Chapter 23
“eeing Ashley’s contempt the director briefly toyed with the idea of criticizing her further, to avoid upsetting the influential Anderson and Garcia
milies. However, her death glare shut him up in an instant.
She marched up to Eric’s side and snapped. “Mr. Anderson, mind giving me some space? I need to check on the patient. Her voice dripped with icy impatience.
Ever since Ashley arrived, Eric’s gaze had been fixed on her. He had expected a polite apology and thanks, but instead, she treated him like a nuisance. “Dr. Garcia, Olivia was on death’s doorstep. Is this your way of apologizing?” He had never seen such ingratitude from a woman, Letting go of Olivia’s hand, he stared at Ashley coldly.
Ashley swiftly glanced at the monitor readings before reaching over to remove Olivia’s oxygen mask
“What are you doing?” Eric snapped, jumping to his feet. He practically growled the question at her when she brushed it off.
“You trying to school me on my own turf? Who’s the doctor here, huh?” Ashley shot him a sidelong glance before turning back to the patient, delivering the facts with a cold edge. “We ran tests this morning. No traces of alcohol in your blood, so cut the act. No need to keep up the charade.”
The moment Ashley spoke, Olivia in the bed snapped her eyes open and shot Ashley a glare that could cut glass. The sudden change stunned everyone in the room.
Olivia realized she’d been busted and needed to keep up the act of being out cold. With a dramatic deep breath, she weakly fluttered her eyes open. “Eric, you’re here. Oh. I thought I’d lost you forever. She weakly reached out as if to grab him. At least with no alcohol found, she was off the hook.
Eric stood by Olivia’s bed, his face stone–cold and his lips pressed into a tight line. A cold glint entered his eyes as he locked his gaze onto Olivia, pinning her with his stare.
Olivia flinched, feeling a rush of unease, but she knew she couldn’t chicken out. Gearing up, she kept up the act. “Dr. Garcia, what did I ever do to deserve this? Tears streamed down her face as she put on a performance worthy of an Oscar for an innocent victim,
With arms crossed, Ashley watched as Olivia flawlessly portrayed the fragile character, still impressed by her talent. “I said no alcohol was detected, not that there was nothing else, Ashley added, a smirk on her face as she gestured for her physician assistant to hand copies of a file to Noah and the other directors.
Annoyed at being sidelined, Eric wondered if Ashley doubted his ability to grasp the report. Ignoring him, Ashley waited until everyone had their copies before continuing, appearing quite pleased with herself.
Ashley said, “Your symptoms–puking, heart racing, passing out, trouble breathing–tell a story: it’s probably a bad mix of alcohol and meds. The blood test didn’t spot any alcohol, but it didn’t find any drugs either, likely because too much time had passed:
bolder
If Ashley’s guess was right, Olivia must’ve put in some serious effort to pull off today’s show. Their eyes met for a second, and Ashley’s grin just got
