Love Me Back (Amelia and Daniel) novel Chapter 40

Amelia slipped the divorce papers into her bag. Four days—she could wait that long. As soon as he came back and signed, it would all be over, the marriage neatly severed.

Maybe it was the thought of her imminent freedom, but Amelia found herself in surprisingly decent spirits. Aside from the occasional spell of quiet, when she just didn’t feel like talking, she managed well enough.

She understood this was just a stage—something she had to go through. It would pass.

That afternoon, Sophia called, her frustration practically crackling through the phone. “This is what I get for refusing to stop by a church and light a candle. I swear, I just missed one step on the stairs and bam—twisted my ankle! Unbelievable.”

Amelia had just finished her paperwork. “Where are you? I’ll come get you.”

She picked Sophia up from the law office and took her straight to the hospital. Sophia, perched in a wheelchair, had no intention of taking the blame. “I'm telling you, this is all Violet’s fault. She’s totally thrown off our good vibes. First you sprain your ankle, now it’s me—looks like the curse of this damned wheelchair is real.”

Amelia heard their number called and began pushing Sophia toward the exam room. “Maybe we really should go light a candle.”

“Amelia?”

She hadn’t checked the doctor’s name on the door, so it was a surprise to see Charles handling the consult.

Sophia recognized him right away and grinned, propping her foot up like an old friend. “No wonder your copay is higher than anyone else’s. With a face like that, just seeing you is enough to lift a patient’s mood. Money well spent.”

Her flattery was so smooth it almost went unnoticed, and Charles just chuckled as he examined her ankle, then sent her off for an x-ray.

“I’ll have a nurse take you over,” he said. “Let’s see if we can speed up the results.”

Amelia thanked him and wheeled Sophia to the nurse’s station.

The special treatment clearly delighted Sophia. “See? It pays to have connections. Dr. Johnson is a gem—so thoughtful! Not like a certain someone we know.”

Amelia knew exactly who she meant, and the nurse joined in as she overheard. “Oh, you’re talking about Dr. Johnson? He’s the star of our orthopedics department. Patients, coworkers—you name it, everyone falls for him. But he’s tough to win over. I haven’t seen him show any real interest in anyone.”

The man with her father was someone she recognized—a close friend of Boris’s. “Old army buddy got remarried yesterday. We had a few too many beers, and your dad insisted on drinking them ice-cold, wouldn’t listen to reason. Now look—he’s paying the price.”

Amelia wasn’t sure whether she should focus on the gossip of her father’s friend remarrying or the fact that her usually straitlaced dad had decided to guzzle cold beer in the middle of winter.

Boris looked even more uncomfortable. “Alright, that’s enough,” he muttered.

Amelia checked him in at the front desk, fetched a wheelchair, and helped him sit before wheeling him off for tests.

Upstairs, Sophia, her foot now in a fresh cast, saw Amelia’s message and perked up. “Amelia’s dad isn’t feeling well? He’s upstairs? I’m going to check on him.”

Charles stood up immediately. “You’ll just get in the way like that. I’ll go.”

Glancing at his watch, he saw his shift was nearly over anyway. He asked a colleague to cover for an hour and told Sophia to wait for him in the staff lounge.