“I want to make it clear, that I never had an affair with that woman,” Dr. LaRoche stated firmly, as I stood, preparing to leave after two hours of talking. “I was tempted …” he quickly looked to his wife, guilt-ridden, but then turned back to me, “… but I never did. However, Suzanne was relentless. The way she rallied the staff against me, waited outside of my home, even spying on our children while we were at their different sporting activities. She cornered me in my office more than once, threatening to tell Cheri we were having an affair. She’s sick. That was when I filed a report. I secretly taped her on my phone and took it to the police and to HR.”
“Thank you, Dr. and Mrs. LaRoche, for telling me all of this.” I shook hands with them, feeling both thankful and pissed as hell at Suzanne.
Dr. LaRoche hadn’t been the only doctor she pursued so aggressively either, according to him. There was a pattern of Suzanne going after prominent doctors at the hospital she worked at, and if they didn’t immediately fall into bed with her, they would coincidentally find themselves in trouble with the human resources department, or getting the cold shoulder from staff due to Suzanne spreading rumors.
The entire time I drove back to Williamsport I tried to figure out the best way to take Suzanne down. I just knew, intuitively, that she tried to do the same thing to Jacob. The only problem standing in the way of HR believing me were the eyewitness reports and the fact that Jacob still wasn’t talking about the incident.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jacob
“Let’s talk about work, Jacob.”
I snorted. “You mean the fact that I might not have a job or career to go back to?” My eyes immediately went to the cast on my right hand.
“No,” Dr. Kearns corrected. “I mean let’s finally talk about the incident that led to all of that happening in the first place.”
I popped up out of the couch and began pacing, my body tightening all over.
“Jacob, listen to me …”
I didn’t say anything, but my eyes crossed the room to Dr. Kearns.
“There is nothing in this room that can hurt you. What we’re discussing happened in the past. It’s not happeningnow. Do you hear what I’m saying?”
I pushed out a breath and replayed his words in my head before nodding.
“Let’s start with that day. Walk me through it.”
“I was in my office, waiting on a consult. A nurse who I knew had been flirting with me for weeks walked in. At first I thought it was Grace but it wasn’t. Anyway, she said something, and I told her to leave since whatever she’d said wasn’t about work. She didn’t leave, but instead became more insistent and then she reached– Next thing I remember is holding her by the neck against my file cabinet, and in walks the doctor and patient I was waiting on for a consult.”
“Let’s go back a moment. You said she reached … reached for what?”
I pinned him with my gaze, my jaw hardening as I clenched my teeth. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know, Jacob. Your arm? Your shoulder?”
“My cock! She grabbed me where I don’t let anyone touch me. Not even …”
“Not even …”
“Grace.”
“And that triggered you?”
I hated that fucking word.Triggered.But there was no other explanation for what happened.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t like being touched.”
“Why? I mean, aside from the fact that what Suzanne did was a clear violation and a sexual assault.”
I scowled. “Sexual assault? You make me sound like a fucking pansy.”
“You’re not but that’s what it was, Jacob. You instructed her to leave your office and she pushed back by grabbing you intimately, against your will.”
