Chapter 2
Edwina lifted her gaze to Kelvin, her voice calm and steady. “Surgery is the only way.”
약 57%
Jacelyn caught it instantly Kelvin’s attention was no longer on the room, the doctors, or her. It was locked on Edwina. The realization sent a sharp spike of irritation through her.
“And who exactly are you?” Jacelyn snapped. “Do you even work here! Do you know anything about the patient, or are you just talking big for show?”
Edwina looked at her without a flicker and calmly laid out Imel Gibson’s condition. She named symptoms, complications, and the risk profile.
The room went quiet
Imelda’s medical records had never left the hospital. To them, Ewina clearly wasn’t staff. Yet after a single glance, she hit every detail.
No way, that’s insane, they all thought.
Jacelyn’s face tightened. “Where did you get that information? West, call security and hold her. We need to figure this out. Kelvin deserves an explanation.”
Before anyone could react, Kelvin stepped forward, stopping directly in front of Edwina. “You can do the surgery?” he asked.
“Yes,” Edwina said, her voice steady.
At five foot six, Edwina had to tilt her head to meet the eyes of the man towering over her. At six foot three, Kelvin should have felt imposing. Somehow, she didn’t seem the least bit intimidated.
“Then go.” Kelvin said. “You’re operating.”
Edwina paused, surprised. Then her lips curved into a smile that was confident, sharp, and impossible to ignore.
“Alright, she replied.
Jacelyn’s composure cracked. “Kelvin, are you serious? You’re triting some random nobody with no credentials?
“Instead of trusting you?” Kelvin’s voice dropped, cold and cutting. “You operated twice, and my grandmother kept getting worse. So tell me, who’s the problem here?”
No one spoke.
Once Kelvin made a call, no one in that room had the courage to question it.
Edwina didn’t waste a second. She changed, scrubbed in, and heleil straight into the OR
Still fuming at the humiliation of being outshone by a girl who came out of nowhere, Jacelyn pushed for an internal live feed so every senior doctor could watch the surgery in real tim
Ninety minutes later, it was done. The room that had watched the feed was stunned. Edwina’s teclunque was clean, decisive, and airtight,
Joseph ordered the recording saved immediately. “This goes straight into training. Every attending needs to study it. Unreal. Absolutely unreal
As soon as Edwina stepped out, doctors from every department warmed her with questions
1/4
1225 Thu, Jan1 AE.
Chapter 2
월 일 57명을
She frowned. The operation had wring her out; her head throlded. She had nothing left for the crowd. She was about to slip away when Kelvin strode over. The hallway cleared in a hear heat
“How’s my grandma? Kelvin asked.
“She’ll wake up at nine tonight, Edwina replied.
type to walk away.
She didn’t elaborate. She had crossed paths with this and she wasn’t the
Besides, if Imelda died here, it would mean cuts and fallout across the hospital, and it could easily
“Thank you.” Kelvin said. He pulled out a check for 15 million dollars and handed it over.
Edvina took it without fuss, glanced at the number, and slid it into her pocket like it was a 150–dollar tip.
Most of what she had earned over the years had gone to the Lemmox family. She did need the money.
She looked at Kelvin, cool and unimpressed. Her consultation fees usually started in the seven figures.
‘Cheap,‘ she thought.
Kelvin shifted under the blunt dismissal in her eyes, a knot tightening between his brows.
Is she looking down on me?‘ he wondered. “Why? Over a check?
Anton’s rehab
Before he could sort it out, she was already walking away. He snapped back to himself and called out, “Hold on, let me get your number.”
He thumbed his phone open, set it on his palm, and held it out Edwina.
Kelvin’s assistant and the bodyguards stared like they had just seen a pig fly.
Kelvin, asking a woman for her number? Must be the apocalypse they thought, totally floored.
While they were busy writing headlines in their heads, Edwina get it in a beat.
I took his check. A little aftercare is only fair, she thought.
She did not take the phone. Her fingertips tapped in a string of gits. She pulled a sanitizing wipe from her bag, cleaned her hands, and stepped into the elevator.
Kelvin felt, unmistakably, that she could not stand him.
