Kinkade exchanged a glance with Heather Sanders, who hadn’t spoken up once during this meeting. Anna knew immediately that they had been anticipating a very different report from her, and she suspected they hadn’t expected Elaine to be quite so belligerent. Something was clearly afoot.
One glance at Elaine told Anna that she, too, was keenly aware of some kind of shenanigans from Kinkade. As she watched him leave the room with mousy Heather, her blue eyes were narrowed, and glittered ominously. When the door closed behind the Dastardly Duo, she looked directly at Anna. “Yes, they’re planning something. Markus has been making budget noises more and more loudly lately. Getting rid of a surgeon of Victoria’s stature would be quite a feather in his miserly little cap.”
Anna frowned. “She hasn’t done anything dismissible. Yet.”
“Yet,” Elaine echoed. “But only just. He’s right about her walkouts being a problem. So, it’s up to us to make sure she gets her head on straight.” She held up a hand. “But you cannot tell her about any of this. I can’t imagine it would do anything besides undermine her progress.”
“At this moment, that’s true. You would be doing her a disservice not to eventually tell her, though,” Anna warned.
“I understand that, Anna.” The words were firm, but Elaine was smiling gently. “Eventually. For now, I will do my part to get her back into your office and cooperating.”
Steve was looking between them, apprehension on his face. “You do have a plan, right, Dr. Monroe?” Anxiety threaded his voice. “I can’t afford to lose a surgeon of Dr. Ellis’ caliber. Even when she’s perhaps… emotionally compromised, let’s say, she is focused and precise. Once Elaine retires…”
“Not too speedy on that one just yet, Steve,” Elaine chortled.
“Of course not, Elaine. But it is coming, and we know Dr. Proctor will be your successor. She needs a solid team alongside her and we’ve always seen Dr. Ellis as her right-hand woman. What do we do if Markus finds a way to send her packing?”
“He won’t.” Anna was firm on this. “I believe Dr. Ellis can get well. I just need time and space to make more inroads with her, get her on a path to addressing her root issues and confronting them. She’s not an easy one to guide.”
“She is not.” Elaine nodded. “I’ll work on her. She will come back to your office this week. I’ll give you a couple of days to work on a game plan before I send her back in.”
“Great.” Anna shook both of their hands. “I’ve got to get back to my office, I do have more patients to see this morning.”
“Of course, go, go, go.” Elaine waved her off. “Thank you for your time today.”
Anna walked briskly back to her office, her mind racing. She hadn’t realized there was so much at stake, and sosoon. It wasn’t fair to Victoria, who was already feeling as though her back was up against the wall. Now she would be put under a microscope, and wouldn’t even know it.
Nor was any of this fair to Anna, if she were being honest with herself. What would happen if she didn’t produce the results Elaine wanted… or what if she did? Would Markus Kinkade then start making noises aboutherto the director of Staff Wellness? He seemed to be rather cozy with Mousy Heather from Human Resources, what could that mean for any of them?
“I’m inviting trouble,” she said aloud, but softly, as she unlocked the door to her office. “First things first.”
She needed to make a game plan.
7
VICTORIA
Her eyelids felt like concrete walls as she dragged them open at 6 AM.
At least I got a few hours of sleep, I suppose.Victoria pushed herself to sit upright in her bed and tried to rub the grit out of her tired eyes.That’s actually an improvement.
The nightmares that haunted her—conflated replays of Hilary’s and Daniel’s last moments, blended together into a horrific mélange of guilt, failure, and helplessness—had given her a minor break last night for the first time in months. Probably helped by the fact that she’d gone to the gym near her condo and attended back-to-back classes in hot yoga and some insane that involved step aerobics and weightlifting. By the time she’d dragged herself through the gym shower and made it home, she was collapsing into bed.
As a physician, she knew she couldn’t do that every night. As a human being who desperately needed sleep, she was incredibly tempted to try.
Victoria hauled herself out of bed and headed for her bathroom. As she faced the mirror over the sink while washing her face, she nearly shrieked at the sight of her hair, a veritablebird’s nest atop her head. She had made a grave mistake going to bed without combing it out and drying it. And she had no energy at all to get into her shower and wash it again.That is a later problem,she decided. For now, she did her best to brush the blonde waves smooth and tie it back into her signature low bun. It was… not her best work. But it would have to do.
Moving slowly, Victoria tied herself into a simple black and blue vintage Diane von Fürstenberg wrap dress and slid a pair of sheer black tights up her legs. She could already feel the aches and pains from last night’s overwork setting in, so she chose her lowest-heeled pair of boots. She knew this outfit filed off some of her sharp edges, but she needed comfort, and she still looked good.
It had always been important to Victoria to be as polished and put-together as possible when going into work every day, even if she was going to have to change into scrubs and trainers for most of it. As long as she was still making an effort, she had nothing to worry about. She would worry when she succumbed to the urge to go to Oakridge in blue jeans and a t-shirt.
As she was putting together her flask of tea, she remembered she had a session with Anna Monroe and grimaced. It had taken a lot for Elaine to convince her to go back after that confrontation in the corridor. How the hell had Anna Monroe learned about Hilary? What had Victoria said in that last session? She wanted, no,neededto know, and yet she also needed desperately to put the horrible genie specter of Hilary firmly back into the memory box it had been residing in for six months. Seeing Anna surely wouldn’t help that, Anna wanted too much to dig deep where she didn’t belong.
But Elaine had been even more insistent, more firm than ever that Victoriamustcontinue to see Anna. Regularly. And that she must start cooperating in these detestable sessions. “This is for your own good, Dr. Ellis,” she’d said, words thatVictoria associated with a childhood of cod liver oil and ice baths from her mother’s homeopathic phase. She had shuddered as though she had just swallowed a spoonful of the fishy oil, but the glint in Elaine’s eyes stopped her from further complaint.
Something was afoot. She didn’t like knowing what was going on. But she would cooperate. Frankly, she was too tired not to at this point.
And… she found that suddenly, she actually missed trying to verbally spar with Anna, to get a rise out of her. She missed the woman’s regrettable dress sense, her irritating yet endearing efforts to connect, even the way she tried much too hard, as if she actually gave a single fig about Victoria.
