Page 69 of Doctor Bossy

Why the gynecologist hadn’t let me know before, I couldn’t tell. But all I remembered was waking up the next morning with a red-eyed but relieved-looking Griffin by my side.

And then I’d held my baby girl in my arms, and it was all worth it. She was so precious, even with her squalling red little face, that even Griffin, who had driven the nurses crazy throughout the whole harried mess, declared, “She’s so beautiful.”

He’d held her then, and the love was clear in his eyes. I knew I’d made the right choice in trusting him.

At first, I hadn’t been so sure. Even after he saved me from that thug, I doubted his feelings for me for the longest time, believing that they could just simply be his guilt from everything that happened or feeling responsible for the child I was carrying.

But he showed me.

That day, he told me what he did, stepping down as the Head of Research at Hope and leaving Leila in charge. I tried to convince him not to, but he smiled, saying it was already a done deal.

“And you never should have taken the fall for it in the first place,” he admonished gently, holding me in his arms while we waited for the ambulance to arrive. He’d already tied up the unconscious assailant in preparation for the police.

“I didn’t want you to get in trouble,” I said, and he shook his head at me before pulling me closer. We were silent for the time being as we held each other. I guess everything that just happened was now sinking in.

It was upon the police’s arrival that we discovered who sent the thug.

It was my mother.

That’s right. My mother had been upset that I was ignoring her calls and didn’t want to help her out, so she sent one of her criminal friends to intimidate me, first by messing up my apartment, then by beating me up once I still wasn’t answering any of her calls—all in a bid to get me to move back in with her and…well, I wasn’t entirely sure what the end goal was but what I did know was that my mother had officially lost her mind.

And rather than devastate me, the knowledge that she orchestrated the entire attack freed me from any guilt I felt in abandoning her. Now I could cut off ties, knowing how crazy and dangerous she clearly was for my life. I didn’t even really follow the ensuing police case apart from telling the police my side of the story. I knew they took her into custody, but I didn’t bother testifying, not wanting to give it any more of my energy.

Griffin, on the other hand, hired the best lawyers to tackle it, going after her with a fury reserved for only a few people.

“Fuck that,” he had said when I told him that we should maybe drop the case. “She hurt you. There’s no damn way I’m letting her get away with that.”

And that was that.

He showed his love for me in other ways too. He’d whooped his support, swinging me around and calling me his little genius when I finally found the protein that added the genetic component to Terk’s. That night, he’d taken me out and proposed to me at a candlelit dinner, where Kayley and some of my closest friends popped out of nowhere, clapping at the scene. He’d apparently planned it for weeks and agonized over every single detail, double-checking with Kayley that it was how I wanted it.

I cried. And then I said yes.

He also encouraged me to pursue my Ph.D. when I expressed interest, saying, “You’re definitely smart enough to do that and more.” His care was also there in how gentle he was with me throughout the pregnancy and how he never mentioned James. I knew his estrangement from his son hurt him, but he didn’t say anything about it, and whenever I brought it up, he would change the topic. Still, it had forced me to finally reach out to James via text, telling him to cut his childish bullshit and call his father. Of course, James tried to use the situation to guilt me into leaving his father, but I told him that wasn’t happening and that I would not let him make Griffin feel bad in any way if he chose to come back. While I did want them to resume their relationship, I threatened James that I would physically injure him if he ever hurt his father again.

I didn’t know for sure if Griffin would appreciate the move, but if Griffin was going to protect me, I was going to try my damned best to protect him too.

And that was one of the reasons why I suggested coming with him today to Heather’s gravesite.

I saw the expression on his face the first time I suggested it, his eyebrows flying high into his hairline.

“Are you sure about that?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. I knew he made a concerted effort not to mention Heather after we began our relationship, and he even offered to clean out the room downstairs if it made me uncomfortable, moving everything to the basement. I turned down the offer, of course. I didn’t want him to feel like he needed to hide that part of himself from me. Heather was his first love, and while I understood that he loved me now, I wasn’t so insecure that I couldn’t handle the fact that he’d loved someone before. After all, I’d dated his son before, too, if it came down to it.

So I wanted to give myself a good picture of their relationship, and I asked questions about it whenever I could, letting him know he could tell me about all the good times they had together. He did, and I got the impression of a warm, quirky woman. I had no doubt we would have gotten along if I had the chance to know her.

Which brought me to today.

We eventually reached a clearing with grey slabs on it resembling a cemetery and got out of the car.

“Why on earth did you pick here?” I asked as Griffin non-verbally demanded I hand Avery over to him. I did, rolling my eyes.

“She picked it, actually,” he said, and then when I glanced at him, he added, “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later.”

We made our way through the slabs until we reached a colorful one at the back. I knew even before we approached it.

“Heather’s?” I asked, pointing.

---