Kitabı oku: «Mills & Boon Showcase», sayfa 22
CHAPTER TWELVE
MATT SAT IN his New York penthouse, the normally minimalist look of his home now overwhelmed with papers strewn across every surface. He didn’t usually work from home, but with only a few days to find the missing piece of the puzzle he didn’t want to risk any interruptions or distractions from other cases.
He had started with the medical reports and the reviews by the medical experts. Nothing appeared amiss. Mr. Weber had had a Stanford A aortic dissection. It had involved the major branches of the aorta and was a lethal state; there had been no hope of saving him and unfortunately no warning signs of the condition prior to him presenting to hospital that would have alerted him or his family to the impending crisis. The delay in reaching Dr. Reed had been unfortunate, but in no way had it led to the man’s death. The attempt at surgical intervention had been an exercise in futility from the beginning.
The firm’s legal assistants had taken depositions from every health care worker involved in Mr. Weber’s care that night. The plaintiff’s counsel had done the same. Matt’s junior colleagues were charged with reading and summarizing them, highlighting any points in their favor or causes for concern. He had complete faith in the people who worked for him. He had selected each team member himself and had overseen enough of the cases they had worked on to know he could trust the quality of their work. But this case was different. Something wasn’t adding up and it wouldn’t stop nagging at him until he could reassure himself that he had looked over every fact and piece of information personally.
He glanced at the clock that was perched on the fireplace mantel. It was two in the morning. He had to leave to go back to Boston the following day and felt like he was running out of time. He flexed his back and shoulders, trying to ease the tension that was building knots in the muscles. Kate hadn’t called. He hadn’t expected her to, between Chloe and her job, but it still bothered him that she hadn’t. He wondered what she had said in her messages all those years ago.
He rose from the kitchen table that he had never used for eating and walked into his state-of-the-art granite and stainless-steel kitchen, also rarely used for its intended purpose. His only appliance on its smooth stone counters was an espresso machine that he had never been as grateful for as he was tonight. As he waited for the machine to produce the espresso shots to top with brewed coffee, he fixated on Kate. What was she doing right now?
He tried again to block her from his mind and resisted the temptation to call her. It was late and if there was the small possibility she was sleeping he did not want to be the cause of disturbing that precious sleep. Instead he took his coffee and the pile of depositions to the comfort of his leather couch. It was the only piece of furniture he had never changed no matter where he lived, much to his designer’s dismay. It reminded him of where he had been and his mind and body relaxed as he sank into the cushions and began to read.
Three hours later he was only halfway through the pile and he was getting sloppy. The last deposition had taken him twice as long to get through as it should have and he finally surrendered to the need for sleep. He rose from the couch and went to his bedroom, climbing into the king-size bed. Time was running out for him and for Kate.
He was awoken from sleep later in the morning by the sound of his cell phone. It took him a few seconds before he remembered where he was and was able to answer the call.
“McKayne.”
“Are you really gone?” Kate’s voice wavered over the phone and he didn’t miss the hurt or the accusation in her voice.
“Kate.”
“It’s an easy question, Matt.”
“Yes, I’m back in New York.”
“I’m a fool.”
“No, Kate, you don’t understand. I’m trying to help you.”
“That’s what you said about last time, Matt. It didn’t make it okay then and it doesn’t make it okay now.”
“Kate, when are you going to trust me again?” He was tired of this; he had been honest with her and there was nothing else he could do. He waited as time passed in silence.
“How can you ask me to trust you after everything?”
“I thought we had gotten past that.”
“No, Matt. Another night together hasn’t fixed our past. I still remember you leaving. I still remember being discarded and replaced.”
“Replaced?”
“Your sexual exploits were very popular in the New York society pages your first year in New York, Matt.”
He cringed. He wasn’t proud of his behavior that year, but he wasn’t going to defend it now, not so many years later and definitely not over the phone, when Kate was clearly trying to use it as an excuse to drive a wedge between them.
“Where is this coming from, Kate?” He waited again for her answer, all of his senses alert now and focused on her.
