At the pinnacle of her career, orthopedic surgeon Ava King conquers the lucrative medical field of London.
A wild and intimate night with competitive Formula One driver James Ellis ends with Ava being stood up. The rejection leads her straight into...
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Ava and I spend a quiet morning together. The nurses have warmed up to me significantly after my brief meltdown and they've given us some much needed alone time.
We speak. Like actually speak. Ava tells me everything, well mostly everything: the entire Malcolm/Sophie/Maya/Iris debacle, Molly and Gabriel's twisted relationship, how she got away.
I look at her with utter awe despite my aching heart. She doesn't allow herself to cry. She just takes a deep breath and soldiers on.
I'm upset to learn that the cops were already here this morning and took Ava's statement. I really wanted to be there for her.
"It's ok, Gianna and Farah were here. And my hot psychiatrist," she teases and I roll my eyes at her. It bugs me that he is rather attractive; tall, dark and handsome, thick long wavy hair brushing his smart dress shirt collars, perfect smile.
Despite her jest, she avoids looking at me, picking the skin around her nails nervously, "Besides, there's certain details about what happened which I'd never want you to hear."
"Ava." My heart breaks again. "I don't want you to carry that burden on your own."
"But it is my burden to carry, James. I've burdened you all enough as is. The rest, the memory of what happened is mine to carry and that's what therapy is for, I suppose." She says all too bitterly. She doesn't cry, she just looks numb.
"You must know that's not true, love." I sigh, wishing there was more I could say, but I know it's the case of actions speaking louder than words. Once she sees and feels the love and support we all give her, she'll realize we're all in this together.
Her room already looks better than the local florist and there hasn't been a single visiting hour where she hasn't been visited by either her parents, her sister, Iris, Gianna or Sebastian. We've all taken turns with keeping her company and I suppose because she's such a renowned and respected doctor, the staff have been pretty lax on the rules, treating her as one of their own.
Just then, the physical therapist from the ICU walks in and I leave him and Ava while I grab a coffee downstairs.
Sitting at my favorite booth in the corner of the cafeteria, I send Gianna my thanks for being here for Ava this morning. We've been checking in with each other everyday and I've seen her beautiful worried face at most visiting times. She's been an absolute trooper. She's representing Iris and Maya and she's been instrumental in Ava's case, too. And she's still being a doting mom to little Alexia.
G: You're welcome.
J: Are you ok? It must not have been easy to sit through that.
G: It wasn't easy at all, but I debriefed earlier. How is she? It was rough.
J: She's ok... honestly I don't know. She looks numb?
G: I'd be surprised if she wasn't. Did she mention anything about this morning?
