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Now my heart raced, knowing this was entirely my fault.
My fucking fault.
I shouldn’t have told Valerie the truth. But if I hadn’t, this would have happened anyway.
I remembered the heated conversation between Cleo and Jake in the lobby, the way she kept asking him to leave. She left him when she knew he was married, and he chased her. So, he probably got jealous and spiteful when he realized she was with me.
And that made me want to bash his face in.
He was just like Valerie—but with a dick. “Your boyfriend is a real piece of shit. I guess you’re perfect together.”
Her mouth dropped. “Excuse me?”
“She lost her job because of the two of you. You’re made for each other.” I turned around and left the condo.
“Where the hell are you going?”
“To fix this.”
Boris Kline lived outside the city, owning an estate in the Hamptons, a mansion that overlooked the water.
I pulled through the private gate, parked the car, and went to the front door.
His butler let me in, and Boris met me in the entryway. “Hello, Dr. Hamilton. It’s nice to see you again.” He shook my hand.
I shook his.
“It’s been a while. How are you?”
It didn’t seem like he knew Cleo had a relationship with me because he didn’t behave differently at all. “I’m…fine. Can we go somewhere and talk privately?”
“Uh, sure.” He led the way into his study. “Have some exciting research to share with me?”
“No.” I followed him into his grand office, the window overlooking the water.
Boris sat behind his desk. “Alright…is this about the change of staff in the Trinity Building? I know things haven’t been as smooth as before, but I assure you, we’ll get back up to speed. It’s just very difficult to replace Cleo. She had a lot of experience, and it’ll take time to train the new person…once I find them.”
I took a seat with the papers in my hand. “It is about that.”
“Not that I’m not happy to see you, Dr. Hamilton, but a phone call would have sufficed. And preferably, complaints can be left with Matt. I don’t usually entertain my clients so intimately, but because of our history, I granted this meeting.”
“And I appreciate that, Boris.”
“And I’ll always be indebted to you for saving my wife’s life.”
“How is she?” I asked, still considering her a patient even though it’d been years since I’d seen her.
“Great. Still cancer free—thanks to you.”
She was one of the earliest patients in my trials years ago. She had been in stage four but made a full recovery. “I’m very happy to hear that, Boris.” I just wished my father had been so lucky, when he had been such a good person.
“So?” he asked.
I looked at the papers in my hand. “I want you to give Cleo her job back.”
He immediately looked dumbfounded. “You came all the way here to ask me that?”
I nodded.
“I guess she had an intimate relationship with more than one resident…”
I didn’t deny it. Seemed pointless. “She’s the best at her job, and we both know you won’t find anyone else to replace her.”
“That may be true, but I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because my female residents won’t feel comfortable knowing the director of the building had an adulterous relationship with her client. That means she could sleep with their husbands or boyfriends. You get what I’m saying?”
“She didn’t know Jake Patterson was married.”
He shrugged. “Really doesn’t matter if she did or didn’t. She knew the rules when I hired her. And obviously, she slept with you, which has led you to come here…which is another thing I don’t want. Personal relationships make things complicated. I had to let her go.”
“Well, I want you to make an exception.”
He sighed. “Come on, don’t put me in this position—”
“Boris.”
He was quiet for a long time, clearly annoyed that I was using my leverage against him. His wife had tried all other treatments, without any decreasing the size of her tumor. If it weren’t for me, she’d be gone right now. It was wrong to use that against him, but I had to. “Look… I’ll do it,” he said finally. “But she can’t break the rules again.”
“No. I want you to change her contract. Though, she still can’t have adulterous relationships with her clients.”
He shook his head. “That’s dangerous territory, nonetheless.”
“Well, I went to every resident in the building and asked them to sign this petition.” I put it on his desk. “Saying they’ll sell their properties and leave if she’s not rehired—and they don’t have a problem with the change in her contract.” I set each paper in front of him so he could read the printed names of his residents and see their signatures. “Only two people didn’t sign it.” I didn’t even bother with Valerie and Jake. If I came face-to-face with Jake, I’d probably beat him to death in the elevator.
