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***
River stumbled back a little from my impact and after a little hesitation, he wrapped his arms around me. It was warm and comfortable and although it did ease my feelings a little, I felt shivers run up and down my spine at the thought of the assailant possibly watching us right now. I slightly pulled back and looked into River's soft eyes. All thoughts disappeared as I gazed into his eyes but the sudden coughing of someone broke me out of my trance. I looked around to see that we were right in the middle of a very busy emergency room, with multiple eyes trained right on us.
I pulled out of his arms, embarrassed by what I had just done.
River cutely rubbed the back of his head before turning back to his patient, leaving me to stand around. Barbara wordlessly helped him but occasionally looked up to give me a little smile. There was a glint in her eyes that I couldn't understand, but I didn't question her on it. Knowing Barbara, she would say something that wouldn't make sense to me and I wasn't in the mood for any of that. All I wanted was to make sure River was alright.
Finally, they were done to with the patient. River pulled me to the side and proceeded by staring at me.
"What?" I asked, feeling lightheaded under his stare.
"Pretty sure, I'm the one who should be asking you that."
"Why?"
He looked at me as if I was high or something.
"Alright fine," I pouted, not knowing how to start the conversation. In the end, I just ended up explaining everything to him, from the start of my day, to useless information like meeting Theo to finding out about his stalker.
His face turned cold the moment he hear me talk about his assailant. "You're not supposed to know about that."
"Yeah, well, it's not easy to hide when it's what they're working on."
River groaned, "I told Daniella to leave this case alone. Why does she have to snoop into everything?"
"Wait, you don't want them to find the bad guy?"
"There is no bad guy. There is an angry family member but that's it. He's not harmless at all."
"He's sending you death threats."
"He's angry."
"Do you know who the assailant is?"
"No."
"Then why are you so sure?"
River sighed and took a seat on one of the waiting room chairs. "This isn't the first time a doctor is receiving threats. The most they ever want is an apology and some sort of compensation. No one is going to kill anyone over something we had no control over. After a few more letters, he'll make his proposition clear and it'll all end."
"And you're sure about this?"
"Confident."
But I wasn't. River was solely basing his situation to previous cases and as a lawyer, I couldn't just trust anyone. Anything was possible and with threats flying around, this situation was not one to be calm about.
"Tell Daniella to leave the case be. The elections are coming up and I don't want anything to get in the way of it. This is really important to me."
"What elections?"
"The board members will be voting for the next president. My uncles have been restlessly trying to get everyone on their side so I need to keep out of trouble so they don't have more reasons against me."
"Being president isn't more important than your life," I retorted.
"It is to me." And with that said, he returned to work. I felt frustrated by his carelessness. He didn't really believe that his life to be less important than a title did he?
I angrily stomped back towards the legal office.
"Azra," someone called out. I turned and came face to face with Nicholas.
"Doctor Nicholas," I greeted, with a slight smile.
"Nick," he replied. After seeing my confused look, he explained, "You can just call me Nick."
"Oh."
"Are you alright? You don't look too good."
"I don't?"
"Your face is really red and considering the weather isn't very warm, I'd assume you're body temperature is higher than it should be."
He stepped closer and placed his hand on my forehead. Feeling uncomfortable, I took a step back and awkwardly smiled.
"I'm not feeling unwell," I told him, "just a little angry."
"Why angry, if you don't mind me asking?"
I did mind but answered nonetheless.
"River is frustrating."
Nicholas chuckled at my words, "River's really good at getting on everyone's nerves. You'll get used to it."
"How can he place his job over his own life? It just doesn't make sense to me."
"River is a workaholic. It's normal for him to choose his career over his own life. He wasn't always like that."
I was talking more about the fact that he didn't mind getting hurt as long as it didn't tarnish his image but I wasn't about to tell Nicholas that. I don't know how much he knows about the threats River is receiving nor did I want to discuss about it with River's biggest rival either.
"What do you mean?" I asked, as I took a seat on one of the waiting area chairs.
"He was always a good kid. His grades were always at the top of his class but he had different dreams and he was living a care free life. His only worry used to be not getting home by curfew. That was until his parents passed away, of course..." he trailed off, taking a seat beside me.
River's parents death was one of the most tragic things to happen in our quiet and well kept community. They were driving home from work one day when a drunk driver hit them. It was so bad that they had passed on the scene leaving their young son orphaned. They were really loved amongst our community and everyone had paid their respects to the family. I remember being forced to attend the funeral and although I was really young at the time, I could really feel the sadness in the atmosphere. It was almost suffocating.
"You have mentioned that River had different dreams once before as well. What were his dreams?"
He turned to me with a smile, "Why don't you ask him yourself?"
"He'll never tell me."
Well I hadn't tried but River wasn't one who enjoyed talking about himself and I was sure he really wouldn't tell me no matter how much I pestered.
Nicholas smiled, "That's true."
I eagerly waited for a reply, trying hard not to make my eagerness obvious.
"He was obsessed with aeroplanes as a kid and his obsession lead him to wanting to be a pilot as he grew older."
"A pilot?" I giggled. "That seems like every little boy's dream."
"He was pretty serious about it. His dad even signed him up to some courses for teens."
I couldn't help but laugh at how cute that had sounded. But then his current situation dawned on me and I felt really sad. Nicholas's words from our date echoed in my mind and I couldn't help but agree with him. River really was living his parents' dream rather than his own. He must be feeling so burdened but it all. Was he even happy? He was an over-achiever and everyone in the hospital seemed to love him but that didn't necessarily mean he was happy.
And for reasons I couldn't comprehend myself, I desperately wanted River to be happy. And I would do anything in my power to make sure he really does become a happy person.
***
Hi everyone.
I'm so sorry for the wait. I have been really busy with my exams. My exams finally ended though so now I'm free! Like I said in the previous chapter, I really want to finish this book by the end of the year so I'll be posting more frequently.
I hope you have enjoyed this chapter.
Thank you for reading up until here! :)