Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 38

Chapter 38 One More Chance

Then the light shifted, and the resemblance was gone.

Constance’s head was killing her. “Cordelia, Olivia swung first. Nora only…”

Finished

Cordelia cut her off with a cold sound. “Madam Weston, Olivia was frantic about Julian. That’s why she reacted. And instead of standing behind her, you’re covering for an outsider?”

Constance glanced at Nora. Nothing in her looked nervous, and nothing in her looked impressed. She was studying Cordelia the way a person studies a problem, and she stood there like a woman who already knew

how this ended.

It made a person want to believe whatever she said next.

Constance moved to stand beside her, and her voice dropped and went hard. “Dr. Blithe, Nora is not an outsider. She’s Julian’s wife, the lady of this house, and my granddaughter.

“Who exactly should I be standing behind, if not her?”

Nora looked over at her, surprised. Constance hadn’t said one word about the slap, and here she was putting herself in front of it.

Olivia hadn’t expected that either. Constance had doted on her for years, and now she wouldn’t take her side. Something broke open in her, and she threw herself into Cordelia’s arms.

“Grandma…”

The word came out in pieces, and the crying that followed was hard for anyone in that room to listen to.

Cordelia’s face twisted. She looked up and fixed Constance with a glare. “If you’re going to protect Nora Sinclair, don’t expect any loyalty back from me.

“From today. Julian’s condition is nothing to do with me. I won’t treat him again, and that goes for…”

She paused, swept her eyes across the room, and finished it cold. “It goes for every last Weston under this roof. No one from this family is admitted or treated at the Blithe Institute. Not one of you.”

That took the air out of the room.

The Blithes had been in medicine for generations and sat at the very top of the field. Half the doctors in the country had trained under their name.

Crossing them didn’t mean crossing one family. It meant crossing the entire profession.

Tessa hurried over to head her off. “Dr. Blithe, Nora is the one who hit Olivia. That has nothing to do with the rest of us.”

“Please, calm down,” Marlene said. “Whatever this is, we’ll settle it right here in front of everyone. We’ll have Nora apologize to you and to Olivia.”

Olivia’s face was still wet and her voice caught. “Grandma, I’m not leaving. She hit me, but I can’t stand here and watch Julian die.

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Chapter 38 One More Chance

Finished

“We’re doctors. We went into this to save people. It doesn’t matter how badly a family behaves. We don’t

lk-away from a dying man.

“You taught me that, Grandma.”

Set against that much softness and generosity, the slap looked like nothing but a tantrum.

The room picked it up at once. “She’s right. This is all on Nora. Put it on her and leave the rest of us out of it.”

“One woman shouldn’t get to drag Dr. Blithe’s name through this.”

“Make Nora apologize to both of them, however they want it. Let Olivia hit her back ten times over. Please Dr. Blithe, calm down.”

Cordelia let herself look persuaded and stopped pulling Olivia toward the door.

She turned to Constance. “Since Olivia has asked, I’ll give you one more chance.

“Nora apologizes to her. Forget ten times over. She slaps herself once, and today is settled.”

Tessa rounded on Nora immediately. “Hit yourself and apologize to Olivia. You’ve been in this family half a day and you’re already causing trouble.”

“If you won’t think about yourself, think about Julian,” Marlene said. “He’s still unconscious upstairs.”

Sienna looked down her nose at her. “You’re the one who offended the Blithes. For Julian’s sake you should be on your knees apologizing to Olivia and begging Dr. Blithe to treat him!”

Nora watched them all close in on her and let out a short laugh.

“Dr. Blithe?”

Cordelia looked up at her, and the contempt in that face lit a fuse.

It was the way Nora looked down at her, wearing a face so much like a woman Cordelia had known a lifetime ago, and it made Cordelia hate her on sight.

Cordelia put her patience back on anyway. “I don’t hold grudges against girls your age. But you hit my granddaughter. Either you slap yourself and apologize, or I’ll have someone do it for you.”

Nora didn’t take the bait. “You came here to save Julian, didn’t you, Dr. Blithe?”

Cordelia let out a cold breath. “I did. But you hit my granddaughter, so whether I still treat him depends entirely on how you behave.”

“You’ve been in this house all of five minutes,” Nora said. “You don’t know what he was poisoned with, and you don’t know how to bring him back. Unless…”

Her voice dropped all the way down. “Unless you knew what was in him before you got here, Dr. Blithe, and had the antidote ready and waiting. Which makes me wonder whether you’re the one who poisoned him.”

Cordelia had seen more in one lifetime than most people saw in three, and that flat, cold question still put

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Chapter 38 One More Chance

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