“I can’t believe you left. I feel so stupid for everything. I won’t let you hurt me, Matt, not again. You may not be able to say it, but I can. Goodbye.”
The click was unmistakable. He phoned her back and the call went straight to voicemail. He didn’t try again: her message had been loud and clear.
He showered but skipped shaving, not wanting to waste any of the time he had left. He returned to The stack of files and worked steadily for the next ten hours, his focus unwavering. Nothing was out of place or suspect. The overwhelming sentiment in all of the depositions was of support for Drs. Reed and Spence. All their actions were deemed not only professional as per the standard of care but also excellent in their quality. Those who had worked with the two together that night had seen nothing in their interaction that had even hinted at a change in the personal nature of their relationship.
His stomach growled and he realized that he had neglected to eat any of the delivered food from earlier. He went to the brown bags and brought them into the living room, where he prepared to watch, while he ate, the emergency department surveillance tapes his assistant had retrieved. He inserted the first disk into the DVD player and noted the time on the bottom of the screen. It was five-twenty in the afternoon, several hours before Mr. Weber had presented. He reached over to grab the remote to fast-forward the tape to later in the evening when something caught his eye.
He watched as Mr. and Mrs. Weber entered the emergency department and checked in at the triage desk. They spoke with the triage nurse and then after several minutes left the department and the hospital itself through the main doors. Matt was stunned. Nowhere in any of the medical charts was this interaction described. He didn’t move from his spot for the next several hours, watching every second of footage in real time, afraid that something else might be hidden in the tapes.
Mr. Weber and his wife arrived back in the emergency department at nine twenty-three that evening by ambulance. The ambulance bay bypassed the main triage desk so the nurse who talked with them earlier would have had no knowledge of their reappearance in the department. From that point on every moment of his hospital care had been documented and was recorded accurately in the case files.
Matt picked up the phone and called Jeff Sutherland’s cell phone, disregarding the time of day. “Jeff, it’s Matt McKayne. Does the hospital track patients who present to the emergency department and then leave without being assessed by a physician?”
“Yes. Those charts are kept in a separate area, to be used for future needs assessment and capacity planning.”
“But do they have the patient’s identifying information on them?” Matt asked, wanting more than just the video to back his argument.
“Yes. They also have the presenting complaint as listed by the triage nurse and any other information collected during the encounter.”
“Good. I’m flying back to Boston tomorrow morning and will meet you at eight. I need you to take me to where the files are stored so we can get access to a file. I also need you find the nurse who was working the emergency department triage desk the late afternoon to early evening of Mr. Weber’s death. I want to speak with her tomorrow at eight-thirty.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on, Mr. McKayne?” Sutherland asked, obviously not used to being on the side of accepting orders.
“Not yet, but if things work out, by this time tomorrow I should be able to tell you everything.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in the morning. Good night.”
Matt stood in the large conference room, staring out the windows, waiting for Mrs. Weber and her attorney to arrive. He hadn’t felt this level of pride in his work for years. He hadn’t tried to call Kate again, knowing that he needed to bring something different to their circular conversations of the past.
His eagerness faded when Mrs. Weber entered the conference room with her attorney. She was the same age as his mother. Her once blonde hair was peppered with gray and she had a kindness to her face that shamed Matt. The problem with winning a case was that it meant someone else had to lose and today that would be Mrs. Weber. He smiled politely and genuinely at her, taking no joy in what he was about to do.
“Thank you both for coming today. Please, take a seat. Can we get you anything, tea, coffee, water?”
“A glass of water would be nice,” she answered, looking nervously around the room.
He gestured to his assistant and took a seat on the opposite side of the table, trying to do everything in his power to make Mrs. Weber feel comfortable for the conversation they were about to have. He had purposefully kept the number of people from his firm down to only him and his assistant, guessing it was probably going to be a painful discussion for her.
