Chapter 29

Zeke

A beat of silence rang through the room once Tatiana left with the Eloise girl. Zeke, still situated on the hospital bed, came down from his place and walked back towards one of the two single couch seats he and Tatiana were previously sat on. 

"My uncle Vincent has a very high opinion of you, Dr. Caron." Zeke praised him as he slowly lowered himself onto the chair.

"He holds far too high an esteem for me, Mr. Vasiliev." He replied with a small smile, shuffling papers on his desk. "Higher than I deserve." He looked up at him. "And, please, call me Geoffrey."

"Only if you call me Zeke." Zeke countered. "Vincent speaks very fondly of you and I will have none of his close associates who he holds in confidence address me with such a formality."

Geoffrey gave him a small smile. "Very well, Zeke." Shaking his head in accent.

Zeke nodded, satisfied. "However, I am curious as to how you lost your license, Geoffrey." He wondered out loud in a monotone voice. "My uncle was very vague about it when questioned, claiming it is not his story to tell but he assured me that you are trustworthy."

"Be that as it may," He continued. "You will forgive me for my concern. It is the health of my fiancé we are talking about."

"There is nothing to forgive." Geoffrey waved him off. "Your concern is understandable. I've been meaning to ask, is your fiancé a Ms. Belluchi, or Ms. Verratti?"

Zeke kept his face impassive, a mask giving nothing away. "What broached your question, Geoffrey?"

He raised his hands in surrender. "Word travels faster than you think, Zekeil. I was simply curious." He answered, calling him by his complete name, making Zeke clench his fist in aggravation.

"I'm sure you've heard of the famous saying, 'curiosity killed the cat', Geoffrey." Zeke replied in a toneless voice. "It's best to keep this in mind."

"I will be sure to keep it in mind." Geoffrey responded before exhaling slowly, breathing as if to mentally prepare himself. "Where to begin?" He pondered aloud, setting his papers aside and leaning back in his high backed office chair.

"I was once a very valued doctor from St. Margaret's Hospital." He reminisced. "Do you know St. Margaret's motto?" He asked him. Zeke shook his head in no.

"Their motto is 'Health care for all'." Geoffrey answered, laughter evident in his voice.

"The board of directors had a very... select clientele, you see." He leaned forward, tenting his hands together. "St. Margaret, for all the equipment and resources at its disposal, only catered to patients who paid well."

This, Zeke knew. It is even the hospital that his mother Dahlia frequented the most for her health care for the splendor. Their chain of hospitals were very luxurious, and very overpriced.

"St. Margaret is one of the hospitals out there that has exceptional facilities for every possible sickness yet us doctors were not permitted to treat those who couldn't afford treatment in the hospital." He said. "Prices were too high, much too expensive than what is normally acceptable for various treatment. You can see the irony of the motto. 'All' only really referred to the upperclassmen of the country."

"I can understand the frustration." Zeke sympathized.

"With all due respect, Zeke, you cannot possibly understand." Geoffrey rebutted him in slight aggravation. "I am a doctor. I went into this line of work in order to help care for people who are ill. I took my studies seriously, my residency even more so, only to work in a hospital that I thought cared for all, regardless of status or riches." He ran his hands through his hair frustratedly.

"I've gone to the chairman multiple times, pleading my case to him and the board." He continued. "They refused to lower prices or accept low class patients, not wanting them to ruin the reputation of the hospital by setting foot inside and mingling with their high paying patients. They warned me that if I didn't stop bothering them, there'd be consequences, and that I should forget about it all together."

"I didn't heed their warning. Without the board knowing, I took in all patients, even those who couldn't afford the facilities, paying for their treatment out of my own pocket."

Zeke raised his eyebrows in shock. This man, for all he was, chose to take in those in need, even if he had to shoulder their expenses from his own funds.

"However, the expenses began piling up. I couldn't afford to help all of my patients while supporting my daughter in school and my wife who was ill." He said, stopping short. "I did something I wasn't proud of."

A brief pause of silence followed his statement, making Zeke urge him on.

"I took bribes." Geoffrey finally admitted, looking down in shame. "There were from dangerous men who frequented the hospital, needing its facilities but wanting no record of their visits to be noted. No names, no credit cards or billing address. Only cash or anonymous transfers, and they paid handsomely for treatment, sums reaching as high as seven digits."

Mobsters, Zeke thought.

"I made the unfortunate mistake of turning away one of these men when I didn't want to leave my wife at a particularly bad day in her health." He continued. "I angered the man, and when he took his business elsewhere, he told me I would pay dearly for refusing him."

"I should've known better." Geoffrey bit his lip. "I was a fool to think I could get away with it, to think I could help my wife and all the other patients who needed treatment as well." He said, trailing off.

"You were caught, and got your license taken by the directors?" Zeke asked, urging him on.

