You Used My Dad as Surgery Practice? Now Watch Your Father Die Without Me

Chapter 2

The car had barely pulled out of the parking space when a black sedan cut across, its front end blocking our path.

A woman in a high-end bespoke suit stepped out. Her stiletto heels cracked against the concrete, each step landing like a hammer blow.

A man followed behind her.

Dark gray suit, tie knotted impeccably, holding a manila envelope in his hand.

Josie hit the brakes, throwing us forward. She turned to me, eyes wide, lost.

I looked out the window.

That man. I would recognize him even if he were burnt to ash.

Liam Sterling. My ex.

The woman walked up to my car door. She bent down, her gaze traveling over my mask, scanning me from head to toe.

"Dr. Vance?"

"That's me."

"Chloe Delacroix. The patient's daughter-in-law. Deputy Medical Director of this hospital." She planted one hand on the roof of my car, leaning in, her presence pressing down. "I heard you refused to operate?"

I looked at her.

"My recusal request goes to the state board tonight."

Chloe laughed at that, one sharp sound. "Recusal. Who do you think you are?"

She hit the window frame with the flat of her hand.

"If the money isn't enough, say the money isn't enough. Don't hold a man's life over me." She was still smiling. "I can have that license of yours turned into a piece of paper by tomorrow morning. Try me."

Liam stepped forward half a pace, reaching for her arm.

"Chloe, let's talk this through calmly."

"You need to hear this." Chloe shook him off, her eyes on me. "You are the only person in this coast who can do this surgery. If you walk out and Richard Sterling dies on that table, you'd better be ready to live with it."

Liam moved forward again, putting himself half in front of her. He hadn't recognized me. To him I was a stranger, not the girl he'd left behind.

"Dr. Vance. Liam Sterling. I run Sterling Medical Group."

CEO.

He'd climbed onto that chair over my father's body.

After the accident he got his funding, married the woman standing next to him, and ended up exactly where he is now.

How could such a coincidence exist in this world? Right after my father died, he abandoned me and gained everything.

He pulled out a blank check and, along with the manila envelope, shoved it through my car window.

"What we offered before was a down payment. This is a blank check. Put any number on it you want. And the best private lab in Norchester goes into your name tomorrow morning."

He looked down at me. "Name it. I'm buying one surgery."

I stared at this face, so familiar and yet so utterly foreign. Ten years, and he hadn't changed one bit. He still believed human life was just a commodity he could buy. Back then, he bought the silence surrounding my father's death. Today, he thought he could purchase his father's life.

"Mr. Sterling."

"Yes?" He leaned forward immediately.

"The recusal's already filed," I said. "I'm not doing this surgery."

Chloe's face went white. She threw her phone at my car door.

"You goddamn—"

The window slid shut and cut the rest of it off.

"Drive."

Josie put her foot down and we went.

In the mirror I watched Chloe come after us two steps in those heels, screaming, pointing at the back of the car.

Liam hadn't moved at all.

The envelope in his hand was flapping in the wash off our exhaust.

Josie had both hands on the wheel and her knuckles had gone white.

"Dr. Vance. Those two are not people you cross. Are we in trouble?"

"We're fine." I kept my voice level.

My phone went off in my pocket. The screen lit up.

A: Dr. Vance, are you sure you want the entire Sterling family against you?

Then, a moment later.

A: We'll see how long you last.

I'd been waiting ten years for this kind of trouble.