Chapter 5: The Operating Room
1375 Words
The car was silent.
I sat in the back seat of Calder's town car with my hand pressed to my neck. To the marks he left there. Two of them now. One from last night. One from an hour ago against his office door.
I hated that I could still feel his mouth. I hated that my body liked it. I hated that my hand would not move.
Rule Number Two was dead. I killed it. And I was not even sorry.
The driver did not speak. Did not look at me in the mirror. He was trained for this. For taking the boss's broken toys home.
Mercy Ridge Hospital came into view. My stomach dropped to my shoes.
Valery.
I had forty-three million dollars in the account. I had Calder Thorne's teeth on my skin. And I might still lose her.
The car stopped. I did not wait for the driver to open the door. I ran.
Dr. Chen met me in the hallway outside pre-op. His face was wrong. Too serious. Too careful.
"Sloane," he said. "We have a problem."
No. No no no.
"Complications," he said. "Her blood pressure spiked this morning. The tumor is pressing on her brain stem. Surgery is riskier now. Fifty-fifty, Sloane. Fifty-fifty she makes it off the table."
The floor moved. I grabbed the wall. "She was stable yesterday. You said—"
"I know. I am sorry. This treatment is experimental. We knew the risks." He put a hand on my arm. "She asked for you. She is awake. You have ten minutes before we take her."
Ten minutes. I might have ten minutes left with my sister.
I nodded. Could not speak. Walked to the pre-op room like I was walking to my own execution.
Valery was small in the hospital bed. Tubes. Wires. Her head shaved where they would cut. But her eyes were open. And she smiled when she saw me.
"Hey," she said. Her voice was thin. "You look like crap."
I laughed. It came out broken. "You look worse."
"Yeah, well. Bald is not my color." She reached for my hand. Her fingers were cold. "Did you do it? Did you get the money?"
I nodded. Could not lie to her. Not now. "It is done. Surgery is paid. Everything is paid."
"Good." She closed her eyes for a second. Tired. "I was scared you would do something stupid."
Too late. I already did. Forty-three million dollars of stupid. And I would do it again.
"I love you," I said. "You know that, right?"
"I know." She squeezed my hand. "Do not do anything I would not do, okay? After. If I..."
"Do not say it." My throat closed. "You are going to be fine. You have to be fine."
A nurse came in. "Time, Miss Vance."
I kissed Valery's forehead. Her skin was cold. Too cold. "I will be right here. When you wake up, I will be right here."
She smiled again. "Promise?"
"Promise."
They wheeled her away. The doors to the OR closed. Final. Like Calder's office door.
I stood there until my legs gave out. I sank to the floor in the hallway. Right there. Did not care who saw.
Rule Number Four. No feelings. I was drowning in them.
"Sloane."
I looked up.
Calder stood at the end of the hallway. In a suit. No tie. Same as last night. Same as always. Like he belonged in hospitals and boardrooms and my bed.
He did not say anything else. He just walked to me. Stopped in front of me. Held out his hand.
I did not take it. "What are you doing here?"
"Waiting." He said it like it was simple. Like he was not Calder Thorne, billionaire CEO, in a public hospital waiting room. "Dr. Chen called me. Said it was bad."
"You did not have to come."
"I know." He dropped his hand. Sat on the floor next to me. Did not care about his suit. Did not care about the nurses staring. "But I did."
We sat there. Side by side. Against the wall. In silence. For ten minutes. Then twenty. Then an hour.
He did not touch me. Did not speak. He just... was there.
At hour two, I cracked. "What if she dies?"
He looked at me. "She will not."
"You do not know that." My voice broke. "What if I did all this for nothing? The check. The contract. You. What if she dies anyway and I am just... ruined for no reason?"
I was crying. I hated crying. I had not cried since I was twelve. Since Mom left.
But I was crying now. In front of him. In a hospital hallway. Breaking Rule Number Four into pieces.
He moved. Pulled me into his chest. His arms came around me. Tight. Real. His chin rested on my head. His hand was in my hair.
"I need you," I sobbed into his suit jacket. "I hate that I need you. But I do. Right now, I need you."
He did not say it back. He did not have to. His arms said it.
"You have me," he whispered into my hair. "She will be fine, Sloane. I own half this hospital. I will buy the other half if I have to. She will be fine."
He kissed my forehead. Not my mouth. But it was worse. It was gentle. It was real. It was everything Rule Number Two was supposed to protect me from.
I let him hold me. In public. In front of everyone. Let him be the thing keeping me upright.
The sound of heels made me pull back. Miranda Thorne stood at the end of the hallway. Her face was ice.
"Board convened an emergency meeting," she said to Calder. Did not look at me. "They know about the forty-three million. About her. About the check. About the wire."
I went cold. "What?"
"Someone leaked it," Miranda said. "Fraud. Embezzlement. They want your head, Calder. Or hers." She finally looked at me. "You or her. The company or the girl. Choose."
Calder stood up. Slowly. Every inch of him went lethal. "Who leaked it?"
"Does it matter?" Miranda crossed her arms. "You have ten minutes to get to that boardroom or they vote to remove you as CEO. And they will press charges against her. Federal. Twenty years, brother. Like you told her."
Twenty years. Valery would be dead or recovered and I would be in prison. She would be alone.
"No," I said. I stood up. "I will go. I will confess. I will say I forged it. You had nothing to do with it."
"Sit down, Sloane," Calder said. His voice was steel. "You are not going anywhere."
"You cannot lose the company for me," I said. "Valery needs—"
"She needs you," he said. "And I need you. So you sit down."
A nurse appeared at the end of the hall. "Family of Valery Vance?"
I turned. "Yes?"
"We are taking her in now. Surgery is starting." She looked at Calder. At Miranda. "Waiting room is that way."
The OR doors were open. I could see the table. The lights. The doctors waiting.
Valery was in there. Alone. Scared.
The doors started to close.
Calder's phone rang. He looked at the screen. His jaw locked. "Board."
He looked at me. At the closing doors. At Miranda. At me again.
"Stay with her," he said to me. His voice was rough. "Whatever happens in there, you stay with her. Do you understand me?"
I nodded. Could not speak.
He turned to Miranda. "You delay that vote. You use every legal trick you know. You do not let them touch her."
Miranda nodded. Once. "Go."
Calder looked at me one more time. He touched my face. Thumb on my cheek. Quick. Gone.
Then he walked away. Down the hall. Toward the boardroom. Toward losing everything to save me.
The OR doors shut with a soft click.
I sat in the waiting room. Alone. Staring at the red SURGERY IN PROGRESS light.
Valery was on the table. Calder was fighting for his company. For me.
And I did not know which one I would lose first.
- Writer
