Chapter 4

[Dr. Callahan, please talk to your mother. She needs to stop giving the nurses on duty a hard time. Our department already has a lot of patients, most of them elderly. The staff cannot devote all their attention to your mother alone. You are a doctor yourself. Please try to be understanding.]

I froze. No one at home had mentioned that my mother was in the hospital. Besides, my mother was easygoing. She was not the type to give nurses a hard time.

Confused, I called home.

"Mom, are you in the hospital?"

"What nonsense is that?" My mother's voice came through loud and clear. "I'm diving in the Crayman Islands."

I hung up and messaged the head nurse back.

[Head Nurse, my mother isn't hospitalized. Is there some kind of mistake?]

[Dr. Callahan, your husband personally brought her in. We've seen him bring you meals several times before, so there's no mistaking him.]

After that message, she sent me a short video.

An old woman with permed curls stood there, jabbing a finger in a nurse's face as she shouted, "My son-in-law is the CEO of the Tavernier Group. If you don't take proper care of me, I'll have him buy this hospital and turn it into a public toilet!

"Aren't nurses basically just servants? That's what you're here for. What's the harm in washing my underwear?

"My son-in-law already paid for everything. This is a VIP room. You people have to serve me. Whatever I tell you to do, you do it."

I zoomed in on the video.

The bitter face on the screen belonged to a woman I had never seen before.

The whole thing left me equal parts anxious and confused. I did not wait for the rest of the conference. The moment it ended, I flew home.

…

As soon as the plane landed, I went straight to the hospital.

The old woman was still in the VIP room, cracking sunflower seeds and tossing the shells all over the floor.

I stepped between her and the furious head nurse. "Ma'am, what exactly is your relationship with Mason Tavernier, the Tavernier Group's CEO?"

"He's my son-in-law." The old woman spat out a shell. "My daughter is..."

I held up my marriage certificate. "What a coincidence. My husband is also named Mason, and he's also the Tavernier Group's CEO. Funny, I didn't realize my husband had picked up another mother-in-law. Or that I'd picked up a second mother."

The room fell dead silent.

The sunflower seeds slipped from the old woman's hands and scattered across the floor. "Y-You're Nicole..."

"So you do know who I am." I picked up the nameplate at the head of her bed. "Ms. Jade Taylor. What's your daughter's name?"

She snatched up the call button and hurled it at me. "None of your business! My daughter is worth ten of you!"

I sidestepped it and nodded to the head nurse. "Call the police. Tell them someone is fraudulently using the hospital's medical resources."

The police arrived quickly.

While Jade was still thrashing on the floor, her daughter burst into the room in a white dress with a silk gauze scarf around her neck. It was the same scarf I had lost last year.

It was Cecelia.

"Dr. Callahan?" Her face went pale. "W-Weren't you abroad? When did you get back?"

I grinned. "Thanks to you and your mother, I just got back."

Mason really had done a fine job, hadn't he? He had gone on and on about sending Cecelia off to a branch office. It turned out she had been right here all along, waiting for me.

My phone rang right on cue.

A voice message from Mason came through. "Nicky, send me your flight number. I'll come pick you up..."

I hit Record. "No need to pick me up. Come straight to our hospital, VIP Room 3. Thank you so much for the surprise you arranged for me."

A distinct pause followed on the other end before he called. "Nicky, you already know?"