Chapter 3: The Rival

Callie's POV

"I am sorry Ms. Dawson. Lily's appointment has been cancelled."

The receptionist said it without looking up from her screen. Her fingers kept moving across her keyboard like this was just another line in a long day of lines.

"Cancelled by who?"

"It says here the cancellation was requested this morning." She squinted at the screen. "On behalf of the Ashford family."

I stood at that desk for a moment without moving.

Lily was beside me holding Mr. Rabbit by one ear and studying a poster on the wall about handwashing. She had been so quiet in the car this morning. She had put on her yellow dress without being asked because she said she wanted to look nice for the doctors. She had eaten all her breakfast. She had not complained once.

"Can you reschedule?" I asked.

"The next available slot with Dr. Anderson is in three weeks."

Three weeks.

Lily had six.

"I need to speak to someone in charge," I said. "Right now please."

---

It took forty minutes and three different members of staff before a senior nurse pulled me into a small side office and spoke to me in the careful tone of someone choosing their words around a situation they did not fully understand.

"A call came in early this morning," she said quietly. "The person identified themselves as calling on behalf of Mr. Derek Ashford. They said the family had decided to explore treatment options elsewhere and requested the appointment be removed from the schedule."

"Mr. Ashford did not make that call."

She looked at me carefully. "Is there someone else who would have authority to—"

"No," I said. "There is no one else."

She folded her hands on the desk.

I folded mine in my lap and breathed through everything I was feeling until only one thing remained.

"My daughter has six weeks," I said. "Every appointment matters. I need this reinstated today."

---

I knew exactly who had made that call.

I left Lily with the nurse at the children's waiting area with her rabbit and a colouring sheet and I walked back through the hospital and out through the main entrance and I called the number I had never used before. The one Derek had mentioned and I had looked up after that first phone call when I needed to put a contact to a name.

Vanessa answered on the second ring.

"Callie." Like she had been expecting me and his was a conversation she had already rehearsed. "I wondered when you would call."

"You cancelled my daughter's appointment."

A small pause. Then the sound of something being set down. A cup maybe. Unhurried.

"I made a call," she said. "That is all."

"Using Derek's name. At a children's hospital. To cancel treatment for a four year old."

"I simply suggested that the Ashford family might prefer a different facility." Her voice was smooth and unbothered. "Something more private. More suited to your current situation."

"My current situation."

"You're a single mother now Callie. There are hospitals with very good public programs. I am sure Dr. Anderson's team would understand the need to free up the appointment for families who are more—" she paused just long enough— "committed to this particular facility."

I stood outside that hospital in the morning cold and I did not raise my voice.

"If you ever touch anything related to my daughter again," I said quietly. "I will not call you. I will not warn you. You will simply find out what happens."

Vanessa laughed softly. "Is that a threat?"

"It is a fact."

I hung up.

---

Dr. Anderson reinstated the appointment himself when I went back inside and explained what had happened. He did not ask many questions. He looked at me across his desk with an expression that sat somewhere between anger and exhaustion and picked up his phone and made two calls and had it sorted in under ten minutes.

"This should not have happened," he said.

"No," I agreed. "It should not."

Lily went into her first consultation that afternoon holding Mr. Rabbit against her chest and telling the nurse that he was also a little bit sick so could they please check him too. The nurse said she would do her very best. Lily said thank you very seriously and climbed onto the examination table like she owned it.

I sat in the chair beside her and held it together the way I had been holding it together for days.

---

Derek called later that evening.

I saw his name on the screen and for one moment I considered not answering. Then I picked up because whatever was coming it was better to face it standing.

"What did you do?" No greeting. Just that.

"I reinstated our daughter's cancelled medical appointment."

"Vanessa called me." His voice was controlled but tight at the edges. "She said you showed up and caused a scene. That you were aggressive with the staff and made accusations that embarrassed this family in front of—"

"She cancelled Lily's appointment Derek." My voice came out completely flat. "She called the hospital using your name and told them the Ashford family was withdrawing. Lily has six weeks. She missed half a day of treatment because of a call Vanessa made from wherever she is sitting in your penthouse."

Silence.

"I don't believe that."

Three words.

Just three words and they hit harder than anything else he had said to me in four years. Not because they surprised me. Because they did not.

"I know," I said.

And I hung up.

---

I was helping Lily into bed when my phone buzzed. A message from the hospital. A reminder about tomorrow's follow up.

Then a second buzz.

Dr. Anderson.

Ms. Dawson. When you come in tomorrow there is something else we need to discuss about Lily's condition. Please come thirty minutes early if you are able.

I read it twice.

Lily tugged my sleeve. "Mummy. You went far away."

I put the phone face down on the nightstand.

"I'm right here sweetheart."