(Ashley)
Vaughn went back to his room about an hour after I went to the kitchen.
I heard his door close. Then nothing.
I stayed at the counter for a while after that. My tea had gone cold. I didn't make another cup. I just stood there looking out the window and thinking about what he'd said.
The people who handle everything leading up to that moment are the ones who really decide what happens in that room.
He hadn't said it directly. He'd left it sitting in the middle of the living room like something casual. Like he was just thinking out loud.
But I knew what he meant.
I'd worked in a hospital long enough to know exactly what he meant.
I moved to the kitchen table and sat down.
I thought about Kieran's surgical schedule. As Chief of Surgery his cases weren't secret. The surgical
