Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 57

Chapter 57 Two Questions

rry?” Nora’s-eyes narrowed, and something cold came into them.

Finished

Julian looked at her, then frowned and turned on Olivia. “You’re taking my history. Why are you asking her anything?”

Olivia was all business. “Because Nora is your wife. Whether she’s a virgin matters to your condition. That’s the only reason for the question.”

She looked up at Nora. “You won’t hold it against me for being so blunt, will you?”

Nora hadn’t answered yet.

Julian got there first, and his voice came out low. “Whether she was a virgin makes no difference to anything. She’s my wife. That’s all there is to it.”

He looked at Olivia coldly. “You’re a physician. What century are you living in, that this matters to you? Either your thinking is ridiculous, or you asked for a reason that has nothing to do with medicine.”

That answer had Nora looking at him with real pleasure.

Olivia had asked it on purpose, and she’d deliberately framed it as a statement.

Men minded not being the first. Most of them did.

Even a man in love, even one who honestly didn’t care, kept a small regret somewhere, and a regret was a crack, and a crack could be worked at.

As tactics went, Olivia’s had been reasonably clever.

What Julian said drained the color out of her, and she explained in a small voice. “You’ve misunderstood me. I only asked because of your condition.

“If Nora wasn’t a virgin, then before the two of you sleep together she needs a full workup to rule out anything she might be carrying.

“If she passes it to you, your condition only gets worse, and there’s nothing my treatment plan can do about

that.”

It was a very good reason, and there was no arguing with it.

It also left the whole room wondering whether Nora had a history and possibly a disease, and even if the tests came back clean, being tested at all was an insult.

Julian’s face went black. “Olivia.”

Olivia bit down on her lip. She hadn’t expected him to get this angry over nothing more than a question

about Nora.

Shouldn’t he be questioning her right now?

Nora reached up and pinched his cheek. “Don’t be angry. It isn’t worth it over something this small.”

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Finished

The gesture was intimate and her voice went soft on him, and some of the black went out of his face.

Nova looked up at Olivia and smiled. “I hadn’t planned to involve myself in how you treat him. But since you’ve brought me into it, and with a question like that, well…”

Olivia saw the smile, and something crawled up her arms.

Nora watched the panic surface and went on. “My turn to ask you a few things.”

Olivia sat up straight like she was bracing for impact. “Go ahead.”

“You asked Julian whether he’s been sexually active recently. Correct?”

Olivia had a whole arsenal of clinical terminology loaded and ready, down to the obscure end of it, because what she’d expected was an attack on her competence.

Instead they were back at the first question, which threw her completely. She nodded. “Correct.”

Nora laughed lightly. “And then you told me you assumed I wasn’t a virgin. Correct?”

The feeling in Olivia’s stomach got worse, and she nodded anyway. “Yes.”

She looked at Nora, uneasy. “Nora, if you doubt my training, ask me anything. Terminology, rare conditions, whatever you can look up.”

Nora smiled. “No need. Those two questions were enough to prove that either you aren’t much of a doctor, or you aren’t much of a person.”

Something ugly moved across Olivia’s face, and the softness went out of her voice. “Watch what you’re saying, Nora.”

Nora’s voice went hard. “Your two questions contradict each other. You’re a physician. Asking Julian about his sex life is fine. That’s the intake.

“But when you turned to me, you didn’t ask whether I’d been sexually active. You told this room you assumed I wasn’t a virgin. You put it so it could be taken two ways.”

Now, Olivia knew where the bad feeling had come from. She’d walked straight into a trap Nora had built out of her own words.

She tried to explain. “I…”

Nora cut her off. “Save it. A healer who’s any good can tell from an examination whether someone has been ‘sexually active, and whether it was her first time.

“The way you asked him and the way you told me doesn’t sound like a good healer. It sounds like a bad one in a good one’s coat.”

Olivia came up out of her chair. “You…”

Nora lifted her eyes, perfectly calm. “So which is it, Miss Blithe? Which of the two are you?”

Olivia’s face was terrible to look at, and there was no good answer to give.

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Chapter 57 Two Questions

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