"Yes. The board found out via an anonymous tip. I'm sure you can guess who it was from." He murmured quietly, clenching his fist tightly, making the veins in his hands appear more prominent. "I wish they had taken all my credentials. Take my license, ruin my reputation, have any other hospital refuse to hire me, anything."

Zeke stared at him, a sense of foreboding settling in his stomach. "What did they do?"

Geoffrey looked him up at him, the life disappearing from within his eyes as he uttered a few words. "They killed my wife."

The silence was deafening in Zeke's ears. "The board of directors killed your wife?" He asked in disbelief.

"They may as well have." Geoffrey replied, clenching his fist. "My wife had cancer. She was getting her treatment from the same hospital. One day, I was leaving the hospital to pick up Eloise from school and when I returned, I found out that my wife's life support had been stopped. She was dead in less than an hour."

In all his years, especially in his line of work, he was shocked to hear that a directors responsible for the care of human life would off a patient just like that.

"I love my job, Mr. Vasiliev." Geoffrey looked him in the eye. "I cure the ill, I earn a good living, but when I found the woman I loved laying there, lifeless, I lost one of the people who gave me a reason to live. I loved my wife more than anything in this world and she was taken away from me by people who are sworn to heal the sick."

"I didn't bother coming back. I left my license, my reputation behind, and started new here in a new home." He continued. "Your uncle Vincent was one of the people who paid handsomely for my services while at St. Margaret's and he knew of my situation. He offered to help me start anew and that's what I did. And now, we're here." He concluded.

"I am sorry for your loss." Zeke said solemnly. It was a pitiful thing to say, truly it was, but there was nothing else to be said. Living in his world, death could knock down your door at any opportunity. He was used to it, however it didn't make the loss of any one of his men any less painful.

"It is in the past." Geoffrey sighed. "All we can do now is move on."

Zeke only nodded in reply, understanding. The air was filled with tension after he shared his story, tension so thick yet it didn't bother him in the least.

A few moments later, a knock sounded through the room.

"Come in." Geoffrey called out and the door swung open, revealing Eloise who entered the room.

"Here are the x-rays, dad." She sauntered into the room, carrying a small tablet which he assumed contained Tatiana's x-rays.

"Thank you." Geoffrey smiled at her as she handed him the tablet. "Please entertain Tatiana in the living room while I go over these. We'll be out soon."

"All right." Eloise let out a tired sigh before leaving from whence she came, shutting the door behind her.

"How is she?" Zeke asked anxiously, his concern for his fiancé betraying the impassive façade he had kept throughout the meeting.

"She has a few contusions, nothing that wont heal overtime." Geoffrey finally concluded upon his appraisal. "A few of her ribs are severely bruised, which is why its causing her pain to move her torso. Ill prescribe her some medication for it."

"Thank you." Zeke breathed a sigh of relief, just glad that her ribs weren't broken.

"Unfortunately that's not all, Zeke." Geoffrey said. "Her blood pressure concerns me, it's quite low for someone of her height and weight." He continued. "And before you wonder how I know her height and weight, it is thanks to years of approximation in my field, especially for emergency or special cases when there's no time to take them."

"She also has quite a lot of healed contusions around her torso and legs." Geoffrey glanced up at him. "I don't mean to cross a line but this is very concerning--" He drew his eyebrows together in worry.

"Please do what you can, Dr. Caron." Zeke cut him off in a cold voice, addressing him formally. "Her past is none of your concern, I'd rather you focus on helping her with her current ailments."

Geoffrey nodded in compliance, not pushing the matter.

He wrote something down on a piece of official-looking paper before standing up. "I'll go and talk to Tatiana and inform her of her condition." He stated. "I'll leave you to your thoughts. Please join us soon, I'm sure your fiancé would like you there with her." He remarked before walking out of the door and leaving Zeke to himself in the office.

Zeke breathed slowly, trying to calm his anxious heart. Of course, her knew what happened to Tatiana. He didn't want to pry, but it would've been foolish of him not to know Tatiana's past. The night that Tatiana's car was bombed had distressed him terribly, so much than he'd like to admit. Lucia Belluchi's remark on Tatiana's past had wrecked him further, making him lose his mind on all the possibilities, all the things that might have happened to his angel.

One of his subordinates had pulled up all the details regarding the incident that happened seven years ago. It was all hushed up, kept quiet, yet his subordinate still somehow managed to get a hold of it.

The incident had shocked him to his core, jarring him. He couldn't believe what the incompetence of Belluchi's family allowed happen to his angel.

His heart ached for her, ached for the little girl who had been taken, the little girl who had to go through so much trauma, the little girl he didn't realized then that he'd one day meet again and grow to love.

He shut his eyes, remembering that moment clear as day from the hospital.

He'll talk to her soon, he thought to himself. When she's ready.

Until then, he'd spend every waking moment thanking the heavens that somehow, he'd been lucky enough to meet her that day seven years ago; lucky enough to meet her again, and lucky enough to fall in love with her.