LITMIR.BIZ

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I’m not going to die because I wouldn’t take your pills.”

      So there it was. The standoff. It happened sometimes, when the village folk here insisted on sticking to their traditional ways. He didn’t particularly like giving in, when he knew that what he was trying to prescribe would help. But in cases like Señor Segura’s, where the cure didn’t much matter one way or another, he found it easier to concede the battle and save his arguments for something more important.

      “Well, if you’re refusing the tablets, that’s up to you. But just keep in mind that your stomachache could last through the night.”

      “Then let it,” Señor Segura said belligerently. Then he looked over at Alegria. “And you can save those pills for somebody else.”

      Alegria looked to Damien for instruction. “Put them back,” Damien told her.

      “Yes, Doctor,” she said, frowning at Señor Segura. “As you wish.”

      What he wished was that he had more space, better equipment, more trained staff and up-to-date medicines. In reality, though, he had a wood-frame, ten-bed hospital that afforded no luxuries whatsoever and a one-room, no-frills clinic just off the entrance to the ward. It was an austere setup, and he had to do the best with it that he could. But the facility’s lack was turning into his lack of proper service, as he didn’t have much to offer anyone. Basic needs were about all he could meet. Of course, it was his choice to trade in a lucrative general surgery practice in Seattle for all of this. So he wasn’t complaining. More like, he was wishing.

      One day, he thought to himself as he took a quick look at the only other patient currently admitted to the hospital. She was a young girl with a broken leg whose parents couldn’t look after her properly and still tend to their other nine children. So he’d set her leg, then admitted her, and wasn’t exactly sure what to do with her other than let her occupy space until someone more critical needed the bed.

      “She’s fine,” Alegria told him before he took his place at the bedside. “I checked her an hour ago and she’s sound asleep.”

      Damien nodded and smiled. The only thing that would turn this worthless evening into something worthwhile would be to shut himself in his clinic and take a nap on the exam table. Sure, it was the lazy way out, since his real bed was only a few steps away. But his exam room was closer, and he was suddenly bone-tired. And his exam table came with a certain appeal he couldn’t, at this moment, deny. So Damien veered off to the clinic, shut the door behind him and was almost asleep before he stretched out on the exam room table.

      * * *

      “Like I’ve been telling you for the past several weeks, I don’t want a position in administration here at your hospital. I don’t want to be your sidekick. I don’t want to be put through the daily grind of budgets and salaries and supply orders!”

      Juliette Allen took a seat across the massive mahogany desk from her father, Alexander, and leaned forward. “And, most of all, I don’t want to be involved in anything that smacks of nepotism.” Standing up to her dad was something she should have done years ago, but first her schooling, then her work had overtaken her, thrown her into a rut. Made her complacent. Then one day she woke up in the same bedroom she’d spent thirty-three years waking up in, had breakfast at the same table she’d always had breakfast at, and walked out the front door she’d always walked out of. Suddenly, she’d felt stifled. Felt the habits of her life closing in around her, choking her. And that’s what her life had turned into—one big habit.

      “This isn’t nepotism, Juliette,” Alexander said patiently. “It’s about me promoting the most qualified person to the position.”

      “But I didn’t apply for the position!” She was too young to be a director of medical operations in a large hospital. The person filling that spot needed years more experience than she had and she knew that. What she also knew was that this was her father’s way of keeping her under his thumb. “And I think it’s presumptuous of you to submit an application on my behalf.”

      “You’re qualified, Juliette. And you have a very promising future.”

      “I direct the family care clinic, another position you arranged for me.”

      “And your clinic is one of the best operated in this hospital.” Dr. Alexander Allen was a large man, formidable in his appearance, very sharp, very direct. “This is a good opportunity for you, and I don’t understand why you’re resisting me.”

      “Because I haven’t paid my dues, because I don’t have enough experience to direct the medical workings of an entire hospital.” The problem was, she’d always given in to her father. Juliette’s mother had died giving birth to her, and he’d never remarried, so it had always been just the two of them, which made it easy for him to control her with guilt over causing her mother’s death. Plus she was also consumed by the guilt of knowing that if she left him he wouldn’t fare so well on his own. For all his intelligence and power in the medical world, her father was insecure in his private world. Juliette’s mother had done everything for him, then it fell to Juliette to do the same.

      Juliette adored her dad, despite the position he’d put her in. He’d been a very good father to her, always making sure she had everything she wanted and needed. More than she wanted and needed, actually. And she’d become accustomed to that opulent lifestyle, loved everything about it, which was why this was so difficult now. She was tied to the man in a way most thirty-three-year-old women were not tied to their fathers. Which was why her dad found it so easy to make his demands then sit back and watch her comply. “I just can’t do this, Dad,” she said, finally sitting back in her chair. “And I hope you can respect my position.”

      “You’re seriously in jeopardy of missing your opportunity to promote yourself out of your current job, Juliette. When I was a young man, in a situation much like the one you’re in, I was always the first person in line to apply for any position that would further my career.”

      “But you’ve always told me that your ultimate career goal was to do what you’re doing now—run an entire hospital. You, yourself, said you weren’t cut out for everyday patient care.”

      “And my drive to get ahead has provided you with a good life. Don’t you forget that.”

      “I’m not denying it, Dad. I appreciate all you’ve done for me and I love the life you’ve given me. But it’s time for me to guide my career without your help.” Something she should have done the day she’d entered medical school, except she hadn’t even broken away from him then. She’d stayed at home, gone to the university and medical school where her father taught because it was easier for him. And while that wasn’t necessarily her first choice, she always succumbed to her father when he started his argument with: “Your mother died giving birth to you and you can’t even begin to understand how rough that’s been on me, trying to take care of you, trying to be a good father—”

      It was the argument he’d used time and time again when he thought he was about to lose her, the one that made her feel guilty, the one that always caused her to cave. But not this time. She’d made the decision first, then acted on it before she told him. And this time she was resolved to break away, because if she didn’t she’d end up living the life he lived. Alone. Substituting work for a real life.

      “And it’s not about going into an administrative position, Dad.” Now she had to drop the real bomb, and it wasn’t going to be easy. “In fact, I have something somewhat administrative in mind for what I want to do next.”

      “Why do I have a feeling that what you’re about to tell me is something I’m not going to like?” He looked straight across at his daughter. “I’m right, am I not?”

      Juliette squared all five foot six of herself in her chair and looked straight back at him. “You’re right. And there’s no easy way to put this.” She stopped, waiting for him to say something, but when he didn’t she continued. “I’m going to resign from my position here at the hospital, Dad. In fact, I’m going to turn in my one-month notice tomorrow and

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