Chapter 27
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I reviewed the printed schedule, my mind shifting seamlessly into the clinical, focused state that I loved so much. Healing bodies was a tangible, beautiful science, completely unlike the messy, manipulative emotional games I had survived in my past.
"A walk-in?" I asked, looking up at Sarah in surprise. "We usually don't take walk-ins without a prior medical referral. What's their status?"
Sarah frowned slightly, adjusting her glasses.
"She was very insistent," Sarah explained, lowering her voice. "She said she didn't have insurance, but she would pay in cash. She looked completely exhausted, Maya. Like she hadn't slept in days. I didn't have the heart to turn her away, so I put her in examination room three to wait for a cancellation."
"It's fine," I nodded, appreciating Sarah's deep empathy. "I'll go check on her right after I finish with Mr. Henderson's knee evaluation. Just make sure she fills out the standard intake forms."
An hour later, after successfully guiding my first patient through his post-operative mobility exercises, I washed my hands thoroughly and picked up the blank intake clipboard for room three. I knocked gently on the heavy wooden door before turning the handle.
"Good morning, I'm Maya Vance, the lead physical therapist," I said, stepping into the room with a warm, professional smile. "How can I help you today?"
The young woman sitting on the examination table was hunched over, her face hidden behind a curtain of messy, unwashed blonde hair. She was clutching her right wrist, which was heavily bruised and swollen.
At the sound of my voice, she flinched and slowly raised her head.
The clipboard slipped from my fingers, clattering loudly onto the pristine linoleum floor.
"Maya," the girl whispered, her voice cracking with unshed tears.
May you like
It was Chloe. My younger sister. The one person I had left behind in the toxic wreckage of my family's estate three years ago, because she had chosen to stay with our mother.
"Chloe?" I breathed, completely paralyzed by the shock of seeing the ghost of my past sitting in the sanctuary I had built.