“What did you want to discuss, Mr. McKayne?” her attorney asked confidently. Matt glared at the opposing counsel. He was in his mid-forties and had dressed in an overpriced suit that was designed to be recognized for its brand and not the cut and quality of the design. His hair was receding and he had a hungry look in his eyes as he surveyed the scale of the boardroom.
Half of Matt’s passion for medical defense stemmed from his hatred of men like Mrs. Weber’s attorney. They were vultures who preyed on the misfortune of others for their own gain. There were a few who represented those who were truly victims of malpractice, but the vast majority were opportunists. Mrs. Weber’s attorney was a pure opportunist. No malpractice attorney worthy of the title would have taken this case, and Mrs. Weber’s money, with all the expert opinions so in favor of the hospital’s care. If the man thought Matt wanted to discuss a settlement, he was going to be sorely disappointed.
Matt completely disregarded the other attorney and focused all his attention on Mrs. Weber. “Mrs. Weber, the night your husband died you brought him to the emergency department yourself earlier in the evening.” It wasn’t a question; it was a statement, delivered as gently as he could in the circumstances.
Her eyes widened and Matt knew in an instant that everything he’d uncovered was indeed correct. He didn’t wait for her to answer.
“I had our medical experts reexamine your husband’s death. Even if you had convinced him to stay that night when you first came in, he would still have died from the aortic dissection.”
“I tried to get him to stay, but when the triage nurse said it was up to a six-hour wait, Michael refused. I thought because the nurse had checked his blood pressure and pulse that he wasn’t that sick.” It was the panicked explanation of a woman who still didn’t understand what had gone wrong.
“Stop talking, Marion,” her attorney instructed her harshly. Matt turned and glared at the creep and within seconds he shrank back into his chair. Matt directed his attention back to Mrs. Weber, who was crying and trying to wipe away the evidence with the sleeve of her cardigan.
“I know,” he started gently. “The triage nurse remembered you from that night because of how strongly you tried to talk him into staying. You did your best, Marion. There was nothing the triage nurse, you or Michael could have known or done that night to prevent what happened. Just as there is nothing that Drs. Spence and Reed could have done, but they tried—just as you did.”
The woman crumpled before him and Matt could feel no joy at discovering the truth. He passed her the box of tissues he had left on the conference-room table and waited for her, not wanting to diminish her grief by interrupting.
“I just needed it not to be my fault. I wasn’t interested in the money. I just wanted the court to say ‘Yes, it was the doctors’ fault’ so that I would know for sure it wasn’t mine. I miss him so much.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Marion,” he said, as clearly and firmly as he could. She looked at him and he maintained eye contact. “It wasn’t your fault.”
The sympathetic tone in his voice faded when he shifted his attention to Mrs. Weber’s attorney. “I expect you to file the papers to drop the case before the end of the week. I also expect your firm to cover the entire cost of this case. It should never have gotten this far and you and your firm are going to take the blame and shoulder whatever costs have been incurred. I’ll be keeping in touch with Mrs. Weber and if I hear that she has received any type of invoice or attempt to request payment from you I will personally represent her pro bono in actions against you for negligence and misrepresentation. Do I make myself clear?”
“Perfectly,” the man remarked snidely. Although it annoyed him, Matt let it go as he was certain the lawyer had gotten the message.
“You can leave now. I’ll make sure Mrs. Weber gets home.” The man rose from the table and left the room without even addressing Marion Weber. Matt motioned for his assistant to leave and he walked around the table to sit at Mrs. Weber’s side.
“I’m so sorry for my actions, Mr. McKayne. Can you please let Dr. Spence and Dr. Reed know that? I was so lost without him, I couldn’t tell right from wrong. I think even if the lawsuit had been successful I still would have always wondered if I had really been responsible. At least I know now there was nothing I could have done. Maybe I can start to move past that night and focus on the forty-two wonderful years that came before it.”
“That sounds like an excellent plan, Mrs. Weber. I’ll definitely pass that along to Drs. Reed and Spence. They know how much you loved your husband and have no hard feelings towards you. Can I arrange for our driver to take you home?” He rose from the table and helped her to her feet, wanting to make sure she was steady before he let go.
