First Do No Harm (Benjamin Davis Book Series, Book 1) by A. Turk Read Free Book Online Page B

salary through July. That was our deal.”
    Kelly responded, “Well,
you
broke our deal.
You
interfered in another physician’s treatment of his patient. I’ll be calling your landlord this afternoon to inform him that
you’ll
be making next month’s payment.”
    “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer,” she replied.
    Dr. Kelly stood up, followed by Douglas and Stevenson.
    Stevenson fielded the hollow threat, saying, “Here’s my card. You can have him or her call me.”
    With nothing left to say, Laura walked out of the room. Her head was pounding as she headed toward the doctors’ lounge.
    After a few minutes, a security guard approached her and said, “Excuse me, Doctor, but Mr. Douglas says you have to leave the hospital right now. I was told to escort you off the property. I’m sorry.”
    The security guard followed Laura to her car. It was so humiliating that she completely forgot about her personal effects in her locker.
    While she drove home, she tried to think of what totell Maggie. Laura was the breadwinner, and the family depended on her. Maggie, five-year-old Kim, and almost one-year-old Lee would be waiting for her at the breakfast table. But she found the kitchen empty.
    She’d forgotten that the meeting made her more than an hour late. Maggie and the kids had eaten pancakes without her. As she walked toward the den, she could hear
Sesame Street
on television.
    Maggie came up from behind Laura and put her arms around her. Laura began to shake all over and made a strange humming sound. Maggie looked surprised when Laura broke down, sobbing. It took fifteen minutes for her to tell Maggie what happened. Maggie just listened, interrupting only to ask, “Did you get a copy of the audiotape?”
    Laura was angry at herself for her stupidity at leaving without a copy. Maggie kissed her hard and assured her that they were going to be all right. Then Maggie stated the obvious, “You’re going to need a damn good lawyer.”
    Maggie’s words were prophetic. Two days later, Plainview Community Hospital sued Dr. Laura Patel in Plains County Circuit Court for breach of contract. A sheriff’s deputy served Laura at her office in front of a waiting room full of patients.
    Things went from bad to worse. The following Monday night, as she was leaving her office, Laura found a pink flyer with bold red lettering on her windshield. She removed it and started to wad it up but stopped and uncrumpled the document.
    The flyer was about her. It accused her of being homosexual and wrongfully accused her of having illicit affairs with two married female patients, causing theirmarriages to end in divorce. The flyer correctly stated that Dr. Patel was currently having a lesbian relationship and had adopted two Chinese daughters. The flyer concluded by questioning, “Do you want your wives and daughters treated by this person?”
    Only two other cars were in the parking lot, and each windshield had a pink flyer. Laura gripped the steering wheel tightly. She was pissed and wanted to lash out in revenge but didn’t know where to start.
It could have been any one of those bastards, but which one?
    She started driving home but remembered that Maggie wanted her to pick up milk for the girls. She pulled into a busy convenience mart. Almost every car had a flyer on its windshield. She must have just missed the bastards spreading the lies.
    While she waited to pay for the milk, Laura noticed two women whispering in the corner. She knew they were talking about her. The word was out in Plainview: Dr. Laura Patel was a home-wrecking lesbian.
    Obviously, the distributor of the flyer wanted to destroy her office practice. Plainview was a pretty conservative town, and very few patients would be willing to be treated by a lesbian doctor.
    She made an appointment with Bradley Littleton Esquire, a business acquaintance of Maggie’s father, in Nashville. She didn’t trust the local lawyers. She was certain that they could be influenced, if