SCARS

Nadine POV

I threw the last dart. Bull's eye!

"Seriously? You are telling me that that Ledger guy betrayed you to a psychopath seven years ago? Is your luck even real?" Jan said running his hand through his hair.

" Jan, you are killing your hair!"

Well...the universe had thrown an ocean full of sarcasm at me and the least I could do was throw some of it back at the people around me.

"You have just been thrown off a cliff and all you care about is my hair! Seriously?"

"I care about the darts too," I replied.

" I am serious Nadine. You have to give me a solution."

" I won't be a part of this Sports medicine crap. That's my suggestion."

"How much does your work matter to you?"

I examined his face for traces of anger but there were none. He was genuinely asking.

"As much as my life. My work has kept me sane for seven years. If not for my studies and job, I would have died of overthinking. More than anything else, am a grateful woman."

"Surely, you can't drop out the. We need your skills. Your approach and interest in research are even better than many of our senior doctors. But I am not sure that it will come of any use if your heart is wooed by the man who must only mean business." Jan said sternly.

That broke the bridge of my patience.

"My heart is not a kicked kitten. I have used my path as a step to climb to the platform I am on today." my voice clearly reflected my anger.

"Maybe you have but trust me but you ll have to prove...to me and to Ledger. He has already drawn his boundary that begins and ends with his daughter but have you defined yours yet?"

Wait.

Daughter.

Ledger's daughter?

He moved on.

Not just moved on...he literally climbed a bullet train and reached miles away from his past...the past that I was still trying to figure my way out of.

I needed to breathe.

I needed to get away.

I left the conference room and walked out of the house. Jan's panicked voice trailed my steps but I had to clear my reeling head before I spoke another word to him.

I had been so deeply engrossed in the dart business that I hadn't even noticed the platter of rain on the windowpanes.

When the rain kissed my cheeks, I let my tears roll down.

It was hard to even imagine Ledger in a tuxedo waiting for his perfect bride in white.

I kicked at the wet grass.

Jan caught my hand and flipped me around to face him.

" I admired you because I thought you were strong and that you respected your soul more than anything else. You know what, Nadine, You just proved me wrong."

Seven years were over and I was still standing like an idiot and crying over a man who doesn't deserve a place even in the graveyard of my mind.

That could mean just one thing if he could break me again, he was still owning some part of me.

Pathetic.

Seven long years of struggle, painful falls, soul-wrenching hours of training, hard work, books, clinicals, and stress versus one man whom I had trusted when I could still place my trust in people.

I wasn't going to let one man defeat the entire purpose of my existence.

"Have any suggestion, Peter Parker?" I asked Jan whose perfect demeanor had drowned in the rainwater. His usually perfect hair was disheveled and dripping wet.

" Welcome back, MJ. When it comes to giving you a suggestion, I will just say that you are the captain of your own ship."

I could literally feel the screws of my brain turning.

Oh, wait. That was just to add some literary color.

Technically, I could say that I could feel my NMDA Receptors taking over my GABA receptors as catecholamines fired in my system.

I had to focus on my work since nobody had given it to me at a fair. I had earned it fair and square.

I had to be in this sports medicine study. My name would be in the research papers and that would be an asset to my CV in case I wished to move out of this state. Most importantly, it would be the Nile of Knowledge and I would have a first-hand account of all the developments. 

I had to move on but I wasn't going to search for a man when my stress hormones were at an all-time high.

 I also needed a date to push away Ledger Catalano more effectively just in case he had any plans of making my life more miserable. My energy and peace were too precious to spend it on Ledger continuously.

That left me with just one choice.

"Peter, do our hospital policies allow employee dating?"

"Yeah! It won't be a problem until you don't create a mess."

" Jan, I'll just stick to the point. You already know the entire situation completely and explaining it to someone else may put the integrity of our project at risk. I am sure that Ledger thinks we are dating...so...can you...help me keep up the pretense?"

"You just asked your boss to be your fake boyfriend! I could fire you for that!"

"You can after this research project is over."

" MJ, your talent deserves this kind of opportunity at research and if we can acquire it through a road not taken, we should. Consider my reply a yes."

I  could handle this...I had to.