“Yes, that would be very nice. Thank you, Mr. McKayne, for everything today.” Matt was startled when she put her arms up and hugged him, but he instinctively hugged her back, her blonde head barely reaching his chest.
“Let’s get you home,” he said, gently waiting for her to let go before letting go himself and walking her back to his assistant to make the necessary arrangements. Once he was sure she was safely taken care of, he went back to the conference room to pick up his files. He paused and glanced out over the Boston skyline. He had been the type of man he wanted to be today. Kate had done that.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SHE STILL WASN’T answering her phone. Matt walked through the lobby of Boston General, searching for Kate. He didn’t want to page her in case she was operating, but he also wanted to see and talk to her as soon as possible. The past days without her had seemed almost as long as the nine years they had been apart. He had discovered the motivation behind Mrs. Weber’s actions and now he was determined to do the same with Kate.
If she wasn’t with a patient, she would be with Chloe, he thought to himself. He went to the admitting office and turned on the charm to get Chloe’s room information. He was surprised to be directed towards the obstetrics ward and verified the information twice, before departing for the fourth-floor unit. The pink and blue pastel walls of the unit were different from anywhere else he had seen in the hospital. He made his way towards the front desk and the unit clerk seated at it.
“I’m looking for room 4501.”
“Dr. Darcy is not having any visitors,” the clerk replied, not needing to reference the room number with the patient bed list. This was obviously not the first time she had delivered this news.
“Can you please ask her if she would be willing to see Matt McKayne?” He smiled warmly and smoothly at the clerk, using his charms again, and she seemed to have a change of heart, rounding the desk to go check with Chloe.
‘I know Kate better than anyone,’ Chloe had said the first and only time they had met. Maybe if he couldn’t find Kate, he could start searching for answers with Chloe.
“Dr. Darcy said you can go ahead—last room on the left at the end of the hall.”
He walked into the room and was taken aback at the sight of Chloe. The feisty redhead he had met in Tate’s office had been replaced by a fragile-looking woman in a hospital bed.
“It’s not contagious.” She laughed, attuned to his reaction. The action made her grab at her stomach and groan with regret.
She’s still there, he thought to himself, and walked into the room, shutting the door and taking the chair by her bed. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Like I got hit by a bus, thank you for asking. Why are you really here, Matt?” She was direct and completely disarming.
“I was looking for Kate, or at the least some information about Kate.” Chloe would see through anything other than the truth and he had nothing to lose or hide.
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” she asked without scorn. Chloe had obviously gained some knowledge about his and Kate’s past together since they’d first met a few weeks ago. He wanted and needed to know what Kate had told her, how Kate was seeing things.
“What do you mean, Chloe?”
With not insignificant effort she pushed herself up on the hospital bed until she was sitting upright and staring him directly in the eye. “I mean that Kate was really messed up when we first met at Columbia and I won’t let that happen again.”
“Columbia?” Matt felt all the air leave the room and he stared at Chloe, waiting for her to correct her error.
“Yes, Columbia. We both went to medical school at Columbia University in New York City. I believe you are familiar with the institution, given that’s where you apparently went to law school?”
Chloe was staring at him, eyebrows arched, waiting for a response. He didn’t have one. Kate had gone to Columbia for medical school. She had been there the entire time. When he’d thought he’d heard her voice or seen her on campus, he had. When he’d seen the woman in the coffee shop who had reminded him so much of her that he’d had to leave, it had to have been her. She had found a way for them to be together and he had taken the now seemingly easy route and ruined it. She had been stronger than he had given her credit for. She had also probably been strong enough to survive his family, he just hadn’t believed in her the same way she had obviously believed in him.
The other night he had vowed to her that if she had been in New York, nothing would have kept him from her, but she had been in New York, at Columbia. He had deserved that slap. He actually deserved much worse and he now completely understood why Kate didn’t trust him.
