Page 26 of Just One Chance
David excused himself to check on the x-ray and put an order in for Tucker’s pain medication.
Frustration pulsed inside of him.Why?What was Tucker even trying to prove with Avery? David was trapped in a way that made rage pump through his veins. Tucker had already proven himself more than capable of lying, so he couldn’t be sure everything he’d spouted about getting David fired wasn’t just an empty threat. Though Gerald Stevenson showing up in the exam room had certainly strengthened Tucker’s argument.
Patient privacy laws did protect Tucker. By law, David couldn’t tell Avery he’d seen him as a patient. Which meant it would be really hard to bring up the existence of the fiancée he’d also met at the hospital without weaving a lie to explain where and how they’d met. But how could he do nothing? How could he let Tucker continue to hurt Avery in such a terrible way?
Lucy walked by and David reached out and stopped her. “Hey. You have a minute?”
Lucy looked at her watch. “Sure. But only one.”
“You ever heard of the King family?” David asked. “A Francis King, maybe? I guess they’re important around here or something?”
Lucy wrinkled her forehead. “Francis King. I know that name. Hold on.” She pulled out her phone, typing something, then scrolling through a few screens before holding her phone out for David to see. “I was right. Francis King is big in real estate around here, I guess. He owns something like half of downtown. He owns the building John’s optometry practice is in.”
David scrolled through the Wikipedia page detailing all of King’s real estate holdings. He kept scrolling, skimming over the historical significance of the King family. They were definitely key players in the establishment of downtown Charleston as the historical and cultural center that it was. He sighed in resignation then swore under his breath.
“What’s wrong?” Lucy asked. “What does Francis King have to do with you?”
“His grandson is my sprained wrist,” he said. “He’s also the guy dating Avery.”
“I’m still not following,” Lucy said.
David looked over Lucy’s shoulder and saw Jessica walking toward them. “See that woman right there? In the pink?”
Lucy followed his gaze. “Yeah?”
Their conversation paused while Jessica passed them, moving on toward Tucker’s exam room.
“That’s his fiancée.”
Lucy frowned in confusion. “Wait, what? I thought he was dating Avery.”
“He is,” David said, his tone level.
Lucy’s eyes lit with understanding. “Ohhh. What a jerk.”
“He just told me if I make this a problem for him, he’ll definitely make it a problem for me.”
“How’s he going to do that? He actually threatened you?”
“Technically, patient privacy laws offer him some protection. You know I can’t go home and tell Avery I saw him in the ER today. Plus, Dr. Stevenson just stopped by to check on him and make sure he was getting theVIP treatment.”
Lucy frowned. “Seriously?”
“I guess they play golf together or something.” David pressed his hand to his forehead, massaging his temples with his thumb and forefinger. “What am I supposed to do? Nobody knows me in this town, Lu. I can’t afford to mess anything up.”
“David, even if Dr. Stevenson wasn’t the guy’s best friend, this is a no-brainer. You can’t risk the HIPAA violation. Honestly, you can’t even risk the accusation, especially from someone like the Kings. Even if an investigation proved you didn’t do anything wrong. . .” She shrugged. “I’ve seen doctors ruined by false accusations before.”
“But how can Inottell her? He’s using her. It’s wrong, Lucy. She’s going to get hurt from this.”
Lucy looked at her watch and shook her head. “I need to go. But David, don’t do it. You know the rules. You have to let this go.”
Rules or not, David still felt like a coward. He paced around the doctor’s lounge with fire in his bones. How could henottell Avery the guy she thought she was dating was marrying someone else in a couple of months? How could he let her invest her time and her energy and her heart into something that was doomed to fail? It would humiliate her. He couldn’t just sit by and let that happen.
But what choice did he have? He couldn’t tell Avery directly. That much was indisputable. But then, Avery was a grown woman, capable of making her own choices. She was choosing to believe whatever Tucker was telling her, whatever reasons he’d concocted for why he wanted them to get back together.
He remembered Avery telling him she and Tucker ran in completely different circles. They didn’t share the same friends, hadn’t attended the same schools. He was yacht club parties, and she was county beach parks. She’d said something about how opposites attract. But all that meant was that with a little bit of effort, Tucker could probably keep both women in the dark about his philandering for months. Years, even.
David dropped into a chair by an outside window and pulled out his phone. How had social media not already tipped Avery off? He ran a quick search for Tucker’s name, pulling up several profiles that belonged to him. The profiles were professional and polished, butnotpersonal. Lots of posed photos at charity events and extended family group shots in front of perfectly decorated Christmas trees and holiday tables. It looked like the profile of someone who was planning to run for political office. Which, David realized, could absolutely be the case. There wasn’t anything on any of the profiles that mentioned the engagement. Was that intentional?
