“So, you don’t find me good-looking? Maybe I was mistaken, and you weren’t checking me out yesterday.”
“I’m your doctor, Mister Moor, nothing else. Please report me to the administrators if you feel I was doing something inappropriate or uncomfortable. Maybe they’ll do me the favor of throwing me out on my ass. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other things to do.”
With that, Des walked out of the patient's room with a commanding air, but inside, he was so angry he could spit fire if he were a dragon.How dare that asshole say I was checking him out?But you were, came an annoying voice in the back of his head that he instantly shut off with a mentalfuck off. Still, Des didn’t like being called out on his shit.What a cocky bastard. Dammit, and why do I find it so sexy?
Pushing the encounter out of his mind, he went and got something to eat and finished out his day since he had to go home and get ready for his parents' dinner party. Des hated that he was far too loyal and honest with his parents, yet he wasn’t honest with his feelings about his career.
One day. I’ll tell them one day.
Othello chuckledas he watched the doctor hurry out of his room with his back straight, trying to pretend he wasn’t affected by Othello’s words. He hadn’t meant to upset the doctor, but truthfully, he was bored out of his skull. He’d contacted Tallen and told him to bring some paperwork to him to look over. But Tallen told him Don Alessandro ordered that if anyone brought work to Othello, he would chop their legs off. Tallen was loyal to Othello but was loyal and afraid of Alessandro more than anything else. So, until then, Othello would have to find something or someone to occupy his time. And it seemed the little doctor was the right distraction.
Des stoodon the balcony of his parents' home, enjoying the cool breeze. He’d only been there for thirty minutes and had not spoken with his parents. He’d seen them, but they were too busy chatting and laughing with their friends. Des was giving it another fifteen minutes before he made his escape.
“So this is where you’re hiding,” came a familiar voice behind him.
“I’m not hiding, Mother, just taking a breather.” Des spun around and greeted her respectfully. They were not the touchy-feely type of people. He couldn’t recall the last time she or his father had given him a hug. Maybe it was when he was in junior high school. He’d tried giving her a hug, and she rebuffed him. Ava Ellington didn’t look a day over forty, and not a strandof hair was out of place, pulled back in a tight bun. She wore a designer hunter-green sequined strapless midi-length dress contoured to her thin frame.
“This is an important night for your father. Why did you wear jeans to the party?” she huffed, wrinkling her brows. “You could have at least worn a jacket. It won’t look good with you standing next to your father when he announces his senate bid.”
“Mother, I came straight from work,” he lied. He’d actually gone home, with enough time to shower, and got dressed in a dark blue suit and black shirt, no tie, and just as he was about to walk out the door, he decided to change and went with jeans and a black V-neck pullover sweater. “You wanted me here, so here I am.”
“Have you eaten?”
“Is that concern I hear coming from you?” he said, a bit taken aback.
“Why wouldn’t I be concerned? You’re my son.”
“Mother...”
“When will you call me Mom?”
“What the hell is going on with you?” Des snapped. “I can’t figure you out right now. You’ve never been concerned about anything pertaining to me. The only thing you and your father were concerned about was whether I got A’s in school or came first. If it weren’t for Nanny Cee, I wouldn’t know what it felt like to be hugged by a mother figure...”
“Desmond, where is this coming from?” his mother said, sounding very surprised by his ranting.
Truthfully, he was as well. He hadn’t meant for all that to come out, but in for a penny, in for a pound, as the saying went.
“You knew I never wanted to be a doctor. I only did because you and Dad forced me, and now you want me to stand here like a supportive son while he announces that he wants to run for senate when you both have never given me emotional support a day in my life. We are not a perfect family, Mother. What happened to ‘we must carry on the family business?’”
“That is why we had you, Son,” Ava said, smiling. “So you can take over where we left off.”
Des chuckled, but it wasn’t because he was happy. “So you two get to live out your dreams while I’m stuck doing something I hate?”
“Lower your tone,” she said, looking around as if expecting others to pay attention to their conversation. “And what’s wrong with saving people's lives? Art is a hobby, Desmond, not a steady career.”
“There’s nothing wrong with saving lives, but one has to have their heart and soul in it to feel that it is worthwhile to sacrifice everything for what they love.”
“Have we been that terrible to you, Desmond?”
“Not in the way you might be thinking, but it’s obvious you and Father don’t believe in my dream, yet I’m supposed to smile and support you both while you accomplish yours. I can’t do that or carry on with a mentally and physically draining career. So why don’t you give me my inheritance, and let’s cut ties with each other? Better yet, go and have the child you really want.”
Ava gasped and clutched her diamond-encrusted necklace, staring at Des as if he’d said the world was ending. Seeing they had nothing else to say to each other, Des walked away, leaving his mother standing in the same spot, but if he was being completely honest with himself, he felt ten years lighter.
Over the next few weeks,Des thought long and hard about what he wanted to do with his life. Now that he’d told his mother he never wanted to be a doctor, he thought of changing careers but would not immediately quit. He needed to speak with his grandfather's attorney to see his options. After his grandfather died, he’d only stayed at the will reading long enough to hear his grandfather’s stipulations; if there was more to the will, Des didn’t know what was said. He was too angry with his grandfather for siding with his parents. Growing up, his grandfather Sebastian had encouraged Des's love of art and told him never to give up on his dreams. So he felt it was a stab in the heart hearing the words he wrote.
When he was ready to read the will, his parents were completely against it. He'd contacted the lawyer who had read the will and found out he no longer worked for the firm his grandfather used. It seemed he'd quit a couple of days after the will reading. Des wouldn't deny that he’d grown suspicious of the whole thing. The new attorney who took over handling his grandfather's case was very close to his father, and Des didn't think he could trust the man to act in his best interest.
It may be time for me to get my own lawyer. Fuck, I should have done that a long time ago.
