives,” he says, his voice cold and clipped. “You’d better make it good.”

This isn’t going how I imagined. Not that I’d really had much of a plan. I hadn’t rehearsed a speech, and some foolish part of me believed Eric would treat me like a human being.

I’m beginning to think that was wishful thinking.

“I know my actions were against hospital policy, but I was trying to help someone who needed me. He was in pain and had nowhere else to turn. I believed I was doing the right thing.”

It’s all true.

Except for the believed part.

No matter what anyone says... I did do the right thing.

“He was a junkie looking for his next fix,” Eric says. “He was looking for a sucker, and he found the biggest one in New York.”

I lower my head, unable to meet his gaze.

“I’m sorry.” The words leave my mouth before I have a chance to stop them. I don’t mean them. I’m only saying what he wants to hear.

The worst part is, Eric hasn’t even raised his voice. There’s an edge to his tone, but he’s kept the entire conversation painfully professional. I’d almost prefer him to yell. To tear me apart. To get angry so we could get it over with.

But that’s not how the real world works. I’ve spent too long living in a fantasy. Vik stepped in before the consequences of my choices had the chance to catch up with me, and somewhere along the way I convinced myself they never would.

But consequences don’t always come as shouting and screaming.

Sometimes they arrive as whispers. As quiet conversations behind your back. The kind that follow you for the rest of your life.

“What exactly did you think would happen when you came here?” Eric asks, absent-mindedly twirling a pen between his fingers. “You’d say sorry, I’d forgive you, and you’d be back at work on Monday? You made a serious mistake, Hannah. You’ve proven yourself untrustworthy. I can’t have that in my hospital, and I certainly don’t want another hospital taking that risk either. It’s irresponsible. And it’s dangerous.”

I clear my throat, gathering every ounce of courage I have left. But the words don’t come.

“Now, if that’s all, would you kindly leave my office so I can get back to work?” He sighs. Long. Weary. As though this entire conversation has been an inconvenience.

I do as he asks. In fact, I rush from the office and make straight for the exit. If the last few days of job hunting hadn’t already changed the way I see the world... this meeting certainly has.

Maybe I broke the rules. But I’m not the problem. The system is. I did my job. I helped someone who needed it. And, somehow, I’m the one paying the price.

I’m not a bad person. I’m just an idiot for believing a hospital cares more about its patients than its reputation.

As I pass the front desk, several familiar faces from my time here are gathered around a doctor, reviewing charts and discussing patients. I keep my eyes down and try to slip past unnoticed.

No such luck.