The Seven-Year Wound

I ran into Arthur again in the ER. Seven years ago, he was the man who kept me.

He had brought his fiancée in. I was the trauma surgeon on call.

I opened Cecilia's abdomen with my own hands and pulled her back from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy that was bleeding her out.

Outside the OR, Arthur sneered that since I'd failed to sleep my way up back then, now I had to work myself half to death for a paycheck.

I nodded calmly and agreed with him. He took that to mean I wanted back into his bed.

What he didn't know was this: whatever I threw away seven years ago, I never look at twice.

Chapter 1

"Doctor! Cecilia, the patient in post-op ICU, is barely out of anesthesia and she's losing it. You need to come now!" The nurse's voice carried all the way down the corridor.

I grabbed my stethoscope and went after her.

Before I could open the door, a glass hit it from the inside and shattered.

"Get me the quack who killed my baby!" Cecilia was slumped against the bed, gray-faced and soaked in cold sweat, but her voice was sharp enough to cut.

I stepped over the broken glass to the bedside. "Lie flat. Your abdomen can't take any sudden movement right now."

I reached for her, and she slapped my hand away.

"Don't touch me!" She stared at me, and I watched the recognition hit. "Lillian? It's you?"

She laughed through her teeth. "You took out my tube. You killed my baby yourself. Is this your idea of revenge?"

I let it go and turned to adjust the monitor at the head of the bed.

She lunged and caught my wrist, her nails digging in. "You couldn't beat me seven years ago, and you've got the nerve to show your face now? You must be tired of living..."

She didn't finish. A shudder ran through her and she folded onto the mattress.

The monitor started shrieking. Her blood pressure was dropping fast.

I yanked the blanket back to check the incision.

"What the hell are you doing?"

A hand clamped onto my shoulder and threw me sideways.

My temple caught the corner of the wall. Something warm ran into my eye, and the world on that side went red.

Arthur planted himself in front of the bed, glaring down at me like he'd tear me apart.

"Get out. Now. I want a different doctor. I'm not leaving Cecilia with a woman like you."

The alarm climbed higher. Cecilia's face had gone the color of ash. She was bleeding into her belly again. I would have bet my license on it.

I wiped the blood off my lashes with the back of my hand, pushed off the wall, and looked him straight in the eye.

"I'm the trauma surgeon here. I care whether she lives. I don't care about our history." I took a step toward him. "She's bleeding internally again, and she could die any minute. If you'd like to plan her funeral for tomorrow, Arthur, by all means keep standing there."

Something flinched in his eyes. The arm he'd thrown out to block me went stiff.

I shouldered past him and shouted to the nurse at the door. "Get a gurney. OR Two, right now!"