Chapter 10: Nurse

The weeks that followed the incident with my ex, weren’t as eventful as you might think. Evan and I never really talked about what he said that night, or what happened at all for that matter. I didn’t really know how to take his feelings. I mean, was I ready to let someone else into my life? That I wasn’t too sure of. So I left things at that. However, the breakdowns stopped after that night.

I don’t know why, but my daughter’s voice stopped echoing in my head since that night too. It was quite suspicious for sure, but I was just happy to have a break from it all. It felt nice. Evan and I had lunch together every day and continued to live on with our lives as we normally would. I felt that my life was finally falling into a good rhythm and I was getting lucky.

Since I was more stable, I decided to start talking to my family again. After the scare with my mom, I kind of just fell off with both my mom and dad. I was insanely mad at how irresponsible they had been. Which now, looking back at it, was not very fair of me.

I wouldn’t be very surprised if my parents turned me away since I was very unreasonable. However, I was delightfully surprised when my mom and dad greeted me with open arms and much support. They really did feel bad about all that has happened to me in the past years. So I guess you could say that they understood.

As I said before, I felt as though my life was finally looking up. As if all the wrongs were finally making a right. But, I guess good things don’t always last because after a week or two, my happiness came crashing down. I was over at my parents house, helping my mom recover and spending time with her when she left the room to get us some water. I don’t normally like to be on my phone so I looked around the dining room I was in. The dining room was to the right of the front door entrance and there was a little table that held the mail.

The pile seemed to be quite big and messy so I went and tried to fix it. But, as I was straightening up, I couldn’t help but realize that the majority of the mail were bills. I started opening them, not caring if my mom saw me. They had at least ten envelopes that were just bills. By the time I added all of it up, the total came to over $10,000. Not to mention the last envelope I opened. It said that my parents had missed three months rent and that they would be evicted next month if they failed to pay the following amount: $8,000So, in total, my parents owed $18,000.

Right when I came to this realization, I heard my mom’s footsteps approaching the dining room. I very quickly grabbed the bills, stuffed them in my purse then sat down, acting nonchalant. My mom rounded the corner just then and smiled. She handed me a glass of water and sat down. She looked at me with warm eyes.

“Thank you for everything that you’ve done, Hailey. You’re really amazing.” She then looked around . “I love this house so much. It’s where your dad and I raised you and there’s so many good memories.”

“Thank you mom, I love it here too.” I told her as I fought back tears. I pushed back from the table. “Hey, mom, I actually got to go now. There’s a couple of errands that I have to run. I’ll stop by in a couple of days okay?”

She nodded her head. “Take care of yourself, okay Hailey? You mean more than you know it.”

“I will, I love you!” I called out as I left the house, locking the door behind me. That afternoon, many things were on my mind. I didn’t trust myself to drive, in fear that a breakdown would take over me, so I decided to take a little stroll. I realized that if I didn’t raise enough money by the end of this month, my parents would have to move out of the house that they cherished.

My parents already knew that I was trying to help them pay the bills with the salary that I have now, and because I had a nice cushion, they allowed it. After all, they couldn’t deny that they needed it. I don’t know what bills I’ve been paying this whole time if it wasn’t the ones that I had found. I knew my parents were good people so whatever their reasons were, I trusted them.

As I was walking, I happened to walk past a hospital that was behind bars. It was quite interesting. In all the years that I’ve lived here, I never knew that this place had existed. I peered through the slits in the fence and was met with a person staring at me from afar. I quickly broke eye contact and tried to keep walking, but they called out to me.

“Hey, are you looking for a job here?”

I was confused and then I looked at the gate, and saw that there was a: NOW HIRING poster taped on it. So as not to make this person mad, I simply nodded.

“Don’t be shy then! Come on in! You’re just in time.”

It seemed weird that I was “just in time” seeing as it was late afternoon, around six and people didn’t normally have an orientation at this time. However, the gate opened for me and what I really needed was another job because my salary now didn’t make enough money to cover those bills. So I followed the man through the gates and into the hospital. It genuinely looked like a regular hospital, boy was I wrong.

The man led me to an elevator, got in and pushed floor seven. The whole elevator ride was silent and it made me a little uncomfortable. So I tried to think about a bunch of different things to preoccupy my mind. Not to my surprise, it worked.

When we reached the seventh floor, he led me to an office and left me there. I knocked once before entering the room. As you’d see in the movies, there was a person sitting in a chair, facing away from me, behind a big desk. I cleared my throat, getting ready to speak, but the person spoke before me, stopping me in my tracks,

“So you think you’re strong enough to take on this job, do you? I need someone who is precise, knows how to not ask questions, and NEVER tells anyone about this place or brings them here unless you want them to die. You think you can handle all that?” The voice sounded familiar and my suspicions were confirmed when they turned around to face me,

“Evan?” I asked, very surprised. The menacing voice he used was so very unlike him and so was this whole shady business. It made me wonder just how much I actually knew about him.

“H-H-Hailey? What are you doing here?” He asked in shock as his regular tone of voice returned.

