BREATHE: A Billionaire Romance, Part Five Read Free Page B

this.”
    “Wow…” Derek breathed, his jaw dropped. “Uhm, let me …uh-process…?”
    “I understand; just breathe for a moment.”
    And so he did. He took a moment, and through the tears, he took a long deep breath. I could tell that he was trying to process, trying to think everything through…
    “I hope you don’t mind, but I’d really like to get a third opinion…” he finally managed to breathe. I was proud that he had even managed that thought. We had discussed a third opinion and agreed upon it, but hell, I didn’t remember anything.
    I couldn’t think. I could hardly breathe after hearing the results. I had to commend Derek on his strength. He had a lot more of it and a lot more composure than I could have ever even dreamed of.
    “I understand completely; this is a big deal.” Dr. Lawrence leaned forward in his chair and looked to Derek then to me, and then back to Derek once again. “Two doctors are telling you two different things, and I’m sure that’s scary and confusing.”
    He leaned back again and grabbed a couple of files from the shelf just above his desk. “I’ll refer you to a few doctors and you can choose one. All of these are excellent in this field of medicine, and have openings.”
    He pulled a singular piece of paper and circled a few options just before reaching out to Derek with the sheet of paper. “Let me just remind you that time is of the essence here,” he warned, pulling the sheet back for a moment. “You really need to be treated for all of this as soon as possible…so don’t wait too long, okay?”
    Derek nodded, reached forward, and grabbed the sheet.
    “I won’t wait. I’ll get right on it.”
     

Chapter 5
     
    Who the hell would have poisoned Derek? I mean, sure, he was an asshole around the office. But everywhere else, he was far from terrible.
    So could have anyone at work really tried to hurt him?
    Maybe Frank?
    I mean, sure, Frank was a douchebag, but he was far from psychotic. And I just couldn’t buy that he would have done anything like that…
    Whoever it was, though, was clever.
    I Googled rat poison symptoms, and they were completely in sync with what Derek had been experiencing. And upon further search, so were side-effects of chemotherapy.
    It was brilliant, so brilliant that I doubted anyone in the office would have been lucky enough for such a plan to just fall out of thin air and into his or her lap.
    The only person who would have possibly been able to make the tie and give a proper false-diagnosis was none other than that good-for-nothing, piece-of-shit, older stepbrother of his.
    And I wanted him to throw it in his face, beat him with the truth, and ingrain it in his stubborn head…but not until I knew for sure… not until the third opinion came in.
    And even then, I wasn’t sure I could.
    I didn’t get enjoyment out of arguing with him, nor out of hurting him. And every time I brought it up, it resulted in one of the two situations.
    So I had put it out of my mind until I knew rat poison was really the issue…which was just later that afternoon, into the evening.
    Derek had chosen a Dr. Ortiz as our third opinion doctor. She was quite well known in the medical and scientific community. She was known for her brilliance, as well as her success at such a young age.
    And he didn’t say, but I couldn’t help but wonder if that was why he chose her. I wondered if he somehow felt a kinship to her because of her brilliance and early success, but something told me that he might not care to talk about it; and hell, for all I knew, even if he had felt a kinship, he may not have chosen her for such a reason consciously.
    There was no way to tell.
    The only thing for certain was that we were there, and had been for hours. Derek had already gone through several tests, and we were told that they would in-house the blood tests so that we could get our results even quicker.
    I was more than fine with that.
    It just sucked to wait around.
    However,