BREATHE: A Billionaire Romance, Part Four (7 page)

The room was cold, just like the mood, and I could tell that Derek didn’t want to be there anymore than I did. We had already been to the hospital earlier in the day because the doctor had ordered tests to be ran on Derek before actually seeing him.

It made sense. He had to see what he was giving a second opinion on; and it only made sense to go to the hospital first.

But now that we were there, we were both tired and just ready to go home. And I was sure if I was as tired as I was, Derek was even more so.

The room was white and bleak, with only one painting with literally just a singular red brush stroke on the canvas hung on the wall. I shivered, not wondering if it was because the place was creepy, or if it was just that damned cold in there.

We had come to find that Dr. Lawrence had a family practice of his own, and because he was the doctor that found an issue with Derek’s file in the first place, we decided to go there to see just what the “inconsistency” he saw was.

Derek, of course, didn’t want to see a doctor at all, let alone another one. So when the man came in, Derek visibly tensed.

He was a kind-looking man, but I still couldn’t pin down an age bracket to stuff him in. He had white hair but a young and quite attractive face. He was an oddity; that much was for certain, but as soon as he entered the room, the cold bleakness of the room disappeared…at least for a moment.

I wasn’t sure if it was because the man, himself, was warming and comforting, or if it was just the fact that it made me feel better that Derek was seeing someone other than Dr. Freeman for a change.

I felt sort of bad though because as Derek and Dr. Lawrence spoke, I could tell, without a shadow of a doubt that part of Derek was scared that “Joey” would find out about him seeing another doctor. I understood how it might come across as a betrayal, or make him think he didn’t trust his opinion.

But damn, I didn’t trust anything the asshole said, let alone his opinion on Derek’s fatal disease.

Not in the slightest, actually.

Cancer was something big; Derek should have gotten a second opinion regardless of his personal affiliation with his doctor. And not only that, but he should have gotten a second opinion because of his personal affiliation with him.

He knew Dr. Freeman even before he was a doctor, back when he was torturing poor, defenseless animals in true serial killer fashion.

Was that someone adequate enough to really be a doctor? Even so, why would you want them to be your doctor, knowing what you knew?

Derek was far more loyal than I was. If Laura had tortured animals and became a doctor, there was no way in blue hell that I would have gone to her.

Even if she was capable, she still would have been nuts.

“Usually, I like to have a patient’s charts sent over by the primary physician,” the man with conflicting age said to Derek in a low and calming voice, pulling me from my thoughts. It surprised me that such an easy sounding voice could have actually brought me back to reality, but it had.

It brought me back to the real reason we were even there.

“But considering you’ve technically seen me before, I have your charts.”

Derek sighed a sigh of relief.

“So you don’t want me sharing my input with Dr. Freeman?” he asked.

“Depends on what it is.” Derek sighed. “If you have the same opinion, then there’s no need.”

“Well, I can tell you that we don’t.” The man spoke definitely, firmly even.

“Is it a different kind of cancer?” I asked, butting in. “Or is it something else entirely?”

The doctor scoffed a little and rubbed his chin, as if he was in deep thought on how to answer the question. “I’m baffled,” he said, and that was all that Derek heard. He tossed his hands in the air and looked at me with a cocky I-told-you-so type attitude.

“Then that’s all I need to hear!” Derek shouted, hurriedly pushing himself up in his chair.

“Mr. Sholts….” The doctor held his hand up and shot up with Derek, trying to calm him down. “The reason I’m baffled is why in the world your doctor thought you had cancer…?”

Derek sat, slowly, hesitantly, as we both looked at the man in confusion.

“When I was in the hospital with you that night, I saw that with all the tests he ordered, that it was far from just inconclusive data. He had to be sure. I mean, why else would a doctor give such a diagnosis?”

I wasn’t understanding what he was even saying, but I listened to every single word that left his mouth. His voice was deep and warm, yet everything he said chilled me to the bone. He spoke words that I didn’t understand, talking about tests specifics where I wondered if he was even speaking English, but I understood. I understood the tone of it all; I understood the overall message of the story.

“So my cancer isn’t what we thought it was?” Derek asked, confused. I could tell that he didn’t like to be confused. I could tell that it was a rarity for him. I could tell that it wasn’t something he liked, or even experienced often at all.

“Well, Mr. Sholts… according to these tests, there is no cancer.”

“What do you mean there is no cancer?!” I bellowed. “He’s clearly sick!”

“That may be so, but it isn’t from cancer.”

“Then what is it from?” I folded my arms over my chest and looked at the man sternly. Why couldn’t I have fallen in love with someone normal?

“I’m not sure, but I would like to run some tests to see if he has been exposed to any sort of poisonous toxins.”

“Like mold?” I shot, lifting myself to my feet.

“No.” He said it so definitely that it made me think that he already had something in mind; and by the look of it, it was something terrifying.

~~~

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