Chapter 274
[ 482 words ]
Chapter 274:
“It was like a bad rom-com,” Brenna joked. “Thank you for giving Julian the push he needed to confess to the right girl.”
With the Julian crisis seemingly resolved, Caroline felt a massive weight lift off her shoulders. She headed to the nurses’ station to start her shift.
For the first few hours, the ER was surprisingly manageable. Caroline focused entirely on her patients, enjoying the brief illusion of a normal life.
Around two in the afternoon, a junior nurse approached Caroline. The girl looked intimidated.
“Caroline, Department Head Finchley wants to see you in his office immediately,” the nurse said.
Caroline frowned. Finchley was the department head. He was a notorious political climber who usually ignored the nursing staff unless someone was being fired or disciplined.
Jо𝘪𝗇 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘂s𝗮𝗻𝗱s 𝘰𝖿 𝘧anѕ о𝘯 𝗴𝘢𝗹ո𝘰𝘃e𝘭𝘴.с𝗈𝗆
She walked down the sterile corridor to Finchley’s plush office. Her trained instincts were already whispering that something was wrong.
She knocked and entered.
Finchley was sitting behind his heavy mahogany desk. His usually stern face was stretched into an uncharacteristically oily, flattering smile.
He gestured for her to sit. He began praising her recent performance evaluations with exaggerated enthusiasm that made Caroline’s skin crawl.
“The hospital is looking to expand its community outreach,” Finchley casually mentioned. “And we have a very important meeting scheduled with a potential VIP donor tomorrow.”
He handed her a slip of paper. It had an address for a high-end private tea room in Georgetown.
“I’m pulling you from your shift tomorrow to handle a special assignment,” Finchley said.
Caroline looked at the address. “What exactly does the assignment entail, Dr. Finchley? Who am I supposed to be meeting?”
Finchley evaded the question.
“It’s a VIP donor,” Finchley stated vaguely. “They specifically requested a consultation with a frontline medical worker. This meeting is crucial for the hospital’s funding, Caroline. I’m counting on you.”
He placed the moral burden of the ER’s budget squarely on her shoulders.
Caroline knew it was a lie. VIP donors meet with board members, not intern nurses. This was a targeted setup.
But refusing a direct order from the department head would give him the exact excuse he needed to fire her. She couldn’t risk her hard-earned career.
Caroline pocketed the paper. Her face became an unreadable mask. She agreed to go, deciding it was better to face the threat head-on than wait in the dark.
She finished the rest of her shift, her mind racing through tactical scenarios. As she walked out of the hospital doors that evening, she casually took out her encrypted satellite phone. She sent a blank message to Jarrod’s secure number. It was a pre-arranged distress ping, alerting him to a potential threat on the horizon for the following day.
The next day, Caroline took a cab to Georgetown.
The cab dropped her off in front of Aura, an exclusive, membership-only tea room dripping with old money elegance. She had changed out of her scrubs and into her simple street clothes: a cheap denim jacket and sneakers.
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