The Billionaire's Ultimatum

LAURA

It didn't matter how many times I looked at her stats, she was dying and if you asked me, she had less than forty eight hours. She was considered old, but not to me because it looked like she had so much more to offer the world but cancer was taking her away earlier than death should.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up, grateful for the distraction. It was Adrian, my co-worker and only friend. He had a sad look on his face which was expected. Everyone knew that Grace Blackwell's time was coming to an end but no one was going to say a word about it. She will be missed, me especially because I'm her nurse.

"Have you called her family?" Adrian asked, settling on the chair beside me. He pulled out a granola bar from his scrubs pocket and I gave him a 'are you serious?' look.

"What?" He exclaimed. "I'm hungry!"

"Lunch is in," I flipped my wrist to check the time on my watch. "Thirty minutes, I'm sure you can wait."

"I'll die before then." He rolled his eyes and took a bite of his snack anyway,

I scoffed and looked away. "She didn't want me calling her family."

"Are you sure? For weeks all she kept talking about was how she wanted her family to come visit her." Adrian looked worried and he was right to be.

Grace Blackwell and I had formed a friendship the past few months and every day while I attended to her, she would tell me how she was upset that she wasn't getting visitors as she should be. Two of her children lived in town and the last one was out of state studying. With time her usual complaints shifted to her wanting me to meet her son because she thought we were a good match. I often filtered out certain parts of our conversation but somethings are hard to miss.

I sighed. "I know. Maybe she's just really mad at them." I leaned closer to Adrian to whisper. "I've never seen her children visit so there's definitely something going on."

"Let's hope they take the initiative and actually show up today." Adrian shrugged.

""Let's hope so." I set her documents to the side and logged into my office computer.

I was swarmed with work and barely had the time for myself but I guess that's what happens when you chose to become a nurse. Don't get me wrong, I loved my job but on most days I wished I chose a different profession.

The sound of my name broke my internal rant session. I followed the direction of the voice and turned around. It was a delivery man, this time with much bigger flowers and a box. The delivery man noticed me and I ushered him over.

"A delivery for Miss. Grey." He said to me, handing the big bouquet of flowers to me, then placing the box on the table beside me. I didn't need to ask who it was because I already knew.

"Girl that's the fifth bouquet this week and it's only Tuesday." Adrian ever so smartly pointed out.

"I don't want this." I took the tablet from the delivery man and signed.

"Then stop taking his gifts. The more you take them, the more he feels you're interested in him." Adrian reminded me.

"What happened the last time I rejected his gift? The next morning I found a box of lingerie at my doorstep. Never again." I shook my head. I placed the flower on the floor of my cubicle. I didn't bother opening the box because I feared what could be inside it. The last time wasn't pretty. "I'll trash these out later."

"Same person?" Camille a co-worker asked, eyeing the box that was still on the table. At this point everyone knew I had an admirer and I got gifts daily from him.

"Unfortunately." I sighed. "At this point I don't know what to do."

"These are the problems with VIP patients who basically sponsor the clinic." Camille placed the clipboard she was holding on the table and leaned on it with her elbows on the desk.

"At this point, there's not much we can do." Adrian shook his head.

Mr. Donovan was a patient we treated last year. He moved out of town so he no longer was a patient here. After he moved, I was happy that I would no longer harass me but that only made things worse. He asked me out multiple times and I said no which didn't sit well with him so he made a point to disturb me with gifts and flowers daily. There wasn't much I could do because he was no longer a patient and he had so much money he was one of the clinic sponsors.

"Well I'm off. See you around." Camille gave me a sympathetic look before walking off.

"Laura?" Adrian called my name but before I could respond my phone beeped, reminding me to go attend to Mrs. Blackwell.

"I'll be right back." I said to Adrian, then picked my necessary items before walking to Mrs. Blackwell's room.

She was a VIP patient so I had to use the elevator to the fifth floor. For a private clinic that specialized in rare cases of cancer and cancer for the elderly, the clinic did well for itself. One would think this was a general hospital if you didn't have the right information.

On my elevator ride, I whipped out my phone to check a few messages and right in my hands it died. I groaned, not expecting it. The phone wasn't the strongest but when I didn't have enough money to get a new one or fix it, I had to manage what I had.

I checked the time on my watch and timed myself. Ten minutes with Mrs. Blackwell then return to my station to charge the phone, fingers crossed that it was just the battery that died.

"Mrs. Grey." Dr. Cooper greeted when he stepped into the elevator on the third floor.

"Dr. Cooper." I returned his greeting with a nod of my head.

"Any word from Mrs. Blackwell's family?" He asked, clicking on the ground flor button.

"None yet." I shook my head.

"Hopefully we get a response soon."

I nodded, agreeing with him. The elevator finally came to a stop and I happily stepped out with others got in. I knocked once before pushing the door open and stepping into Mrs. Blackwell's room.

She was right where I suspected she would be, on the wooden chair by the window with a book in her hand. She looked up when she heard me walk in and her smile which I always loved appeared on her face.

"I've been expecting you." She said, closing her book to give me her attention. I noticed she did that whenever she was really interested in you or what you were saying.

"How are you feeling this afternoon Mrs. Blackwell?" I placed the tray of her drugs on the medical table.

"I've told you to call me Grace." She scoffed. "How many times do I have to say it?"

"I told you I can't call you by your first name." I shook my head, though smiling.

A wave of emotions hit me as I readied her drugs. She knew she didn't have much time left, everyone knew it yet she insisted to carry on with everyday life like she wasn't going to drop dead anytime soon. Whenever I came in to attend to her, I had to pretend like that may not be my last moments with her but today was proving exceptionally hard. I looked up, willing the tears at the corners of my eyes to go away. I didn't need her seeing me in tears.