Chapter 5

I left the hospital two days later. Ethan had insisted I use his private jet instead of the one the hospital had prepared for me. He also hired four bodyguards to protect me. I knew he was scared Matt might try to harm me.

As the jet landed, something stirred inside me. I was certain that Matt would spew nonsense and try to stop me from performing the surgery on his father the moment he saw me. If that happened, I wouldn’t mind flying back to New York tomorrow.

The senior doctor of Avila Hospital and Matt Anderson were already waiting for me at the airport. They were holding a cardboard sign with: WELCOME TO NEW YORK, DOCTOR MEADOW ENRIQUE, boldly written on it.

Matt had grown into a fine young man, though he was a spitting image of his father. He was broader now, more like a man than the crazy teen I remembered.

“Welcome, Doctor Meadow. It’s a great honor to have the great Doctor Meadow Enrique in New York—” Doctor Zane said as he shook my hand.

“The pleasure is mine, but no need for the formalities.”

“Alright, this is Mr. Anderson. His father is the one you will be operating on,” Doctor Zane said.

Matt stretched out his hand for a handshake but suddenly froze. “Meadow? You are Doctor Meadow Enrique?” he asked in disbelief, his hand still outstretched.

“Nice to meet you too, Mr. Anderson,” I said, shaking his hand briefly. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself.

“Do you know each other?” Doctor Zane asked curiously, looking at our faces.

“No!”

“Yes!”

“No,” I repeated. “I don’t know Mr. Anderson. This is my first time meeting him.”

“Alright. We have made all the arrangements for your stay. Let me take you to your accommodation,” Doctor Zane said, trying to carry my bag. Matt was still looking at me in shock.

“Doctor Zane, that won’t be necessary. My fiancé has already made all the arrangements. I will be staying in his house.”

“You have a fiancé?” Matt asked, frowning.

“Mr. Anderson, I don’t think you have any business with my personal life. And besides, I’m here to perform your father’s surgery, not to discuss my personal life,” I said, shooting Matt an angry look. I turned to Doctor Zane. “I will see you in the hospital tomorrow. I want every detail about the patient ready by then.”

Ethan’s parents walked into the airport, and his mom gave me a tight hug. “Welcome home, sweetheart. I prepared all your favorite dishes,” Mrs. Enrique said excitedly.

“Ah, ah. You mean we prepared her favorite dishes,” Mr. Enrique said smiling, as he gave me a hug too.

“Thank you, Mom and Dad.” I turned to Doctor Zane. “I will see you at the hospital tomorrow morning.” I ignored Matt, who was still staring at me.

At the Enrique mansion, Ethan’s parents hadn’t lied about cooking several dishes for me. They made sure I tasted every single one of them.

After dinner, I headed back to my room to prepare for tomorrow’s surgery. Doctor Zane said that the cancer was already spreading through Mr. Anderson’s brain cells, and he had been slipping in and out of a coma, so the surgery needed to happen as soon as possible.

I was already missing Ethan and my daughter. Though we had spoken before I went downstairs for dinner, I still felt like talking to them again. Just as I was about to pick up my phone and dial Ethan’s number, a call suddenly came in from an unknown number. I hesitated before answering.

“Hello, who is this?” I asked. But there was silence from the other end. “Hello, is anybody there?” I asked. Still silence.

I ended the call and kept the phone under my pillow. I said my night prayers and was about to go to bed when the phone rang again. I checked the screen, and it was the same unknown caller.

“Hello, who is this and why aren’t you saying anything?” I asked angrily.

“Meadow.”

I froze. Matt? How did he get my number, and why is he calling me this late at night? “Mr. Anderson, I made it clear in the contract that the patient’s family should not contact me. If they want any information, they should reach out to Doctor Zane.”

“Relax, Meadow. I’m not calling you about my dad. I just wanted to talk to you.”

What did he want to say to me after all these years? “Mr. Anderson, I don’t think we have anything to talk about.”

“Meadow, you can’t act like this isn’t strange! You disappeared seven years ago, only to reappear today as Doctor Meadow Enrique. What is going on? Are you really Doctor Meadow Enrique, or did you come back to New York for something else? Did you come with all this charade of being a doctor just to get my attention?”

How delusional can he be? “You seriously think I came back here just for you? Are you stupid or something?”

“Watch your mouth, Meadow, or else—”

“Or else what, Mr. Anderson?” I didn’t let him complete the sentence. “I think you have forgotten that you and your family were the ones who begged me to come back to New York and perform your dad’s surgery. In fact, you even paid double the amount I charged for the surgery. Is this explanation enough to satisfy you?”

He was breathing heavily on the phone now. “What about the baby? You were pregnant the day you ran away from New York.”

His question caught me off guard. I never expected him to ask that. “What baby are you talking about, Mr. Anderson? There was never a baby. I got my period that night—don’t you remember? So why are you asking me about a baby that never even existed in the first place?”

“Don’t call me again, or else I will abandon your father’s surgery and fly back to New York,” I said and ended the call before he could say another word.