"Mrs. Brandy, try Doctor Steven's seafood porridge. I ate it once when Doctor Steven and I went to the beach. I said it was delicious and Doctor Steven said he wanted to learn how to make it. I just tried it and it tastes exactly the same as it did then."
Steven looked at me with a hint of panic.
He always said his hands were meant for saving lives and he never did any cooking or housework. Last month, he had started coming into the kitchen after getting off work and making a mess.
At the time, my child was seriously ill and I was exhausted. I thought he felt sorry for me and wanted to share some of my burden.
While cleaning up his mess, I held onto a bittersweet hope that he would cook for me and my child again. It turned out he was just trying to recreate Kelly’s seafood porridge.
The stench of that fishy smell I hated so much nearly made my skin break out in a rash.
I covered my mouth, stepped back and said coldly, "I'm allergic to seafood. Take it away."
Kelly’s hand suddenly trembled, spilling the scalding porridge onto her chest. She screamed and tumbled down the stairs.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Brandy. I didn’t know... Doctor Steven, it hurts so much..."
"Milena! Are you crazy?" Steven roared. "Kelly didn’t know you were allergic. How could you push her down like that?"
"I didn’t!" I retorted, suppressing my urge to gag. "You still don’t believe me? Could Kelly have spilled her porridge on her own?"
He looked at me with disgust and said, "You look like a madwoman right now."
He lifted Kelly in his arms and walked out, "I’m warning you, remove Kelly and me from the list immediately. Otherwise, I’ll never let you go!"
Of course, I ignored his threat.
The third-party management company called and said they had taken over completely. All personnel matters had been handled and the list of those assigned to the African branch hospital had been issued.
I was very pleased with their efficiency and only asked them to check the operating room surveillance footage from the day the children went into surgery.
The footage hadn’t been available a few days ago because Steven wouldn’t allow it. The HR staff sided with him and when they heard I wanted to review the footage, they all shirked their responsibilities.
Now, no one could stop me.
The management staff went to check the footage and called back a few minutes later, sounding apologetic saying, "The surveillance footage from that day has been deleted."
My hand, gripping the phone, turned pale. There was no need to guess who had deleted it. To protect his beloved apprentice, he truly would have done anything.
"But don’t worry, our technicians can attempt to restore the file."
I breathed a sigh of relief and immediately promised that if they succeeded, everyone’s bonus would be doubled.
As soon as the list was released, my phone started ringing off the hook. The doctors who once addressed me with “Mrs. Parker, thank you for training me to become a doctor,” now sent me curses.
[Milena, you can’t catch the mistress, so you take it out on us. Don’t try to use me as a scapegoat. I’m going to expose your actions to the media. I won’t give you any money and I won’t go to Africa.]
[Mrs. Parker, please have mercy on me. I’m getting married soon and have a mortgage. Don’t drag us into your affairs with Doctor Steven.]
[You old witch, just wait. Wait until Doctor Steven divorces you and my best friend takes over. Then we’ll see how you can still act tyrannically.]
I checked their resumes one by one and sent them to the management company.
"Calculate how much I’ve spent on training each person. If they don’t want to go to Africa, then according to the contract, triple the compensation."
I had been very kind. Training a doctor wasn’t easy and it wasn’t easy for them to become good doctors either.
