The Royal Contract

Chapter 1331: Unjustly judged

"Oh, M, G!"

"Oh, M, G!"

"Oh, M, G!"

Her hands were clammy and shaking. Her breathing was shallow. Her entire world seemed to be turning upside down. She was a total wreck.

"Holy crap!"

She fanned her face with her hands while pacing the small on-call room while hyperventilating. Her heart was beating too fast that it was hard for her to breathe.

"That was him..." She thought, recognizing those mesmerizing eyes and highly distinctive features that made him stand out in her mind for some reason.

She was not expecting to see the man that had been the main star of her dreams and, at the same time, her nightmares for a time.

She thought she had finally forgotten all about him after all she had gone through. But here he was. He suddenly appeared out of the blue, showing up at her work.

"Damn!" Now that he had found her. She wondered if she was still safe, remembering what she partially heard in his private conversation.

She could not help but get anxious, fearing for her life. Somehow, his showing up and sporting a bullet wound did not help her situation.

It only meant that her earlier assumption that he was involved in something dangerous was substantial, and her fear was legitimate, not just her imagination.

"Roseann?" Her friend's voice floated outside the door. Then, a series of knocks alerted her that her friend was getting impatient when she did not answer immediately. "I know you are in there."

"I..." She started but felt a lump in her throat. "Hmm!" Clearing her throat. "Give me a minute." She finally said after taking a few more deep breaths.

"Is there something wrong?" Her friend was suddenly concerned as she stayed outside, waiting by the door. "What are you doing in there? Are you with someone?"

It was common for couples or two hospital staff members to lock themselves in the on-call room to hook up. Therefore, she could not blame her friend for jumping to that conclusion.

"No," Roseann shouted, "No!" and whispered as she opened the door to shut her friend up. "Bernadeth, what do you want?"

She grabbed her friend by her arm and dragged her inside the room, looking at the surrounding before closing the door shut.

"What is going on here?" Her friend asked. "We have been paging you, but you are not responding." She continued, slightly confused.

Then, her face changed, looking worried, probably from seeing her agitated state. "Are you ok?"

Her friend placed her hands on her shoulders, staring directly into her eyes as if trying to read her thoughts. But she doubted her friend would understand what she was going through.

"No." Roseann finally admitted, tired of keeping this secret from her friend. Usually, she told everything about her to her friend, even her deepest secrets.

But she kept this incident with this man to herself, believing that if she did not think or talk about him, eventually, she would forget all about him.

This unknown man would fade away as a distant memory. But she was wrong. Now, he knew his name. But worse of all, he also knew hers.

"Did you kill someone?" She immediately asked, assuming it involved a patient dying under her watch.

It was typical for doctors to become emotional when a patient died under their care. But that was not her case today. She doubted her current patient would die with a flesh wound.

Not that she wanted him to. Despite her fear for her life, she still vowed to save all her patients regardless of who they were and what they did in their own time.

"Not yet." She quickly responded with a sigh. "But I am afraid for mine." She finally disclosed to her friend what happened that night. At least, telling her a short and fast version since she realized their pagers had beeped twice.

"What are you going to do?" Her friend asked, appearing very concerned. "Should you tell the police?"

She could not even consider the police since she hardly had anything to substantiate her claim. She would just look like a fool if she reported the incident.

"Maybe I should pretend I don't remember anything about that night. Then, he would just let it go." But she knew that ship had sailed when she first saw him. He knew she recognized him.

But still, that was the only option she could think of, considering he was her patient. She still had to treat him for his injuries.

And at that moment, she was being paged again, probably because his results had returned, leaving her no choice but to return to her duties.

"I don't know about that," Bernadeth said, seemingly unsure about her plan. "What is the name of this guy again?" She asked before they walked out of the room.

Of course, she now knew his name. It was in his chart when she checked his condition. But if she had known it was him, she would have passed it to someone else and excused herself from his case.

"His name is Mike Carter." Truthfully, it sounded great in her head. She always wondered what his name was. But she never bothered to find out after that incident.

She just wanted to forget all about him, even if she had been dreaming of him for some time until it stopped. She thought that was the end of her encounter with the man.

"Wait..." Her friend sounded surprised as if she had heard that name before. "Mike Carter... as in the hot lawyer." Her friend mumbled dreamily.

She had no idea what her friend was talking about. Although, she would agree that she initially found him attractive. But she was not anticipating that her friend would know him.

"Who is Mike Carter again?" She turned to her friend in a whisper, stopping her before they could even step outside the door.

"If we are talking about the same Mike, he is the lawyer who won the case against that doctor. You know, the one with the malpractice lawsuit." Bernadeth started mumbling about a controversial issue the hospital staff had discussed for weeks. But she was busy with her troubles to deal with someone else's problems.

"I have been telling you about that case. Now, I know that you were not listening." Her friend said as she looked again at her pager.

She remembered her friend mentioning something about it. But guiltily, she was right. She hardly took notice of half of what she was saying.

She also vaguely remembered her talking about a man, but she did not know that man was him. She hardly had time to check the news or the internet with her busy schedule and personal problems.

"Anyway, I had to go. I will see you again later." She began running. "We will talk about this more later." She shouted before disappearing into the corner.

She could only wave at her friend as she turned to another corner, rushing to her station. She could already foresee that she would have an earful from her attendee for disappearing and failing to respond to her pages.

As expected, her attendee had many to say about her irresponsibility. But how could she explain her situation?

Therefore, she had no choice but to accept that it was her fault and take the punishment she would give her.

Nevertheless, that was the least of her worries as she held in her hands the result of the tests of her patient. She steadily returned to his cubicle, hoping the past would not arise in their conversation.

She took a large gulp of air before entering the curtained room, finding the man twiddling with his phone as he waited.

"Mr. Carter. Sorry for making you wait long." She began, avoiding looking at him as she pretended to check on his results.

She knew she should look her patient in the eye and establish trust by telling him the truth about his health condition. But she could not be impartial about her patient, knowing what she knew about him.

It was hard to treat him like he was just any other patient when she could remember who he was. The worse part, he was not a stranger anymore.

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"I am sure we can let go of the formality. Just call me Mike." He smiled, putting on his full charm.

She remembered too well how he had caught her attention that night. She might have her drink, but she recognized him as if he had implanted himself in her brain.

"And I hope you don't mind if I call you Roseann." He added, making her worse nightmare come alive.

He must have asked about her name from the other staff because she remembered not giving it to him intentionally.

She hoped he would find her uninteresting and forget all about her. But it seemed that was not happening as he looked at her intensely as if studying her.

It seemed her luck had run out today as she found herself in the last situation she wanted to be. But she was not giving up because she was not putting herself in harm's way.

"You know what..." She had enough. "You are my patient and nothing more. So, I will call you Mr. Carter, and you can call me Dr. Sheldon."

She would not let him intimidate and scare her anymore. Besides, he was a reputable lawyer. Maybe she was wrong about him.

Maybe she heard it wrong, and she had unjustly judged him unfairly.