Page 104 of Anxious Hearts
Somebody cleared their throat and the spell was broken.
Kelly glanced up to see an officious-looking man with a clipboard standing at the entrance to the waiting room.
‘Dr Kelly O’Mara?’ he said.
Kelly stood up. The room spun, but she held her nerve. ‘That’s me,’ she said.
‘Follow me, please.’
Kelly took a deep breath, filled her lungs with steel and gave a silent nod. She looked at Finn and smiled. She had made her decision. She would pass the exam, then take a year off. She would do it for them both.
Finn smiled back. ‘Give ’em hell,’ he whispered.
Chapter Forty-seven
As soon as Kelly was out of sight, Finn checked the time. Bang on nine thirty. He would wait for fifteen minutes but then he absolutely had to leave if he was going to make his ten thirty flight. The airport wasn’t far and he had no luggage to check in, so he’d make quick progress to the gate. But he didn’t want to take any chances, not with the biggest audition of his life ahead of him.
He had more than enough coke to get him through the flight and he had already arranged another pick-up en route to his audition – God bless social media. And although he was a little buzzed and a little jittery, he stayed put in the uncomfortable waiting room seat to make sure Kelly didn’t come running back around the corner trying to escape.
That was never going to happen, of course. He’d seen the moment she’d transformed. When she took that deep breath and her veins turned to ice. There was that confusing, faltering moment when she’d talked about being a better human, which he didn’t really understand and put down to pre-exam nerves, but nothing could touch her now. She was in fight mode and there would be no running away. He’d told her he would stay, though, so he would.
Finn’s phone beeped and the screen notified him of a Google alert. He unlocked the screen. He only had one alert set up – his own name – and these alerts happened fairly regularly, so he was nonchalant about what he’d read now.
Until he saw the headline. Which wasn’t about him at all.
Deranged Kids’ Doctor Caught in Another Crazed Assault.
Finn’s heart beat like a piper’s drum. His feet were cemented to the floor and his stomach was a hollow pit of oblivion. ‘Oh, no,’ he whispered.
The story was as bad as it could be. The journalist had shown no mercy. The video of Kelly clearly raging through the cafe to protect him was featured at the top of the article, which described the ‘dangerous doctor’s’ inability to control herself before hypothesising about the risk to her young patients. The only mention of Finn was their joint appearance at the hospital fundraiser. There was nothing about her trying to protect him or even him being at the cafe with her on that day. It was a hit piece, pure and simple. ‘Fucking journalists,’ Finn hissed.
A man in a suit suddenly charged into the waiting room. He looked around as though he expected to find someone in particular, but Finn was the only one there. He huffed and looked accusingly at Finn, as though this was his fault.
‘Was Dr O’Mara with you?’
Finn spied the man’s name badge and title: Head of Training. Not a good sign. ‘Yeah, but she’s already gone in for her exam.’
‘With who?’
‘Some guy with a clipboard.’
On cue, clipboard man came around the corner where he and Kelly had disappeared only minutes ago. The man in the suit immediately dismissed Finn and turned to the other guy.
‘Has Dr O’Mara gone in?’
The man looked surprised and slightly offended. ‘Yes, Professor Ranger. On time and according to plan.’
‘Fuck,’ the professor said.
The clipboard man looked like he might have a heart attack. ‘What’s wrong?’
Ranger sighed and ran a hand through his thinning hair. ‘I just had a call from Society headquarters in Melbourne. They told me not to let O’Mara sit the exam.’
‘What? Why not?’
‘I don’t know. Some bullshit about a news article or something. As if I give a shit. I’ve got enough bloody trouble trying to get all these juniors into the right exams, let alone pulling them out of them.’
Finn stood up. ‘Wait, did you say they don’t want Kelly to sit the exam?’
