Page 13 of Bad Blood

I rotate in the booth and see her smile at him. She turns once she sees me watching her.

Liam is on his phone again when I spin around and ask, “Did Dr. Gibbons give you any ideas of what the plan would look like?”

“He wants the tests.” His eyes bounce across the screen and widen before he holds up the phone for me to see what he’s reading. There’s a photo of a woman in scrubs with messy brown hair blocking her face as she makes her way through the crowd to the entrance of Mount Sinai West.

I take his phone and read the article as I pull my wallet from my back pocket, throwing a couple of twenties on the bill. As I skim the words, my eyes catch on one thing toward the end: Malpractice that led to a wrongful death.

When I look up, Liam grimaces and asks, “What if it is her?”

4

Churn and Burn

Brighton

Tuesday, May 9 th

8:43 a.m.

Logic would say the easiest way to get this over with would be to relent. But I’m sick of rolling over for men with a complex.

So, I listen.

I listen as Kline explains how our procedures work.

And how the accusations are unfounded—the claimant in error.

When Kline glances in my direction for confirmation, I don’t give it. He’s burned through my weekly tolerance for self-important assholes.

I set my hand on top of the three additional files I found. And smile. There’s no slap to the face quite like feigning ignorance.

Kline’s nostrils flare as he readjusts in his seat.

The hospital lawyer, Robert Abbott, clears his throat, and Luca scribbles notes on the pad in front of him.

“You never answered my question. Why am I named in the lawsuit?” I ask.

All eyes flick to me. I ignore Kline’s heated stare, making eye contact with Robert.

He averts his gaze, reordering his paperwork. “We’ll get to that.”

I ignore the urge to glare at Kline because of what it might imply.

Kline smiles, pleased with his narrative, and stands, pushing his chair in as he heads to the door. “That’s all you needed, right?”

“Yes, I’ll be in touch.” Robert nods at Kline, waiting to continue. Kline pauses at the door, his hand outstretched for the handle. He doesn’t turn, but I hope he can feel the daggers I’m staring into his back. We all wait in silence as he steps out and the door clicks into place.

“Where were we?” Robert shuffles through his papers and pulls out his pen, scribbling a note at the top of his legal pad at the head of the table. “I wanted to get everyone up to speed about what the hospital is facing and what we plan to do about it.”

“Dr. Fields is not being held liable for situations out of her control,” Luca says, crossing his arms over his chest. His elbow bumps into me with the movement, and he mumbles, “Sorry,” before directing his gaze to the remaining two staff members involved in the litigation who sit across from us at the rectangular table. Their eyes flick toward the door behind Robert and back down to the papers they have in their hands. I can’t imagine what the anesthesiologist and his assistant have to do with any of this, and I wish they weren’t involved.

I have no idea what Kline was up to or why he’s involving me in the cases in question, but I’m drawing a blank. I don’t plan when I’ll be in surgery with Kline. That’s all on him. I work on all hip surgeries, since that’s what I specialized in during residency, and any cases that are stage III cancers or above. I’m not nationally renowned for my breakthroughs on my procedures and methods without good reason. Yes, Collins’ case didn’t end up with a favorable outcome, but it made massive changes in Ewing Sarcoma treatment. Treatments that could have changed my brother’s outcome had they been practiced years before.

I don’t know everything Robert has regarding the cases, and my lack of knowledge plays in Kline’s favor. Luca giving me a heads-up with the phone call was enough to get the ball rolling, but I’m still not sure what angle Robert will take. And it makes me nervous.

“This can’t look like another cover-up. You know what happened last time,” Robert says, sliding a file in front of me from the head of the table.

Of course Robert would bring up Collins’ case. But there’s no way to explain to him that I had nothing to do with it being swept under the rug. That was all Kline. And it’s not something I want to rehash in light of the new litigation.

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