Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70488 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
“We’re fairly sure.” The man softened slightly. “Came for an x-ray to confirm.”
I nodded. “Why don’t you come back with her, Dad? We’ll go get that taken care of now.”
The dad jumped at the chance.
The mother never stopped scrolling on her phone as we left the room.
I got the x-ray all set up, then the father and I stepped out of the room while I hit the button.
“Is this normal?” I asked.
I’d meant it as the little girl being so quiet and withdrawn, but the man just unloaded on me.
“Swear to fucking god,” the man growled. “Divorced her two years ago because she wouldn’t stop making content out of our lives. It’s like she’s obsessed with her phone. Brings our poor kid into it. Like I want my kid’s face on the internet where there are such sick people in the world watching her every move.”
“Oh,” I breathed.
“I called it quits when Gemma laughed at a comment about Kaylee. Posted it on our personal social media that we had to share because she was insecure about me having one of my own. You want to know what it said?” he asked.
He didn’t wait for me to confirm, which I obviously did want to hear. Who would say no?
“This sick fuck of a man said, ‘Does she go to Jesper County in Montana? Or Jesper County in Georgia?’” He growled. “My baby, my eleven-year-old. Gemma had shared where she went to school, what sports she was in, pretty much documented Kaylee’s entire freakin’ life.”
“Daddy…”
I looked over at Kaylee who was now cradling her arm against her chest.
I hadn’t even realized that we were done with the x-ray.
Shit.
“You can stand up.” I smiled apologetically. “Let’s go see what this shows us.”
I didn’t bother taking her back into the exam room.
I just took them back to my office and pulled up the x-ray, asking them both to have a seat in the chairs opposite my desk.
Putting the x-ray on the light across from the desk, I examined it.
I studied it for a couple of seconds before I found the hairline fracture.
“There it is.” I pointed. “It’s small but it’s there. I think with this kind of break, we won’t need to put you in a full-blown cast.” I stopped. “What sports do you play?”
“Soccer,” she answered quietly. “I’m not super physical, though, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“It was,” I said. “I’m going to recommend a brace.”
“What kind of brace?” the dad asked.
I pulled out my phone and pulled up an example of the cast I wanted her in.
“This.” I twisted my phone around for them to see. “You can pick it up at any Walmart in the area. Unless you actually want a cast. Then we can do one. It’ll only be about three weeks of wearing this.”
“I don’t want a cast.”
We went through the rest of the talk, and I released them.
It wasn’t until Sage came in saying the mother was still in the patient’s room that I realized that the dad hadn’t stopped to tell the mother that they were done.
A small smile on my face, I went into the room and said, “Ma’am?”
The woman didn’t look up.
Didn’t even acknowledge me.
“Ma’am?”
Again nothing.
I turned off the light and closed the door.
I didn’t bother trying to get her attention anymore.
“Just schedule around that room,” I said. “We’re at the end of the day anyway.”
“I heard what he said,” she mused.
“Awful, isn’t it?”
It took the woman another forty-five minutes to step out of the room in confusion.
By that time, we were shutting down for the day, cleaning up, and getting ready for the next day.
“Uh, excuse me?”
I didn’t stop the cleaning I was doing, but did say, “Yes?”
“Where’s my daughter?”
I frowned and looked at her. “Ma’am, your daughter went home with your ex-husband over forty-five minutes ago.”
The way I said it insinuated “how could you not notice that?”
She opened her mouth and closed it, looking embarrassed.
Before the mom could say anything, Sage was back in the room carrying her things. “I’m ready to leave. Are you?”
The mother left before anything else could be said.
The door closed behind her, and I asked curiously, “Do you think we’ll make it onto her social media?”
“There’s no doubt.” She snorted. “I’ll bet we’re in a video tomorrow about ‘leaving patients alone in rooms for hours.’”
“Lord save me.”
We walked together to our vehicles.
Only, Sage’s vehicle happened to be running, and mine did not.
I groaned as the cold hit me.
“Should’ve started mine,” I grumbled as I dropped inside and slammed the door closed.
I frantically reached for the start button, then searched for my gloves.
I didn’t bother turning up the heat.
I still had everything on high from earlier that morning.
It was marginally better now than it was when I’d left this morning, but this morning I’d had the wherewithal to actually start my truck before I was ready to go.