“Friendship? We no longer have a friendship.” Bryce raised his fist again, shaking, and then lowered it. “You’re not worth it, Steel. Get the fuck out of my house.”
He turned and walked inside.
I sighed. The conversation had gone about how I had expected. I sat back down, resting my elbows on the table, my forehead in my hands. Next, I had to see Melanie. I had put off being honest with her for too long as well. I stood and walked around to the front of the house to my car.
And then my goddamned phone buzzed.
I recognized the number. At least it wasn’t my stalker this time.
“Hey, Mills,” I said into the phone.
“Got some good news for you,” Trevor Mills said. “We’ve located your mayor.”
Chapter Thirty–Eight
Melanie
The young man turned and walked away quickly.
“What is it, Doc?” Talon asked.
“I have no idea.” I tore open the envelope.
And my heart sank.
Gina’s parents were suing me for malpractice.
How dare they? They’d lied to their daughter, and now it wasn’t even clear if she’d indeed committed suicide. I nearly lost my footing.
Talon caught me, taking the paper from my hands. He helped me into the living room and onto Jonah’s brocade sofa.
He scanned the paper. “What the fuck? Haven’t they already filed some sort of complaint?”
“They filed a complaint with the medical board. They can go after my license that way. This is a civil lawsuit for malpractice. Now they want money.”
“Well, we’ve got that. Joe and I will pay them off to go away.”
I had no doubt he meant every word he said, but I couldn’t take his money. I ran my fingers over my hair. Couldn’t I catch a damned break?
Not in this lifetime, apparently.
“You can’t fix everything with your money, Talon.”
“The hell I can’t.”
“Really? You think you can? You couldn’t fix yourself, could you?”
I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth. I was his therapist, his safe place. I shouldn’t have said that, no matter how true it was.
“I’m sorry.” I shook my head. “I shouldn’t have been so harsh. But the words are true. You couldn’t fix yourself solely with your money, and you can’t fix this situation either. You can’t bring Gina back to life.”
He sat down next to me and looked me in the eye. “I know I can’t. But you can’t either. So why are they suing you?”
I opened my mouth, but he held out his hand.
“I’ll tell you why. They’re suing you for money. And we Steels have plenty of that.”
“I don’t need your money. I have malpractice insurance.”