Grindel City had six official districts and one outlier called Sere Shore.
It had not been part of the city at first, just a forgotten stretch alg a tri–county line, all scrub and ridgeline and wint
A linle over a decade ago, right after annexation, the Simmons only moved a branch there from Novine City. That was the
pivot
Quietly, without press or fanfare, Serene Shore turned into the hest zip code in the metro
Outsiders heard the name, not the details. That was by design.
Edwina looked at an estate that ran for miles, and for once the cool mask of het lace stirred.
“This is my place?” she murmured, stunned.
Ivan bowed, leading as he talked. “To be exact, the whole ridgeli is. The Simmons built their money on beverages and
2/4
12 25 Thu, Jan1 AG •
Chapter 2
dairy
57%
“That is the vineyard. The other tracts are your great–uncle’s hobby orchards, planted with top–shelf varietals. The east side is the family’s own farm.”
Staff lined the drive two deep, spines straight, heads tipped. Every time she passed, another “Welcome home, Miss rose in
unison.
Security on belt radios called in her location every few steps.
The attention crawled over her skin until she wanted to shrug it off.
The largest manor came into view, and a striking middle–aged couple waited at the door, hope and nerves written across their faces.
The woman saw Edwina and broke, tears on contact. “Baby girl, my baby girl.” She swept Edwina into her arms and sobbed until she had to catch her breath
Edwina felt the warmth of that hold, and something still inside her gave a reluctant ripple.
A pull that felt blood deep hummed through her fingers. She almost lifted her arms to hug back, then stopped herself cold.
Darius Simmons’s eyes were wet. He patted Gloria Simmons’s back. “Honey, she has been traveling. Let’s take her inside.”
Gloria let go only to lace their fingers and lead her through the doors.
Edwina finally let out a breath, figuring once they were in, the staring would stop.
She was wrong
Welcome home, Miss. A dozen uniformed servants bowed in perfect unison, voices lifting together.
Edwina felt so awkward, she could practically feel her toes curling from secondhand embarrassment.
It didn’t stop there. Gloria tugged her upstairs to a bedroom thai hit like a bubblegum blast. Princess Barbie pink everywhere, so bright Edwina almost turned and ran on reflex.
The walk–in closet was packed tight with luxury labels, Dresses, eels, handbags. Every piece shining in bright, candy colors.
She gave Gloria a quiet look. They had the same brows, the same eyes, but Gloria’s held a lively spark that felt too young for her age, the kind that comes from a life padded with comfort.
The pale pink skirt suit she wore looked like it belonged on a girl barely out of college.
Edwina was about to say she didn’t like pink when a servant who had been waiting at the door stepped in with a bow. “Sir. Madam, SR’s chief designer has arrived”
“Mr. Simmons, Mrs. Simmons, Swan Jewelry’s chief designer has arrived, the servant mentioned.
Edwina’s gaze tightened. Oliver? How does he even know about is place?
Before she could figure it out, Gloria had her by the hand again, ulling her downstairs
Oliver took one look at the client and felt his professional smile Wobble.
Why does this woman look exactly like my boss, the one who per shows her face?” he thought, completely floored.
Twins? That can’t be right. Edwina’s last name was Lennox, he used inwardly.
3/4
57%
Missing the strange charge between them, Gloria got straight to “I want one hundred custom designs for my daughter Fifiy full sets and fifty individual pieces.
“Gemstones, diamonds, everything young people are into, but every piece has to be one of a kind”
She wired 200 million dollars on the spot.
Oliver swallowed and glanced at Edwina, suddenly nervous. “Mi, do you have any other requests?
Edwina sighed in her head. “A hundred sets? What does she think am, a jewelry–making machine! My hands would fall off
“That’s too much, she said evenly. “Ten sets. Keep the designs classic and simple
The moment he heard her voice, Oliver’s heart slammed into grils. No doubt left. This was his boss, Elwina,
Gloria pulled Edwina into another hug, tears spilling fast. “My poor baby, you must’ve been through so much.
“Your dad and your uncle make plenty of money. You don’t have save a thing, Oliver, make it one hundred sets Net one
less.
Ө
1/1
