Chapter 5 - A Job She Could Not Lose
Clare did not sleep.
At seven the next morning she showered in a hotel room registered under Elena’s assistant’s name, pinned her hair back, put on the only clean blouse she owned, and went to the nursing interview anyway.
Gabriel thought it was a terrible idea.
“That makes two of us,” Clare told him.
“Then why go?”
“Because I need a job.”
“You need safety.”
“I need both.”
He did not argue after that.
Vincent drove her to St. Matthew’s Women’s Center and waited outside.
Clare arrived twelve minutes early.
The nurse manager met her in the lobby instead of the interview room.
That was the first warning.
“Clare, I’m sorry,” the woman said.
Clare’s stomach tightened. “For what?”
“We received a call this morning.”
“From Richard Jensen?”
The woman looked surprised. “He said he was your husband and legal counsel.”
“Of course he did.”
“He alleged that you abandoned a patient during a shift in New York and that there may be a licensing investigation.”
“There isn’t.”
“I checked. I couldn’t find one.”
“Then interview me.”
The manager lowered her voice. “Administration won’t allow it until risk clears the complaint.”
Clare felt something inside her go quiet.
Richard had always preferred damage that looked professional.
No bruises.
No shouting.
Just doors closing.
“How long?”
“A few days. Maybe a week.”
Clare nodded, thanked her, and walked outside before she cried.
Vincent did not ask what happened. He opened the car door.
She stood on the curb instead.
“I had seven years of good evaluations,” she said. “I left my last hospital because Richard kept showing up at the nurses’ station. He told them I was having a breakdown. I thought moving would fix it.”
Vincent’s face remained calm. “People like him count on you getting tired.”
“I am tired.”
“Then be tired in the car.”
She laughed once despite herself.
Back at the hotel, Gabriel’s sister, Sofia’s older sister actually—Isabella Moretti—had arrived from Tampa. She was the woman who usually cared for Leo.
But she came in with her arm in a sling after a highway accident involving her husband the night before.
“I can hold him,” Isabella insisted.
“You can barely lift your purse,” Gabriel said.
Leo began crying at the unfamiliar tension.
Clare picked him up by instinct.
He settled against her shoulder.
Isabella watched, surprised.
Gabriel watched too.
Then his phone rang.
It was Elena.
“Richard filed for an emergency hearing,” she said over speaker. “Remote. Tomorrow morning.”
May you like
Clare closed her eyes.
Elena continued. “And he attached a sworn declaration saying Clare is unemployed, unstable, and currently living with an unrelated man she met on an airplane.”