“I was just taking a walk after seeing my mom when I saw this place and someone offered me a job. What are YOU doing here? You own this place?”

He looked uncomfortable. Almost as if he wanted to say something, but couldn’t tell whether or not he could actually say it. “Wow, so I guess you came here to get an interview then? I-I kinda do own this place. I can get you a job if you need it, but maybe here isn’t the best place…”

This was confusing. I thought because he loved me, as he said, that he would give me a job straight away because we were close. Why did he not want me to work here? It was suspicious at most.

“Yes, I would like an interview. But first, how much would I make here?”

He didn’t look at me as he responded. “Minimum wage.” Liar.

“I know you’re lying, don’t make me ask again. What’s the payment?”

This time he looked at me in the eyes. “One hundred dollars an hour. However, you must know that the reason that the pay is so high is because it’s so risky. Please, if you need money, I’ll give it to you, you really don’t need-”

I cut him off. “Look, you told me the conditions, and I take them on fully. I do need money but I will not take it from you. I am someone that works for the money that I get. If you really want to help me, you can give me this job and if that’s not enough, you can watch my back. How does that sound?”

He was hesitating, I could see that. But after a couple of seconds, he sighed and relented. “Fine. You can have the job, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ll have you know this place isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. But tell me if things get too rough for you, you can always quit.”

I nodded my head, and approached his desk to get closer to him. I slammed my hands on his desk. “So where’s the paperwork? What do I need to do?”

From that moment forward, you would think that it would be awkward between us, but it wasn’t. If anything, our little secret made us closer. We would spend a lot of time together and I was getting a lot of money. I was a lot less stressed because I was finally paying off my parents bills.

A couple of weeks later, while I was visiting my parents again, my dad came bursting through the door in a very cheerful mood. He wanted to take my mom and I out to dinner. I looked over at mom and saw that she looked very excited about it. I asked dad if he could afford it and in the brief moment that he hesitated, mom intervened and said that he wouldn’t offer if he couldn’t. Only he and I knew that that was not true. Even so, for mom’s sake I didn’t put up a fight. I was paying off their bills just fine anyways.

When we were walking over, I wasn’t paying attention to where we were heading and we ended up in front of the hospital and my dad actually took interest in it, just the same way that I had. It was very scary. I felt my heart drop. I ran over to where he was, tugging on his arm to get him to come away. He looked at me confused, but didn’t fight me.

He didn’t ask me about it either, knowing that I would only share if I was ready to do so. It was a silent agreement that we’ve had for many years now. When we got to dinner, I realized that I should act normal so as not to draw any more attention to myself. It seemed to work, and I was thankful that on the way back, dad crossed the street. It saved me from another panic attack later.

I went home that night, very terrified. I didn’t want my parents to die because I wasn’t paying attention to where we were going. So, I decided that before Evan or someone else saw the footage, I should call Evan and explain what happened. Hopefully preventing my family from dying. I called him up in tears and explained all that had just happened and begged him not to let anyone kill my family and that it wouldn’t happen again.

“Alright, alright. Please calm down. I’ll be over at your place in a few minutes. Then we can discuss how to move forward from here.”

“Alright, I’ll see you in a little bit.” I hung up the phone and curled up on the couch. A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and I opened it to find Evan standing there with a plastic bag. He opened it up without a word and displayed a take out container of tteokbokki. My favorite Korean rice cake dish. I hugged him, feeling the rush of tears come back.

He stroked my hair and laughed softly. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay. Let me into the house will you?”

I stepped back. “Of course. I’m sorry.” I led him to my living room and we sat on the couch. He gave me the food and a plastic fork. I ate as he talked.

“I’m sure you know that these are very strict rules and we will not tolerate making a habit out of breaking them. However, I know you didn’t mean to do what you did. So, I’m offering you an ultimatum. This is your one and only chance I’m afraid.” He then pulled out an envelope from his briefcase and showed me a couple of pictures of this young child. I recognized the child from the other hospital I worked at. The one I gave candy to, the one that set off my breakdown.

“I’m sure you recognize this child from the other hospital. They have to be transferred to our hospital to get a more specific treatment. I need you to take over on this, seeing as no one else will. Can you do that? It’ll save your family if you do.”

“Are you kidding? Is that even a question? The kid is so sweet and innocent, who wouldn’t want to take them on as a patient?” I was beyond happy that I hugged him again. If saving my family was going to be this easy, then I was beyond relieved.

“So you’d think..” He mumbled to himself and got up. “But one thing I must tell you is: Whatever you do, don’t mess this up. If you do, you are in grave danger. Do you understand?”

I was confused but since he was giving me this opportunity, I nodded my head. “I promise I won’t mess this up. Thank you so much.”

He nodded before walking to the door and leaving. Well, not before looking back at me with a worried look. I remember thinking to myself that night: Well that was weird. He was saving my family but looked worried the entire time. Why would he be? I didn’t want to think about it anymore so I didn’t. I just looked forward to meeting the kid again.

However, if I had taken Evan’s worried expression seriously, and asked him about it, maybe he could have saved me from my future decisions. Maybe I could’ve stopped the disaster that was about to enter into my life.