An Honest Kiss

Chapter 12

That evening as she worked her shift she realized she was a social pariah. Sally who had been so friendly up until that point completely ignored her as did all of the others. Rachel who had found a peace over the last month was suddenly worse off than she had ever been.

The next week went by and there was no change.  Rachel did not seek anyone out and she did not try to explain herself to anyone. What could she say other than Jack was her husband and none of them understood. There was no way she was going to let Jack force her into defending herself. When Jack had left her the first time he had not annihilated her life. This time he had.

Rachel had the support of Addie and Paul, but somehow they had been assigned new duties which caused their schedule to be so different from her own that she barely saw them.

Nurse Bowers was looking more and more chipper every time she saw her. She almost glowed when she saw Rachel sitting by herself at meal times. Jack, when he saw her looked right through her, it was as if she didn't exist. Rachel did her best to not only avoid all contact, but the sight of the man as well. 

It was hard to do, especially when he did his rounds at night, but the other nurses had closed ranks and made sure that she was doing other things when he arrived.  Rachel knew this and was happy to fall in with their plans.

Even Brent had left her alone.

After the second week of complete isolation she had had enough and wrote out her letter of resignation. It was just after lunch when she knocked on Nurse Bowers's office door.

She was bid to enter and she did so closing the door behind her.

"Yes, Nurse Edwards." She sounded almost friendly.

"I am guessing you were expecting this." She handed over the letter.

To her credit she kept her face straight as she read the letter. "I will see what we can do about travel arrangements." was all she said before she went back to her previous task.

Rachel turned around and reached for the door knob. "Oh Nurse Edwards, this resignation is effective immediately. There will be no need for you work this evening."

Rachel stopped and looked over at Bowers whose head was bowed to hide the smile on her lips. There were so many scathing comments she could have made, but none of them would have made a difference in the current situation, so she left the office without a word.

That evening she was able to catch up with Paul and Addie and join them for dinner.

"You really don't look well Rachel," Addie said looking at her with concern.

"It's taxing work, being a social pariah." Rachel tried to make a joke but it failed miserable.

"Why don't you just tell everyone?" Paul asked between bites of food.

"No, what would be the point?"

"Everyone would know that you didn't cheat."

"You don't know women Paul." Rachel had thought about it all, over and over again, trying to find a way out of her current situation. "So it comes out that I didn't cheat, then I would be the women that wasn't able to keep him, then it would become that I wasn't good enough for him, then I would be the boss's wife, and on top of all that he will have won.  I have little doubt as to why he wanted me here. To have to admit the truth and then have him divorce me would be..." she couldn't even continue. After a moment she cleared her throat.  "No, I think it's best that I gave my resignation today."

"You what!" Addie all but shouted.  Several people turned to look at them their looks were ones of disgust that she was causing another scene.

"Yep, it would seem Bowers's record is unbroken." Rachel tried another joke, but it dropped like a stone.