Page 77 of Anxious Hearts
She called immediately. Her rage reached out like a disembodied hand and gripped Finn’s skull in a painful hold. ‘Are you fucking serious, sending me that message? Are you trying to get us both arrested?’
‘Please,’ Finn said. ‘Tell me where it is. I’m desperate.’
‘Get a fucking grip, Finn. I told you to clean up or we’re done. I want a boyfriend, not a fucking junkie.’
She hung up.
Now Ashley had abandoned him as well.
Chapter Thirty-four
‘Impersonating a medical student?’ Michael barked at Kelly the moment she closed the door to his office.
Kelly had spent most of the night preparing herself for every possible question. She was confident she could feign ignorance convincingly enough to at least make Michael doubt his conviction. She’d even stood in front of the mirror making startled, bewildered and indignant faces. ‘That’s utterly absurd,’ she’d said to herself. ‘I find it offensive that you’d even make the suggestion.’
It had been a lot easier at eleven o’clock last night, when she was just talking to herself. Now, faced with Michael’s white-hot rage, Kelly’s empty stomach ached and her skin was prickly and damp. But she maintained her outward composure as she sat in the chair on the opposite side of Michael’s desk.
‘Sorry, Michael, I’m not sure I understand why I’m here.’ She looked past the throbbing vein in his temple to the wall over his shoulder.
Michael slammed his fist on the desk with such force that the papers were momentarily airborne, landing in a scattered mess. Kelly jumped with them and her heart seemed to stop for a second. She’d seen anger before, but this raw, volcanic explosion was so out of character for a man who was usually so genteel that Kelly’s resolve was already at breaking point.
‘Cut the crap, Kelly. I know it was you breaching security, hospital protocols and ethical standards with your selfish dress-up act.’
Kelly’s face burned. She had to reach deep into her throat to find her voice, which was retreating so fast she dragged it out as a barely audible croak. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
Michael clenched his jaw, sat back in his chair and fixed her with a stare that tore her heart to shreds. Michael, who had always supported her, always encouraged her, even tried to protect her from herself, that Michael was now glaring at her as if she had broken his own heart with her betrayal.
He spoke quietly. ‘Is this how it’s going to go? You deny it. I can’t prove it.’
Kelly kept her mouth shut. Words could only make this hole darker and blacker and deeper than it already was.
Michael sighed. ‘All right. What about the South East doctor, Eli? Was he part of this?’
Kelly had prepared this answer. ‘I don’t know a South East doctor named Eli.’
‘That’s odd, given that he’s been in your study group for the past year and a half.’
Kelly’s mouth dried up and the ground fell out from beneath her. She gripped the chair to steady herself. Sweat ran freely down her back and from her armpits. The air was thick and congested.
Michael shook his head like a disappointed parent. ‘He’s an extremely promising doctor. We’d value him here for one of his trainee years.’
Kelly breathed again.
‘But you may just have ruined his career as well.’
Tears stung her eyes. She collapsed, almost throwing herself onto the desk, her arms reaching out desperately, as though she could catch Michael’s words and crush them between her hands. ‘No, please, Michael, please. He didn’t do anything wrong.’
‘As far as I can tell, he was entirely complicit. The question is why, Kelly? What influence do you have over him?’
Kelly swallowed hard and tried to force her welling eyes to dam up the tears before they overflowed.
‘Are you in a romantic relationship?’
Kelly sniffed loudly and gave the tiniest of nods.
Michael grunted his understanding. ‘Well, I can’t prove anything about either of you without evidence and I don’t have the time, resources or inclination, quite frankly, to bother finding it. Believe it or not, my job isn’t all about me, it’s about helping sick children. Something you’d do well to remember.’
Kelly stared at her hands. She couldn’t face him. The shame was worse than physical pain.
