Chapter 2

The chat went on shouting past midnight.

New messages flooded the screen nonstop.

"Oh, she studied medicine, big deal. Everyone else can do free clinics, but she's the one with all the problems. She just wants to line her own pockets, that's all."

"All that time handing us the hospital's meds and building herself a nice reputation off it. What a show-off."

I didn't argue with them, and I didn't go around airing my grievances or explaining that Sunhaven Residences is the First Hospital Staff Housing, that the free checkups were all properly filed and approved.

I'm not a hundred-dollar bill. I can't make everyone like me. That's normal.

I turned off my phone, dropped into bed, and caught up on sleep.

After that, whenever anyone in the complex called me, I turned them all down, telling them politely that if they were sick they should register at the hospital and see a doctor.

Everyone's face changed toward me. Some rolled their eyes when they saw me, others made snide little remarks.

As if three years of free checkups counted for nothing, as if it had all been a calculated scheme for money and profit and a good name.

I started contacting real estate agents, planning to find a new place.

Before I could even find one, Robert Whitney, the son of Old Tristan next door, showed up with people and blocked my door.

Behind him stood his wife, Sylvia Fleming, and his mother, Clementine Cannon.

All three had dark faces, looking at me like I was their worst enemy.

Robert threw a hospital bill straight into my face, then grabbed me by the collar and pinned me against the wall.

"April Mason, my dad's got a serious illness now because you wouldn't do the free clinics and held up his diagnosis. How do you still have the nerve to sleep so soundly?"

"Today you're paying two hundred grand in medical bills, and then you're going to the hospital to wait on my dad for a month."

Clementine plopped down on the floor and burst into wailing sobs.

"My poor husband, all because some people are selfish and cold and wouldn't give you a checkup, now your liver cancer's at the late stage."

"Old man, if anything happens to you, I won't go on living either."

I stared, dumbfounded, at Clementine rolling around on the ground. So now the liver cancer was my fault too?

Even if I had done the free checkups, was I supposed to detect liver cancer without any equipment?

Sylvia stood off to the side with her arms crossed, watching me coldly.

"Dr. Mason, it's not that we're being unreasonable. But be honest, if you had even a shred of medical ethics and had kept checking us like usual, we'd have caught it early, and it wouldn't be surgery and chemo now, would it?"

"There's no telling how much more this is going to cost. Making you pay two hundred grand is a lesson, too. You can't be so selfish. You need a little compassion in you."

The neighbors heard the noise and gathered around.

"What's going on? Old Tristan's got liver cancer? That serious?"

"Just found out. The doctor said if we'd caught it a month earlier it might not have spread. My poor father-in-law, at his age, how's he supposed to hold on?"

Seeing that a neighbor had spoken up, Sylvia dabbed at her eyes and shot me a look.

Watching all the neighbors turn to stare at me, I actually laughed out of anger and shoved Robert off me.

"Are any of you being reasonable? Liver cancer is a serious illness. Even if I ran a free clinic every single day, I couldn't have found it without machines to test for it."

I let my eyes sweep over all of them.

"You're the ones who said I was vain, that I took your money. Since none of you were happy with it, I took the free checkups back. Now what does your getting sick have to do with me?"

When it came down to it, they were just squeezing me because I was a young woman, easy to push around.

Not only did they want free checkups, they wanted to force me to check them anytime they pleased, to be their free private doctor.

"I don't care. You held up my dad's illness, and today you're paying this money."

With that Robert suddenly stepped forward and kicked my door, the metal ringing out with a harsh, buzzing screech.

All the neighbors flinched back a step, watching Robert timidly, and not one of them said a word for me.

This Robert, a low-level supervisor at his company, whose uncle was supposedly a vice president there, had connections, and he was famous in the complex for his arrogance.

I'd thought this was a society ruled by law, and that a man in management would be reasonable. I never imagined he'd be this savage.

Just then, Manager Chavez sauntered up, picking at his teeth.

"What's all this racket this early in the morning?"

"Manager Chavez, someone's demanding two hundred grand from me because I stopped the free checkups. Please tell them: property management never hired me to run a clinic and never paid me a cent for it."

I stepped forward at once, hoping Manager Chavez would explain things for me.

He looked at me, then looked at Robert, and spoke slowly, unhurried.

"Dr. Mason, I looked into this situation a while back. You see, for three years you gave everyone free checkups, and everyone got used to it."

"Now, on this matter, you really did do a wonderful thing before, and the whole complex is grateful to you. But you stopped so suddenly, and it really did hold up Director Whitney's father's condition. That's a fact too."

"Here's what we'll do. Let me play mediator. You just pay half and call it settled."

I stared at Manager Chavez, unable to believe those words were coming from someone in charge of the property.

Seeing that I said nothing, he went on in the same slow, unhurried way.

"Of course, for the health of the residents, Dr. Mason, you should just keep giving everyone free checkups like you used to."

"Don't worry, you'll still get plenty out of it."

He hesitated, then added through gritted teeth,

"We won't shortchange you either. From now on that shady spot under the trees in the complex courtyard is reserved just for you. Property will provide the tables and chairs, and we'll give you two bottles of water each time. All right?"