Page 55 of The Doctor's Twins

Nice one, Ben. How will it look if you cause an accident? You’re a doctor, not Magnum P.I. Be careful, you fool.

Peyton suddenly sped up. I was struggling to keep up with her. What the hell was she doing? She was driving so recklessly; I decided to try and pull up next to her so I could tell her to slow down.

But the closer I came to her, the faster she drove. Was she trying to lose me? What the hell was Peyton doing?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a woman with a shopping trolley, trying to cross the road. Peyton wasn’t planning on stopping. She clearly hadn’t spotted the woman. I pressed down hard on my car horn in the hopes that she would look my way.

That’s when it all went horribly wrong. Peyton saw the woman with the trolley at the last second, slammed on the brakes, and veered off the road, straight into a tree.

“Peyton!” I screamed as I saw her car coming to a sudden stop.

“Oh, fuck!” I yelled and pulled off the road.

I ran to her car as quickly as I could, while dialing 911 on my cell phone.

I flung open the car door and checked her vitals. Peyton was out cold. She had a gash on her forehead, and it looked to me as if she’d broken her arm. I prayed that she hadn’t sustained internal injuries.

The ambulance arrived within ten minutes of my call. I explained to the paramedics what had happened and that I was a doctor, so they allowed me to ride with her in the back of the ambulance to the hospital.

I felt sick. What the fuck had I done? Why couldn’t I have left well enough alone?

* * *

“Dr. Forbes, I’m Dr. Evans.”

Dr. Evans was on call when we arrived at the ER. He was an orthopedic surgeon.

“Hi, Dr. Evans. Would you mind if I scrubbed in?”

“Not at all. Dr. Taylor has a fractured radius and a cracked ulna.”

“No internal injuries?”

“Nothing showed up on the scan.”

I followed him to the sink where we washed up before we entered the operating theater. I felt sick. I was sure I was as white as a sheet.

Dr. Evans had decided to operate on Peyton’s arm as she would need it to be in tip-top shape for her job as a future surgeon. I appreciated his care and attention to detail. Once the operation was over, I stayed with her while she was in recovery.

I had no idea what I was going to tell her when she woke up. Nothing I could conjure up would be an excuse for my juvenile behavior. All I could do was hope that I hadn’t blown it. Here she was, trying her best to move on from an abusive relationship, and what does her new boyfriend do? He scares her into an accident.

“What a fucking mess I’ve made of it,” I mumbled under my breath while I stroked Peyton’s lustrous hair. The gash in her forehead was neatly stitched and covered with a plaster. Dr. Evans had inserted a pin into her forearm to support the bone. He was sure that the injury would heal perfectly. I was grateful for that at least.

I watched as Peyton started to wake up. She was groggy when she opened her eyes. She looked confused for a moment as if she wasn’t sure where she was or what had happened. She tried to sit up.

“Shhh…slowly. Don’t get up,” I urged her gently.

“Wha…Ben? Where am I? What happened?”

“You’ve been in an accident. You’re in the recovery room.”

“What?”

“It’s okay. I’m here. You broke your arm, but other than that, you’re going to be fine. You have no idea how lucky you are, Peyton.”

She stared at me for a few moments before the light returned to her eyes.

“Wait. I remember now. Someone was following me. I crashed my car. How do you know? Did someone call you?”

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