Francine's eyes locked into Jude's smug face before the hotel room doors went close. Her anger was boiling over but she didn't have time for him now. She was being summoned by the hospital chairwoman, and the hospital receptionist's call and the barrage of messages had her focus shifted.
She turned away and stormed out of the hotel.
Francine dashed into the lane leading to the chairwoman's office ignoring all the stares she got from both staff and management of the hospital.
How tables turned and humans change. It wasn't up to a day everyone looked at her with admiration and envy but now, so could not be said for the malicious snares and murmuring sounds they made at her back as she passed them.
The image of the lady, Jude's fiancee kept replaying in her head like a movie.
How they had both being lost in each other's embrace, their smiles, the happiness they seemed to have found in each others company.
Jude could have just told her from the start that her patient's heart matched his chronic sick fiancee, he didn't have to make her fall for him to break her like this. He shouldn't have.
Her thoughts struggled with her resolve to act strong and chest everything like she always had done to her ordeals but the more she saw her, the wilder she became with fury.
"You can't go in to see the chairwoman, you have no appointment with her and I haven't asked her permission to let you in yet" the chairwoman's secretary ranted as she strutted behind Francine who didn't want to hear any of the words she said.
The Chairwoman's rise to power, just like she knew was built on cunning and ruthlessness.
Rumours abound about how she married a wealthy man and stole his assets from him.
She was born into poverty and wedded wealth and this, made her feel entitled to success all the damn time.
Through the aid of her husband, she became the chairwoman to the hospital's board, and since then had used her Influence and position to manipulate others.
Her grip on power was going to be solidified as she was soon going to be tied to the governor's family, by the marriage her son was planning to their only child, who happened to be the very same woman she had aided her recuperation.
"Francine, dear, I wasn't expecting to see you yet. Did the little headlines you saw leave you running to my office?" The chairwoman said with her voice dripping with false warmth as she saw Francine burst through the door.
"I'm so sorry ma'am. I tried stopping her but she was ... "
The chairwoman raised her hand to stop her secretary from keeping on with her defense regarding the unsolicited visitor and also to show her dismissal.
Francine's eyes narrowed.
"Cut the act chairwoman"
The Chairwoman's expressions transformed. " I suppose Jude's little proposal didn't go unnoticed? Did it."
Francine's hands clenched into fists.
"You were behind everything from the start."
"I was only protecting my family's interests, Francine. What mother would let her son marry someone like you when ladies like the Governor's daughter exist?"
"You used me" Francine muttered and her voice sounding like a wilting flower under a heavy rain, conquered.
"You agreed to the surgeries Francine.You made the choice"
"I made the choices based on lies!! Lies you and your son fed me!" Francine voiced frustrated.
The chairwoman plastered her face with a cold smile.
"I like you Francine. You're smart and I love that for you" she said adjusting on her seat.
She opened the drawer of the table she was seated at and brought out an envelope she threw at the side of the table Francine was standing at.
"There are no evidences you took your patient off from life support to donate his kidney to your boyfriend, only records of your error of administering epinephrine to an allergic patient. So do yourself the favor of accepting the boards decision concerning your punishment"
"Don't act like a disgruntled lover Francine. No body would believe that from you" she added.
Francine picked the paper from the table, maintaining her silence to avoid words about how she truly felt escape her lips.
For that would make the chairwoman feel fulfill she had conquered her wits.
"Reassignment to the rural branch?"Francine read out the heading of the letter to her and the Chairwoman's hearing.
"I heard you grew up in Samdari and was able to convince the board to transfer you to the branch of the hospital there. That way you would further your medical education from our list of professor's at the branch. I did that for you because you helped me with my son's fiancee" the chairwoman's scornful voice laced with false warmth came again.
"I didn't study medicine for more than eight years to end up in the rural branch of a hospital!!!" Francine wanted to blurt out with the anger and malice that filled her heart but the words choked at her throat and refused coming out.
She deserved way more than what she was getting for abandoning her opened patient for a man's sin. She deserved way more than just being reassigned.
But why Samdari of all places.
Why the place that held the most sad memories of her life? It looked as if life was propelling her back to the place she had always sought to run from, from the memories she didn't want to recall.
"Like it says in the letter, you'd be called back once the professor's at the branch all vet your credibility. We need to die down the voices calling for the seizure of your medical license you see" the conniving woman muttered again and to buttress her point switched on a live video tape on the internet where people were gathered in mass in front of the hospital calling for the termination of Francine's medical license.
The words they hurled at her even before she was proven guilty were too unbearable and heart breaking, and like other humans, Francine had been hurt deeply by them but still kept her head high not wanting anyone to see her break.
She took the envelope with her and began to walk confusedly out of the chairwoman's office.
Outside her office, all eyes were on her and she could hear the cold snares and mutters behind her back.
She saw Elizabeth ahead of her and began to follow her as she walked to an enclosed space.
"You and the team had just one job, nurse Elizabeth" Francine's voice trailed her as she caught on fast that she wouldn't be able to match the speed of her legs.
Elizabeth stopped.
"At least we saved your license" she muttered back while turning to face Francine whom she knew had been following her.
Francine swallowed her spit.
They did save her and her license.
For the punishment and lawsuits she would be facing if it had been discovered that she abandoned her opened patient on the operating table would be worse than this.
"You just have to take up our testimonies for it. You administered epinephrine to the patient without studying his chart properly" Nurse Elizabeth added seeing how Francine had become mute with the truth she had told her ealier, her eyes screaming with concern and curiosity at the same time.
Francine stood speechless for a while thinking,lost in the oblivion of her thoughts.
"Thank you" she finally said and looked up ahead at Elizabeth standing in front of her.
She turned to leave for there was nothing more to stay for.
No family,no friends and even the love of her life she thought she had found, just turned out to be another lie,another illusion.
Dejected and her face filled with a facade that suggested everything being okay with her, she turned to leave, to run as far away as she could from her problems like she had always done.
"Francine....." She heard a nurse call her name and she stopped and turned, hoping she had words of encouragement or succour for her.
"Did you really do it?"
"Do what?" Francine asked, not knowing exactly what she was talking about as her thoughts were incoherent.
"Did you really harvest your patient's kidney in your social ladder climbing scheme?"
Words eluded Francine's lips as she stood aghast staring at the only person she had thought close to her in the hospital.
She too had been, just like the rest, all mere illusions....