I swallow. “Dad?—”
“No! You shouldnothave been there.” He slams his fist on the desk. “There was a violence-in-progress alert! Lockdown protocol isnotoptional or an invitation forextracurricular?—”
“She saved Alderton’s life,” Cormac says quietly.
“And you put her in the position to possibly watch him die if she didn’t!” My father turns on him.
Cormac flinches, figuring out my father’s twisted reasoning.
“Dad,” I say, breath trembling. “I gave him no choice. I was going to help him.”
“No, Scarlett,” Dad snaps. “You are a medical student, not a first responder anymore. You are not authorized to give medical treatment on this campus except in a simulator.”
“My EMT license is still valid,” I cut in. “If you’re worried Mrs. Alderton will sue you?—”
“That isn’t the point!” he explodes, his face reddening. Jabbing a finger toward Cormac, he sneers, “He put you directly in the path of danger.”
“He didn’t put me anywhere. I went willingly.”
“Because he trained you to obey!” Dad shouts.
“And she does.” Cormac squares his shoulders, his voice dropping to a lethal softness.
Dad stares at us like we’re lovesick fools. “Dr. O’Rourke, you may be married, but you are still on probation.”
Cormac laughs, sharp and humorless. “You can try to fire me or try to pry Scarlett from our vow. What will the professors who worship you think? The ones you keep preaching family to? That you made your daughter leave a marriage where she was protected,” he says. “I care about her being safe from a man you call a friend. Yet you can’t get him to rein in his psycho son.”
With the mention of the Langstons, my father’s lips tighten.
“And you have no idea what she’s been through,” Cormac adds. “I do. I was there when Pierce threw herout. In the rain. He didn’t give a fuck if she slept in the street.”
Something in Dad’s face cracks. “Scarlett,” he says quietly. “What is he talking about?”
I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.
Cormac cuts off the interrogation without hesitation.
“She needs rest,” he says. “She needs hydration. She needs a controlled environment after handling an arterial bleed. She does not need your delayed guilt over a situation where you couldn’t help her.”
Dad’s voice turns icy. “You think you get to tell me what my daughter needs?”
“Yes,” Cormac answers simply. “I do. I’m her fucking husband.”
My pulse hiccups.
Dad surges to his feet. “If you ever, ever jeopardize her training again?—”
“Training?” Cormac’s smile is pure frost. “She’s already trained,Brad.”
I hide a smile, the way Cormac says Dad’s name likehe’sthe subordinate.
“Scarlett doesn’t break. She doesn’t freeze. She doesn’t faint. She saved one of your own today. She’s fearless, and with me, she was safe. Always will be.”
Dad’s face goes chalk white.
Cormac continues, “Scarlett proved she’ll be a damn good doctor one day.”
Those words shatter me, especially since Pierce told me I didn’t have what it takes.