Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 62

Bethany

POV

The handlers from the zoo arrived around ten o'clock, and I had mixed feelings about having released him to their care. He was such a lovely character and had my staff and me in stitches as we laughed at his antics, making the day go back; there were arguments over whose turn it was to feed him or change his bandages. We were attached to him that much.

I gave the handler instructions on his ongoing care and what to watch out for. They took the medication with them, and we all had tears in our eyes as we each held him before the handler took him away. The little guy did not understand, and as the handler held him to his chest, the monkey looked over the handler's shoulder and held out his hand to us as if begging us not to let him go. Those of us who managed to keep the tears from falling lost the emotion, and no dry eyes were left in the room.

'Doctor, now you have no patients here to care for. Can you do something about Doctor Theo? I think he is very tired; all the staff are trying to avoid him, which is not like him. He had always been a caring, kind guy but lost it lately. Yesterday, he grumbled something to Drake, and I saw that it hurt Drake; it was in his eyes, even though he said nothing! the nurse pleaded with me, and she had two others backing her up.

'Leave it with me. I will see what I can do. I felt like I was now a part of the team if the nurses thought they could approach me quietly with issues like this.

'Thank you, Doctor Bethany. The nurses left the wing, and I followed them. One nurse stayed to clean up the monkey's empty room.

I went to the viewing room and watched Theo, and I could see what the nurses were talking about. He was dead on his feet and grouchy. I knocked on Robson's door.

'Enter. This seemed to be where he was nearly all the time. I could get him to come out of his office more often. It cannot be suitable for him to be holed up here so much. 'Hello Bethany, the monkey gone?'

'Yes, lots of tears, it was very emotional.'

'What brings you here?' He was not about to talk about emotions, an area he was uncomfortable with, but instead passed it on to someone else to handle. I don't blame him, but he does the hard job when the chips are down, and I respect him for that. 'Theo.' I replied, looking at him to see if he had noticed too.

'Can you take the last patient on the list? It is just angioplasty, a search, and possibly a stent. Robson offered.

'Yeah, I can do that. Come back here when you are done. It's time to talk to him. I nodded, changed into my other scrubs, and got the team together.

Later, Theo and I stopped at an Italian Restaurant, and I was relaxing. We enjoyed our meal and talked about our sports day; Dad raved about it. Theo seemed to start to relax slowly. He was so tense when we first arrived, but I had no idea that something more than work was on his mind.

'Well, well, well, it is you two again. Are you sure nothing is going on between you two?' As he came to stand beside our table, Bret said, Cynthia clutched at his side. Something was different in Bret's eyes. I presumed it might have something to do with his side of the investigation, and he was trying to let me know not to say anything. I had not told Theo, so there was no chance of a slip-up.

'Hello Bret, Cynthia.' I replied, not answering his question. It was none of his business anyway.

Cynthia lowered her body to whisper in my ear.

'Nice catch. You won't be keeping him for long.' Leaning forward as she had, giving Theo a good view of her chest, but the gentleman he was, he stood looking at Bret, trying to make out his angle, raising his hand to shake it, but Bret did not accept it, so any chance he might have had as a friend, went out the window.

'Your table is over here.' The waitress urged the two of them away, having seen the way the four of us were acting. I had finished my meal and was happy to leave. I did not need dessert.

'Ready?' Theo asked, and I nodded. I did not need to see my sister fawning over Bret as if he was the best thing since sliced bread, even knowing he was still married to her. What a joke. Like mother like daughter, Dad investigated his marriage to Wendy and found she had been given a shortened version of her real name, which still needed to be picked up. The mother's dearest is married to a congressman, who has since married someone else. It had occurred to me that maybe he did not realize he was married to Mother dearest. Then, another idea arose. Was she blackmailing him? That is why she always had nice things, way above the pay grade of a detective. I would not put that past either woman. When we reached the penthouse, I was deep in thought, wondering about the different things that Dad divulged, and I was sickened to think about it. The only thing on Dad's side was he was innocent, and the marriage was wiped off the records, as bigamy by the woman, like mine was; it is still on their records, but ours was cleared as innocent, meaning neither of us had been married. But Dad is still my Dad, and as Mum was already married, that made the other man, my stepdad, oh how confusing all of this was starting to get.

'Do you want to come for a coffee?' Theo asked, breaking into my thoughts.

'Yeah, I would like that. I could work with some company to help push that meeting out of my mind, I replied honestly. When I saw Cynthia, I felt terrible for Bret, who had been a love-sick puppy for many years with a woman who would never love anyone but herself.

We sat on his balcony, sipping coffee and watching the city lights start to get busy below. A gentle breeze brushed over me, and I shivered a little. Winter was coming, and the nights were starting to get cold. Theo put a blanket over me and sat back down. It seemed he, too, wished to have some company tonight.

'I'm Sorry for not introducing my sisters when I had a chance before the sports day, Theo started softly.

'Why didn't you? I had been thinking they were one of your booty calls. I replied, a little hurt.

'At the art gallery, my sister insists I treat her like a stranger. She does not want people to think she has got to be where she is with Dad or my influence, which is stupid because I know little about the art world. Then, Felicity had arrived with Sam. After hugging her, Sam motioned for her to come to him. They were celebrating their engagement, and he had something special set up. So she was called away before I could introduce you, and as she was with a man, I did not think you would see her as my booty call, as you phrased it. Ew, by the way, just Ew. I laughed at his scrunched-up nose at the thought of bedding his sister and not going there.

'I have to say, I was relieved to see they were family, and you do have a lovely family. You should teach them to stay away from the screen when the game is on and warn them I am not a nail polish, spa type of person. Besides, you cannot wear nail polish during surgery!