Page 20 of The Potter

Well, he does intimidate me, but he’ll never know he does.

“Okay, Vance. The floor is yours.” Astor closes the door as I sit in the chair next to Vance, keeping my eyes on Astor as he leans against his desk.

The room is silent, and I swear I can just make out the sounds of someone counting.

“Van—”

“I don’t want her working here,” Vance blurts out, cutting off Astor.

I hold on to the pen, not bothering to write it down. Vance not wanting me here isn’t news to me or Astor.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Vance,” starts Astor, a big, stupid grin on his face. “But, unfortunately, I need a secretary, and your brother ran my last one off. I suggest you take up this issue with him.”

Vance doesn’t even flinch. “Pick someone else.”

“No.”

Suddenly, the room feels smaller as the two men stare at each other, a silent war raging between them.

“It’s unprofessional,” is all Vance manages to grit out between clenched teeth.

“What’s unprofessional, brother, is you giving consults but not scheduling any surgeries.”

I suck in a breath, and Vance’s gaze flicks to me before focusing back on his brother. “Since when have you been monitoring my surgery schedule?”

Astor doesn’t miss a beat. “Since you haven’t gone back into the operating room in a year. Insurance reimbursement is down. We’re not bringing in the revenue to sustain the practice. I want to know why you aren’t doing surgeries.”

Dr. Potter hasn’t been doing surgeries? In a year?

Vance stands, shoving the chair back harshly, causing it to topple over. “This is fucking ridiculous. Keep your secretary, just stay away from my patients.” The way he says patients, all warm and protective, like they mean everything to him guts me as Vance storms out, slamming the door behind him.

For a moment, it seems as if the entire office is silent, absorbing this revelation. Dr. Potter hasn’t performed any of his surgeries in months.

“What’s wrong with him?” I whisper, hoping I’m not crossing the line of professionalism by asking.

Astor sighs, coming over and righting the chair. “I don’t know. He won’t talk to us about it.”

“You wanting me to come work for you wasn’t so I could convince him to perform my surgery, was it?”

The lines in Astor’s forehead crinkle. “Partly.”

“And the other part?”

A smile tugs at his lips before he frowns. “You’ve been the only one besides us who’s been able to elicit any emotion out of him. I was hoping whatever was silencing him, you’d be able to break.”

“And if I can’t break whatever it is?”

Astor shrugs, the concerned pinch of his brows worrying me. “Then we both can say we tried, right?”

His words echo in my head. At least we tried.

And ultimately, that’s what I wanted.

A chance.

And with this new information, I might just get one. Dr. Potter’s decision not to do my surgery might not have anything to do with me after all.

Hope blooms in my chest as I flash a renewed smile at the eldest Potter. “We’ll go down trying.”

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