Chapter 3

That night, the reply from Doctors Without Borders landed in my inbox:

【Congratulations, your application has been approved. The next departure for the Africa posting is one week from now. Please confirm whether you accept the assignment.】

The next day I went to the hospital as usual, planning to hand in my resignation and start the handover.

Instead, the nurses' station passed me an add-on slip. Noreen Winfield's name was printed in the patient column.

She walked into my office, her face pale.

Paddy wasn't with her, so she let her old high-school arrogance show through.

"Naomi Cooley, this office reeks of disinfectant. Just as awful as you smell."

I opened the chart. My pen paused a beat. "What's bothering you?"

She tilted her head at me, malice plain in her eyes.

"Dr. Cooley, my head hurts."

"Remember what I was best at? Faking sick. Every time we had a test in high school, I'd tell Paddy my head hurt, and he'd skip class to take me to the nurse's office for ice cream."

Of course I remembered.

All three years of high school, I sat next to Noreen. I was also her lackey.

My family had no money, but I had the pride you carry at that age, and I didn't want Paddy, the boy I had a crush on, to know how I lived.

So Noreen used that against me, making me sign her name to every love letter I wrote for Paddy.

I watched her win his favor with those letters, watched the two of them end up together, and I swallowed the slaps and the abuse she gave me behind everyone's back.

Paddy would fetch Noreen hot water, copy notes for her, crouch down to tie the shoelace that had come loose.

The day Noreen left the country, she said it lightly:

"Paddy's a toy I'm bored with. Nothing much left. You can keep treating him like he's precious."

All these years later, she was still the venomous beauty I remembered.

She leaned in close, mocking:

"You really think Paddy loves you? Get it straight. These ten years, you stole them."

"If I hadn't left, do you think he'd ever have looked at you? Your dad's a mechanic, your mom sells pickled vegetables at the market, you worked your way through college for your own tuition."

"So what if you got into a good school with him, built a company with him? It's still just the life I picked over and left behind."

I cut off her walk down memory lane and took the pack of needles from the sterilizer.

"Acupuncture will ease your headache. Lie down on the treatment bed."

She lay down, pinched my hand, and sneered, "Go easy. I'm scared of pain."

The moment the needle went into the crown point, she screamed.

"It hurts! You're doing this on purpose, getting back at me!"

The door swung open. Paddy rushed in and pulled her into his arms. "What happened?"

Noreen buried her face against his chest, shoulders shaking. "Paddy, she jabbed me so hard."

"I know Naomi's angry with me, but she shouldn't use a treatment to take it out on someone."

Paddy glared at me, his eyes cold. "Naomi Cooley, you don't deserve to be a doctor!"

He pulled out his phone and dialed.

"Director Lambert, this is Paddy. My partner just had a medical incident during treatment with Deputy Head Fox."

"I suspect deliberate harm. I want the hospital to open an investigation and suspend her."

Noreen lifted her head from his chest and winked at me, full of smug satisfaction.

But her voice came out soft and small. "Paddy, I feel so dizzy. Can we go home?"

Paddy lifted her up and carried her toward the door. As he passed me, he stopped for a moment.

"Naomi Cooley, you've disappointed me deeply."

The door closed. My fingertips still carried the bloody marks Noreen's nails had left.

I pulled open the drawer to find a bandage, and saw the photo on my desk.

Paddy had taken it last year, when the hospital honored me as an outstanding employee.

He'd stood outside the crowd, holding up his phone, making a heart at me. In the picture, the tips of my ears had gone red.

There was a line he'd written on it then: 【My Dr. Cooley, never be afraid. I'm here.】

I tossed the photo into the trash and got up and went to the director's office.

"Director, there's no need to suspend me and investigate. I quit."