Carter. He didn’t even say anything, but there is no one else it could have been.
“Carter did a nice job.” I swirl a finger in the air, indicating his face.
“It was a sucker punch.”
“Only one?”
“He got me twice. Happy now?”
Maybe a little.
The idea of Carter throwing punches in my honor does strange things to me. When I jested I was worried about his hand if he hit Tony, I wasn’t fully serious. I never expected Carter would actually throw a punch, let alone two.
Is that why he had me perform the surgery this morning and not him? No. He used the robot, showing me a technique on how to hold and manipulate it to get a better angle.
Tony rises out of his chair, crossing the room to attempt and take my hand, but I fold them across my body to stop the contact. I don’t want him to touch me. All I can think about is that woman. All I can see is that woman. All I hear are her words when she described the things my fiancé did to her. It makes the bile in my empty stomach churn, enthusiastically trying to climb up the back of my throat.
Tony frowns, dropping his head into his hands and running them through his sandy brown hair as he lets out an uneven breath. “I can’t stand this, Grace. I can’t. I miss you like crazy. I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t think about anything other than getting you back. Getting our life back.”
Tears threaten in the back of my eyes, my nose burning as I do everything I can to hold them in. I believe him for no other reason than I can see it. He does look like crap, bruised face aside. But is he sincere? A man who I know lies to me? Does it even matter if he is?
Then something occurs to me.
“Let me see your phone,” I demand.
His eyebrows hit his hairline. “My phone?”
I nod my head. “Yes. Your phone.” I hold my hand out expectantly.
He blanches and I know I’m onto something here. “What do you need with my phone? I’m trying to talk to you about us and you’re trying to make a call?”
He knows I’m not trying to make a call. He’s stalling.
“Just have dinner with me tonight,” he continues. “Talk to me.”
I shake my head. “Let. Me. See. Your. Phone.”
“Why? There’s nothing on there,” he states firmly, but there is an undercurrent of panic too.
“If there is nothing on there, then you can let me see it.”
He blows out a hot breath and then reaches into his pocket and retrieves his phone, handing it to me with so much reluctance my heart turns to stone. Why am I doing this? I don’t want to see what they wrote to each other. But at the same time, I need to.
I unlock his phone and immediately go to his call log. Nothing from an unknown number or with a name I don’t know.
“See,” he says, trying to make a swipe for his phone. “Nothing.”
I tug it away from his grasp and go to his texts. And sure enough, there are two names there that I do not recognize. Daisy and Bella. I close my eyes briefly and shake my head. Bastard. When I open them again, Tony is pacing around in a circle, his hands on his hips as he breathes heavily like he’s been running sprints.
I open up the text messages from Daisy first and see a lot from her. And not a lot from him. They started yesterday, talking about the good time they had the night before. She’s clearly the girl I heard in the café. A couple quick things about how much fun she had and wanting to get together. He says he can’t and that he’s busy.
Then I go to the other one. Her texts started three weeks ago and as I scroll through…
“You sexted with her?”
“No. That’s not… I felt bad. I slept with her one time.” His eyes beseech mine. “I swear, only once, and then she started texting me dirty stuff and I didn’t know how to say no. I never planned on getting in touch and when she started messaging me, I kept telling her I was busy. I assumed she’d take the hint. She hasn’t.”
“But you texted them back. Both of them. You gave them your phone number to begin with. Them. As in multiple women and these are just the ones I’m seeing. You lied. You said it was one time. You said you told her it was a mistake. You told me she meant nothing. All of it lies.”
He continues to pace. “I liked their attention. Not them. I love you. I never see you, Grace. You’re this brilliant doctor. A woman who doesn’t need me. These women did. They wanted me and I…”
“You cheated. I know.” I can’t stand the sight of him. “You need to leave. I’m at work and I can’t be around you right now.”
“Please, Grace. Just have dinner with me. Talk to me. We’ll get counseling. You can’t just throw away three years of a relationship. We’re engaged. We’ll go away on a trip together. Whatever it takes, we can fix this.”
“The time to try and fix this was before you stuck your dick in another woman. I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done. I can’t. You can try and blame this on me, but I never cheated. We had problems, sure. We work long hours, both of us. But my legs stayed closed. I would have never betrayed you, but you betrayed me. You lied and betrayed me several times over. Now we’re done.”
With that, I leave him behind, heading out to find my next patient. Ready to tackle the rest of my day. A mistake. Being with him, trusting him, hoping things would change and settle down. All of it a mistake.
I should be shattered, but I’m not.
I’m sad, yet oddly relieved. I feel like I just escaped a death sentence. What would have happened to me if I had blindly married him? If I had never discovered his infidelity?
I shudder at that.
And even though I just said goodbye to my fiancé for good, all I can think about is how he looked. Carter punched the hell out of him. Something that seems so very un-Carter like to do. But maybe I’m wrong thinking that. Maybe there’s so much more to Carter Fritz than I ever knew existed.
Whatever.
One thing I’m certain of, my old life is over and my new one starts now. I have no other choice but to hope my days of making mistakes are over.
9
For the first time since I bought the place from Oliver last month, I don’t want to come home. I stayed at the hospital for an extra two hours after my shift, catching up on paperwork that didn’t truly need catching up on. There weren’t any patients for me to jump in on. Any surgeries to get lost in.
Tony sending Grace roses was all over the floor.
Him showing up was too.
All the nurses were talking about it. Janet Johnson was snarling to me non-stop both in text and in person about how inappropriate it is that she allowed that to happen—even going so far as to demand her immediate suspension since Grace knows flowers aren’t allowed in the PACU. And when everyone realized Grace was no longer wearing her engagement ring, the rumors started spreading like wildfire.
Welcome to working in a hospital.
People need something to cover up all the sickness and death, the long, grueling, thankless hours and they use the drama of other’s lives. A few even asked me about her situation, though I didn’t say anything either way.
No one knows she’s living with me now. If they did, well, it could cause problems.