Cynda and the City Doctor - Theodora Taylor Page 0,54

head up. And Rhys stiffens as I approach and Ingrid squints at me over her mask.

“You again,” Ingrid says when I stop six feet away from them.

Then she turns to Rhys with a quizzical look and asks, “Rhys, what’s going on? What is she doing here?”

I shouldn’t look. I don’t want to look. But my eyes drop down to her ring finger anyway. The one she waved in my face the last time we met.

And sure enough, there’s a ring on it. Even grander and bigger than the last time.

Last time I was cool Cynda. Shocked but determined to look like I wasn’t as I left the beautiful couple to their beautiful lives.

But this time pain stabs through me. I raise my eyes to Rhys, hurt beyond all belief. “I guess you two were on another break?”

Rhys just regards me stonily.

And we stare each other down as I answer Ingrid, “I used to work here. Before your fiancé bought my father’s practice and fired me. That’s what I’m doing here.”

Ingrid visibly jolts. Then laughs. Of course, it sounds like a beautiful tinkle even behind a mask. “Oh, so that is why you decided to move here and acquire this particular practice. I thought you saw something in the numbers that I didn’t.”

“Something in the numbers?” I repeat, really not understanding where she’s going with this.

“Oh, no! Have you really not told her yet?” Ingrid looks between Rhys and me, her eyes twinkling with amusement. “I’d figured that was the reason you broke up after what you told me about her.”

“What did he tell you about me?” I ask Ingrid.

Ingrid waits for Rhys. But he continues to just stand there, glaring down at me, like I’m the one who has some explaining to do. Why is he out here in these streets hugging up on his ex after claiming for two weeks’ straight he still hadn’t gotten over our fling?

“Come now, darling,” Ingrid urges a still silent Rhys. “She’ll eventually find out.”

She waits for a few more seconds, then sighs when he still refuses to answer.

“I’m engaged, but not to…what was that adorable Welsh middle name he used with you again?” She lifts her eyes as if struggling to remember. “Ah yes, I believe it was Rhys. Well, I’m not engaged to him. My fiancée is a Danish count. And that’s not a step down as one might think. At least his family is still a constitutional monarchy.”

“Congratulations,” I say to her. My heart fills up with a weird relief even though Rhys and I aren’t supposed to be anything to each other anymore.

Then, I frown, realizing I still have no idea what Ingrid’s talking about. Why is she here with Rhys if she’s engaged to somebody else? Why would she think I would think a Danish count was a step down from an English doctor?

And why is Rhys refusing to talk?

I have so many questions, but Ingrid keeps going like we’re completely caught up. “Thank you for your congratulations. Though I fear that means I’ll have to move back to Europe. I must say, I’ll miss Chicago.”

She throws Rhys a cheeky smile. “And my boss is quite unhappy about having to find another executive he trusts to take my place as the VP of Acquisitions for DBCare. I can’t say I blame him. It’s doubtful he’ll be able to find another with my attention to detail.”

I tilt my head. “DBCare? That medical conglomerate that eats up clinics?” I ask. “You’re their VP of Acquisitions?”

Ingrid slides another disbelieving look toward Rhys over her mask. “Yes, I am. How naughty of Rhys not to tell you that.”

I shake my head. “Okay, you two aren’t engaged this time. So then why are you here? During a pandemic?”

Ingrid sniffs as if that question is insulting. “COVID or no COVID, I always check on all our acquisitions myself.”

“Your acquisition?” I repeat. Then I turn on Rhys. “Are you selling my father’s practice? To the company I hate most?”

Rhys finally speaks, “What I do with the practice I acquired is none of your business.”

Then Ingrid says, “Also, it should be noted that Rhys isn’t selling the practice. We already own it. You see, my family is the Bylund in Drossel-Bylund Care and his is the Drossel.”

Again, I find myself shaking my head. “No, that’s not right….”

I distinctly remember reading something about how DBCare was owned by some defunct royal family, the Drossels of Drosselholz. Basically they were the family who used to rule over the country