The Monster (Boston Belles 3)

It was obvious he put two and two together.

Engagement meant marriage, and marriage oftentimes meant babies, and if there was one thing my children deserved, it was at least one parent who wouldn’t be at risk of being thrown into prison.

“I’m going to cut back on the work eventually, too, starting by turning down new patients.” He dropped his pen on the chart he was filling out. “You know, I thought about this long and hard recently. Why we do this…” he motioned around the room “…and I’ve come to the conclusion that we are trying to repent. We’ve both lost people we loved very dearly in the most horribly painful ways, but it is not our fault. It is time to let go of the guilt, my dear. You cannot change history. But you can write your next chapters. You are doing the right thing by quitting, Aisling. You have a beautiful life ahead of you. Ah, to be your age again,” he said wistfully, staring at an invisible point behind my shoulder, looking far away all of a sudden. “The world is spread before you in all its glory. Make the most of it. You’ve worked hard here, and you weren’t paid a penny. You’ve helped others. Now it’s time to focus on yourself, child.”

I looked down and noticed my phone was beeping with an incoming text. I slid the screen with my thumb.

Cillian: Clover.

Hunter: Cloverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

They could wait. They sure made me wait when I needed them.

“Do you think I can handle a residency?” I gnawed on my inner cheek.

I’d been so far removed from mainstream medical institutions, finding my way back into them felt almost impossible.

“Dear,” Dr. Doyle chuckled, “the question is, can they handle you? You are a force to be reckoned with. Compassionate, pragmatic, and hardworking. A lethal combination for a doctor.”

He got up, rounding the desk between us, and offered me his hand. I took it, rising to my feet. Dr. Doyle engulfed me in a hug. The deep, bone-crushing kind that rearranged your entire being in just the right way.

When I stepped out of the clinic for the last time in my life, I found myself looking behind at the building’s door with a soft smile but without longing.

Doing what I did never truly fulfilled me.

It dulled my pain.

I was ready for the next chapter in my life.

To stitch people back together, atoning for all the lives my future husband would no doubt rip apart.

I forgive you, mon cheri. You were just a kid. Besides, maybe, just maybe I put you in an impossible situation, too, I heard Ms. B’s voice in my head and knew, with a decent amount of both disappointment and relief, that I wasn’t going to hear her voice very often from now on. Her job was truly done now.

I took out my phone, striding absentmindedly to the Prius.

I had a lot of missed calls from Cillian, Hunter, and Devon. Gosh, they really couldn’t handle how yesterday went down with Sam and me. They needed to get over themselves.

The texts, however, gave me pause.

Cillian: Answer.

Hunter: Please just pick up the phone. We are not trying to yell at you for the engagement.

Cillian: Sam is in the hospital. Brigham. He’s been shot twice. He’s in critical condition.

Hunter: You have to come see him. He is asking for you.

Devon: Aisling, darling, your brothers are quite disoriented, too much to pay attention to the finer details. But as a solicitor, one must wonder, if you are currently at work, and your workplace is the hospital we’re in, how come we can’t seem to reach you?

I jumped into the car, flooring it all the way to the hospital, my heart in my throat.

My worst fear had materialized.

Sam’s sins finally caught up with him.

I blasted through the ER doors, running toward the waiting area, where Hunter, Cillian, Devon, and Troy were standing with a frantic-looking Sparrow.

The latter paced from side to side, seeming to be deep in conversation on the phone with her daughter, urging her not to come.

“No, honey, someone needs to take care of the kids. Please don’t leave them with Persy. She has her hands full as it is. I’ll keep you abreast.”

It was the first time I’d seen my future in-laws since Sam proposed, and it was in less than positive circumstances. I threw myself at Hunter, grabbing onto the lapels of his pea coat.

“Where is he?”

“Hey,” Hunter said gravely, his voice lower and more concerned than I’d ever heard before. Cillian would not look at me. Did they know something I didn’t? The thought made me want to kneel right there and throw up on the floor. “He’s in surgery right now. I guess you can’t go inside, but surely you can ask the staff how he is doing? You work here and everything. You must know some of the doctors.”