“Matt? Matt?” Chloe’s voice broke through his thoughts. “Hello-o-o, are you all right?”
“I didn’t know,” he responded absently. He had come for answers and he had gotten them. He looked at Chloe and felt grateful for her help amidst his shock. “Thank you, Chloe.”
He walked out of the hospital room while a maelstrom of thoughts and emotions charged through his mind. He would never forgive himself for what he had done, so how could he expect Kate to?
Kate walked through the corridors of Boston General with more foreboding than she had the afternoon Matt had walked back into her life. Once again she was being summoned to a meeting with the hospital’s senior administrators and this time she didn’t waste what little energy she had left worrying about the reason behind the last-minute request.
She reached the corridor outside the main boardroom and saw Tate leaning against the wall, looking equally as unimpressed with the circumstances.
“Do you know what this is about?” he asked, apparently having received no more information than she had.
“No idea,” she sighed, coming to a stop beside him.
“Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out.” He led the way into the room where it had all begun. The conference room was filled with all the same men, except that Matt wasn’t there. She immediately felt crushing disappointment. Her heart and mind were still trying to relearn to live without him, while at the same time she felt angry at herself for loving someone so deeply who had proved repeatedly how little he loved her back.
“Take a seat, Drs. Reed and Spence,” Jeff invited them both. This time they took chairs side by side, united in whatever was about to occur. “We have some information we would like to share with you.”
She held her breath and braced herself for whatever was about to be said. Her personal life was in a shambles and she felt like her career was hanging by a precarious thread.
“Tate, Kate,” Dr. Williamson started. “I am pleased to inform you that the Weber family has dropped the lawsuit against Boston General and yourselves. They have also agreed to sign an agreement against any future legal action.”
Kate felt her jaw drop and quickly looked at Tate for confirmation. He looked equally as surprised and she knew then she had not been wrong in what she had just heard.
“Why the change of heart?” Tate asked the group.
Sutherland answered, “Mr. McKayne discovered some information that helped him understand Mrs. Weber’s motivation behind the lawsuit. He met with her this afternoon and after discussing the events of the evening and the medical expert reviews, she no longer felt there was any negligence involved.”
Matt had done this. Pride and pain filled her at the same time. He had saved her from what would have been a permanent mark on her career and he hadn’t even bothered to tell her himself. Maybe this was his goodbye?
“Thank you all. We appreciate your support throughout this matter,” Tate said to the group. She should probably say something similar but no words came to mind and she sat there mutely.
“We value both of you and the work you do for this hospital. We strongly hope, Kate, that you’ll consider returning to a staff position once you have completed your fellowship.” Dr. Williamson’s attention was directly focused on her.
A staff position at Boston General was the job she had wanted for the past five years but in the past six months she had forced herself to give up dreaming about it. After her breakup with Tate she had ruled it out as a possibility. She had been crushed, knowing she was going to have to leave Boston General, the city itself, and especially Chloe, who had accepted a staff position in the emergency department.
“There is nothing I would like more,” she answered, but in her heart she knew there was something she wanted much, much more.
“Then consider it a done deal. Now, if you’ll excuse us, I think we all have work to do.” Dr. Williamson rose and the other men followed suit, leaving the conference room. Kate stood from her chair, her mind still reeling from the events.
“Congratulations, Kate.” Tate was smiling at her, but she was still trying to process the developments of the past ten minutes.
“Thanks,” she mumbled in return. The lawsuit was over and she had received the job offer she had desperately been working towards, but it wasn’t enough. With Matt she remembered what it was like to be happy, even for one night, and nothing felt as it should without him.
When she looked back at Tate his expression had changed. He seemed to be analyzing her with almost as much scrutiny as she had been assessing herself internally. “I take it you’re no closer to figuring things out with Matt than the last time we talked?”
“He’s gone.” She replied with the only fact she was sure of.
“I don’t think so, Kate. It sounds like he’s still around, judging from our meeting today.” Whose side was Tate on? She felt resentment towards both men. She was tired of all the presumptions being made on her behalf. She was going to spend the rest of her life loving a man she couldn’t trust and never finding that sense of happiness again.
