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Chapter_246
Whitney stood motionless, her fingers hovering just above the curtain, the weight of the moment pressing down on her like an overwhelming force. She could hear his voice, clear and unmistakable—Ludwik. Her heart, once numbed by years of heartache and distance, now ached with a raw intensity she hadn’t experienced in so long.
Her mind raced, trying to grasp the reality of the situation. She hadn’t expected this—not in a million years. Ludwik—the father of her child, the man who had once been her world—was sitting on the other side of that curtain, a patient in her care. The years that had passed since their tragic separation now seemed irrelevant, as memories of their life together, the love they had shared, and the pain that had followed, all came rushing back in an uncontrollable wave.
Ludwik’s voice broke through her thoughts, filled with frustration. “Felix, why is it a female doctor?” he demanded, as if his request for a different doctor, someone familiar, could erase the past and make everything simpler. But reality didn’t bend to his will, and the past was not so easily dismissed.
Whitney inhaled deeply, gathering her strength. She couldn’t let the emotions flooding her overcome her. There was a job to do, and despite everything—this man, this man she had once loved—was now simply a patient. Nothing more. Nothing less. She had to maintain control.
With trembling hands, she parted the curtain, revealing Ludwik sitting with his back to her, a cigarette dangling between his fingers. The sight of him—the man who had lingered in her dreams for so long—was almost unbearable. His once-commanding presence now seemed diminished, hollow, as if the years had worn him down. His features—his sharp jawline, those intense eyes—were still the same, but they carried a weight now. The authority he had once exuded felt distant, as if it had been replaced with something more vulnerable.
Ludwik turned slowly, and their eyes locked. The room seemed to still, the tension thick and suffocating. For a brief moment, it was as though the years between them had evaporated, as though time had rewound to a moment when they had stood together, side by side.
Whitney swallowed hard, her voice barely above a whisper. “Mr. Lippert, please remove your pants for the examination. I’m here to help you, but I need you to cooperate.”
Ludwik’s eyes, still wide with shock, flickered to the chart in her hands. His face darkened as the reality of the situation set in. “Whitney,” he murmured, his voice barely audible, thick with emotion.
She didn’t reply immediately. Her heart was a storm of conflicting emotions. The woman who had once been everything to him now stood before him as his doctor, a professional barrier between them. But inside, the walls she had so carefully built around herself began to crack. She could feel the remnants of their past seeping through, threatening to undo everything she had worked so hard to bury.
She couldn’t allow herself to break down. Not now. Not in front of him. Yet, a part of her felt the weight of fate drawing them back together, testing both of them in ways they hadn’t expected.
Ludwik’s gaze softened, his pride momentarily faltering. As he looked at her, the sense of loss, the ache that had never truly left him, was clear in his eyes. He had convinced himself that he had moved on, that time had healed everything. But now, seeing her standing before him, a stranger in so many ways, he realized that some wounds don’t heal—they only become buried, hidden beneath the surface.
“Whitney,” he repeated, the name sounding foreign on his tongue. “I never thought I’d see you again. Not like this.”
Whitney took a slow, steadying breath. “You’re here as a patient, Ludwik. This is professional. We have a job to do.”
Her words felt hollow, even to herself. She knew the connection between them went deeper than professionalism, that the history they shared was too painful to ignore. Yet, she had no choice but to push forward. The walls she had built were weakening, and she feared that this moment, this chance encounter, was the beginning of everything coming undone.
