The Grey Heir

BROKEN TIES

BROKEN TIES

NIRA POV

The small ER rest room smelled of disinfectant and cold coffee as I sat on the edge of a narrow cot with an ice pack pressed against the deep blue bruise on my collarbone, my green silk gala dress folded inside a plastic bag on the floor while I sat there in my oversized blue scrubs and kept my eyes fixed on the clock.

It was 8:30 in the morning.

Ever since my mother died last year, David had been the only person I had left, and I had given him everything I earned and everything I felt because I wanted to fill the empty place she had left behind, but knowing that he had used me, cheated on me and eventually killed me in my previous life still cut deep even though I had been given another chance.

Yet a stubborn part of me kept watching the door because I was waiting for Halo.

Halo was William Grey’s personal assistant, and in my previous life he had walked into this same hospital the morning after the gala with the Grey Estate contract in his hands.

I had signed it then too because I thought it would save me.

It had not.

Still, I waited for the same knock and the same offer because I knew that this time I would make better use of the chance.

The lock clicked and the door slammed open, making me look up as David walked in, his jaw wrapped in thick white bandages and his lip stitched with dark thread from what had happened at the gala.

He threw a stack of papers onto my lap.

“Sign them, Nira,” he said through his teeth. “Divorce papers and full release of everything. You get nothing. The house, the savings, the car, all of it stays with me.”

My hands shook as I picked up the pen, but not because I was afraid of him anymore.

In the last life I have begged him to stay, but this time I looked into his cold eyes and understood that the man I had spent years trying to love had never been the family I believed I had.

I glanced at the door one more time, still hoping Halo would appear.

The door stayed shut.

I signed my name at the bottom of the divorce papers and handed them back to him.

“We’re done, David.”

He snatched them from my hand with a small cruel smile.

“We’re more than done.”

Before the ink had even dried, Dr. Harrison, the Chief of Medicine, stepped into the room holding a white envelope, and the expression on his face told me before he even opened his mouth that this was not going to be good news.

“Dr. Dickson,” he said without any softness in his voice. “Effective immediately, your medical privileges at Saint Jude’s are revoked. You are terminated.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“Terminated? On what grounds?”

“Dr. Vance submitted clear evidence of unauthorized narcotic orders stamped under your medical ID, so clear out your locker in ten minutes.”

He dropped the letter onto the cot and left without waiting for another question.

I stared at the envelope in my hands while the words settled in my mind, because this was exactly how David had destroyed my career in my previous life, only this time I knew what he was doing and I would not spend years blaming myself for something he had done.

My marriage was over.

My career was gone.

And Halo still had not come.

Ten minutes later I stood in the staff locker room packing my stethoscope and medical books into a brown cardboard box, trying to keep my hands steady while I gathered the things I had spent years using to build my career as a psychiatrist.

The steady sound of low heels came down the hallway, and when I looked up I saw Priya Adams walking into the locker room with her arms crossed, wearing a tight burgundy nurse uniform and holding an iced coffee while a satisfied look rested on her face.

“Packing up your trash, Nira?” she asked as she looked me over. “Baggy scrubs, messy hair, completely broke. You really thought you could keep David? He was in my bed while you worked the night shifts.”

I held the edges of the box tighter and said nothing.

“And here’s the best part,” she continued as she stepped closer. “The hospital just put out the announcement. David and I are getting married next month. I’m taking your shifts, your office and your husband.”

She laughed, took another sip of her coffee and walked out, leaving me alone in the quiet locker room with the sound of her low heels fading down the hallway.

I stood there for a long moment before picking up the heavy box and carrying it down the hallway, then pushed through the glass doors and stepped into the rain.

Water soaked through my canvas shoes almost immediately and ran down the sides of the box as I stood on the wet curb of the ambulance bay, shivering in the cold wind while I tried to figure out where I was supposed to go now.

Then the low sound of a heavy engine cut through the rain.

A black Maybach pulled up to the curb.

The rear door opened and a large black umbrella rose above it as a tall man stepped out into the storm.

It was not Halo.

It was William Grey himself.

He wore a clean tailored charcoal suit, and his gray eyes were clear and steady as they locked on mine while he took the umbrella from his guard and walked straight toward me, holding it over my head so the rain stopped hitting my face.

His eyes dropped to the wet cardboard box before moving to the termination letter sticking out of my pocket.

“Dr. Nira Dickson,” he said in his low even voice. “I hear your schedule just opened up.”

I stared at him, completely caught off guard by the fact that the man I had expected to see only after Halo delivered the contract was standing in front of me instead.

“Mr. Grey… what are you doing here?”

He reached inside his jacket, pulled out a gold-edged document and held it toward me.

“I’m offering you the position of head residential psychiatrist at the Grey Estate, with full legal protection from Saint Jude’s, complete immunity and a starting salary of two million a year.”

My eyes moved from the contract to his face before I looked through the glass doors of the hospital lobby, where David and Priya were standing side by side with pale faces as they watched the richest man in the city stand in the rain for me.

William stepped a little closer and held the contract out again.

“Sign the contract, Nira. Come with me.”

I looked at David and Priya one last time before turning back to William, and after everything they had taken from me that morning, I knew there was no reason for me to hesitate.

I set the box on the hood of the car, took the pen from his hand and signed my name.

William nodded once toward the driver.

“Take her to her apartment. She’ll come to the estate in the morning.”

I got into the back seat with the wet cardboard box beside me, and as the door closed I looked through the window one last time at David and Priya was still standing behind the glass.