“You’re a liar, and Emma can see right through you,” I bluffed. “She needs some time, and she’ll understand.”Insult his intelligence,I thought.He can’t stand to be put down.
He shot back, “She didn’t believe me, but she couldn’t deny the facts when I presented them to her. You were hung by your own hand, and you don’t even know it. Right now, I’m her knight in shining armor who saved her from her lying boyfriend.”
“I haven’t done anything I need to be ashamed of,” I answered honestly.
“That’s not the way it looks, now, is it?” He settled into his stance like a gunslinger getting ready to shoutdraw!
“You can’t manipulate a secured EMR,” I countered, “so unless you have become a computer hacker, which I doubt you are smart enough to do, I’ll let my work stand on its own.”
I saw Nick’s fist clench and had just enough time to flinch before it connected with my face and knocked me square on my back on the cement landing, blood flowing from my nose.Dang. I blinked several times as my eyes watered and my nose swelled.
Nick stood over me and hissed down. “I don’t have to be smarter than the computer, just smarter than the operator who doesn’t log out.” He stormed out of the stairwell to the CCU.
I rolled over and pushed to my hands and knees. Blood dripped to the floor. I pinched my nose to stop the bleeding as I tried to stand up.
I had gotten enough out of Nick—enough that I could make a claim to the hospital ethics committee. I always logged out of the computer. The only time I might have missed it was sprinting to a code blue—and I knew the exact time when that had last happened. Now all that was left was to look at the hospital security video. That should have all the proof I needed.
I headed up to the next floor to find a bathroom and get cleaned up. I couldn’t walk around bleeding all over the place and be taken seriously. I had to remain calm, even though the only thing I wanted to do was sprint to the security room and get the evidence. It seemed like the road to vindication stretched a hundred miles ahead of me.
I didn’t care if it was a thousand as long as Emma knew the truth at the end.
Chapter Thirty
Emma
Ifelt like a walking zombie. I could do things like walk, talk, take care of patients, etc., but when it came to feeling, I was beyond emotion.
Losing Alex sucked all the joy out of life. It was worse than the time I’d given up sugar for three weeks and worse than finding out Eric had cheated on me. And that was saying something. I’d thought I’d loved Eric, but after being with Alex—who showed his love for me so clearly and easily—I realized there was a huge difference between the two relationships. One was me pouring myself into it on a daily basis and slowly being bled dry. The other was me pouring myself into it and being filled up as Alex poured himself into loving me.
There was an excited energy the minute I walked into the hospital on Wednesday morning, but I barely registered it, I was so dead on the inside.Is this how Alex felt for all those years?I caught myself thinking.No wonder he’s ruled by logic.
Stop it!I had to mentally kick myself.He is the reason I am in this situation in the first place.
I vaguely remembered making my way to the TICU, where I put my things in my locker and went to the common area to prepare for report from the outgoing graveyard nurse.
Becca had left earlier that morning, as she had some errands to do on her way to work, and she was waiting for me at the conference table. She had a twinkle in her eye. She raised an eyebrow as she took in my appearance. “Rough morning?” she asked.
“You could say that,” was all I replied. Every morning had been rough since breaking up with Alex. I couldn’t wait to get back home, where I didn’t have reminders of him everywhere I turned.
She waited to see if I would add anything, but when I didn’t, she proceeded to say, “Have you heard the news?”
“I don’t really care about hospital gossip at this point, Becca. I’m leaving in two days.”
“Trust me, you’re interested in this.”
I let out a deep sigh and turned to face her. Better let her get it out, or she would never leave me alone.
“Dr. Rasmussen got fired this morning.” Becca almost giggled.
I really couldn’t care what happened to Dr. Rasmussen—good or bad. He’d done me a favor by showing me what Alex had done, but I still didn’t like him. It was like he’d taken pleasure in causing me pain when he’d pulled up the surgeon’s note. “And I should care why?”
“Because you’re the reason he’s gone.” She drummed her hands on the table and grinned.
“Me?” I said, startling to reality. “What do I have to do with anything?”
“Dr. Rasmussen got fired for tampering/falsifying patient records—specifically Dr. Alexander Mitchell’s records—and he is probably going to lose his state medical license.”
“What?” I said. My brain did not register what she had said. I needed to hear it all again. Falsifying Alex’s records?Therecord?