“I’m too hurt to feel gratitude towards him right now, Tate, so don’t ask me to.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. What I am going to ask you to do is to go home. You have barely slept or been outside this building since Chloe got sick.”
“Is this your way of telling me I look like hell?” Kate replied, a small smile at the corner of her lips.
“No. But I think if you tried to stay with Chloe again tonight, you would worry her more than you would help her.”
It was odd, this new relationship with Tate. In almost every way it was new, except that it felt old and comfortable. It was true friendship and instead of their past intimacy making things awkward, it allowed for more honesty between them.
“You’re right. She said the same thing last night. I give in. I’m lucky to have you both in my life, and in case you didn’t realize it, you are both officially stuck with me.”
She walked along the cement sidewalks towards home. The sun was out and the birch trees that lined the street were starting to show signs of spring. She smiled, feeling some peace at knowing this was not going to be her last spring in Boston, just one of many to come. It was going to be hard to go back to New York for her fellowship, but it was going to be worth it. Devoting her career to helping women with breast cancer would at least lay one of her demons to rest.
She had no idea where Matt was going to be or even where he was now. Was he going to stay in Boston, go back to New York, or was there somewhere else in the world where he spent his time? It was going to haunt her, not knowing where he was. She didn’t want to have to worry about any more accidental encounters that would cause a resurfacing of feelings she wanted to move past. Still, she refused to call him, not again. She had finally said her goodbye.
She was lost in thought as she approached her apartment building. She looked up just as she reached the base of the stairs and stopped dead. Matt was sitting on her steps. He was still dressed in a business suit and hunched over with his forearms resting on his legs, hands clasped together. He looked as disconcerted as she felt surprised to see him again.
She decided not to make the experience any more painful than it needed to be and instead of challenging him took the spot next to him on the concrete, avoiding looking at him as she stared vaguely in the same direction he was looking across the street. In contrast to the cool concrete against her bottom she felt Matt’s natural warmth radiating from him along her side. It reminded her of making love with him and it took every ounce of willpower not to cry at the memory.
“I don’t deserve you.” Matt’s painfully confessed words broke into her internal battle.
Of all the things she had expected to hear, that was not it. Matt had always felt right in all his actions. Even when he’d confessed to lying to her about not loving her, he still had tried to justify his actions as being for her own good. When he had told Tate about them, it had been the right and honorable thing to do. After spending a decade not feeling like she was enough for Matt, it was surreal to hear him confess that he was the one who wasn’t good enough for her. She couldn’t respond, didn’t know how to respond.
“I didn’t know you were in New York. I wanted so badly to be with you that I erased all your messages and emails before I listened to or read them so as to do everything in my power to keep myself away from you. I thought I was doing the right thing for you.” He sounded so honest, but she didn’t believe what he was saying.
“Matt, you saw me in the coffee shop that spring. You took one look at me, turned your back and walked away from me. No looking back, no second glance.” No more lies, no more misunderstandings, she was going to let everything out this time. It was the only way she was ever going to heal.
He reached out and took her hand, her small one completely engulfed in his. She didn’t say anything and still couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye, so instead she concentrated on the sight of their hands together.
“I honestly thought I was hallucinating. I had already thought I had imagined your voice, and seen you on campus, so when I walked into the coffee shop and saw you that day, I thought it was my mind imagining what I so desperately wanted to see.”
Her mind whirled with his last confession. She tried to put together the facts of the past, with her perceptions and now Matt’s. She started talking and wasn’t sure for whose benefit she was speaking.
“I need to understand this, Matt, because I can’t tell what’s true anymore. You’re saying you were in love with me the night we first made love and you lied because you thought it was the right thing for me? You’re also saying that you didn’t know that I was in New York with you, and that you wanted to be with me so badly that you thought you imagined me the day you walked away from me in the coffee shop? And now you’re saying that you know all this and you don’t deserve me?”
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