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Home / Romance / VITALS RISING: DR. NOLAN WILL SEE YOU NOW / Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

All Chapters of VITALS RISING: DR. NOLAN WILL SEE YOU NOW : Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

49 Chapters

31

CHAPTER 31DR.NOLAN’S POVI knew I was supposed to tell her the truth about me.Aria deserved to hear it from my own lips, not from anyone else, not from whispers or accidental revelations. I had promised myself that the moment felt right, I would sit her down and tell her everything—about my past, about the keys, about the secrets I’d locked away. It haunted me every time I heard her voice, because every call, every gentle laugh on the other end of the line reminded me that honesty was long overdue.Yet even in that heaviness, something inside me stirred with a happiness I hadn’t felt in years. Whenever I heard her voice, it was as if the world around me softened.She drew me closer without even trying. Her words, even the simplest ones, made the cold rooms of my heart warm again. For the first time in so many years, I found myself smiling without forcing it,and laughing without fear that the sound might break something fragile inside me.I was so eager and aching to see her again.

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CHAPTER 32 – ARIA’S POVWhen Candy smashed the watch I bought for Dr. Nolan, something inside me cracked.It wasn’t the price that hurt the most, it wasn’t even an expensive watch by anyone’s standards….but it had cost me every little saving I had. I’d planned for days, counted every coin, and still walked out of the store with my heart racing because it meant something. It wasn’t just a watch. It was a piece of my gratitude, a way of saying thank you for every kindness he’d shown me and apologizing too.And now Candy…she's very heartless, and cruel has destroyed it without a flicker of remorse.I stood frozen as the shards of the watch face caught the light, tiny glints of betrayal scattered across the floor. She didn’t even apologize. Not a single word. I felt the burn of humiliation creep up my throat, but I swallowed it back. The last thing I wanted was to trouble Dr. Nolan with my personal frustrations.He already carried so much responsibility; the last thing he needed was my b

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CHAPTER 33 – ARIA’S POVWhat I heard just now shook me to the marrow.Coming in here, seeing the two of them together, watching him remove his mask and then hearing her recognize him, it should have been something simple, something normal, like when people recognize a familiar face. But this wasn’t that. The way she looked at him, the name that left her mouth…it wasn’t a casual recognition.Polaris Medical Group!The words kept echoing inside my head like a bell that refused to stop ringing. Polaris wasn’t just a clinic or a small hospital down the street. It was the hospital. The biggest in the city, the name everyone whispered with reverence when talking about healthcare. The most powerful company in the entire medical industry here. Was she saying that Dr. Nolan… was the heir to that?My thoughts spun so fast I felt dizzy.Because the last time I’d asked him about his life, he had smiled at me, gentle and reassuring, and told me he was just a regular local doctor. Someone ordinary.

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CHAPTER 34ARIA’S POVI couldn’t believe that he had to lie to me. I thought we trusted each other already. I thought the advice he gave me the other time, the way he held my hand, the way he kissed me—those moments made me believe it was because he really liked me. I kept replaying that night in my head, the softness of his lips, the warmth in his eyes, thinking that maybe, just maybe, we were slowly stepping into a relationship. And yet, when I came today, holding the second gift in my hand with a small nervous smile, hoping to surprise him, everything fell apart again.The watch I bought with so much care, the second one after Candy smashed the first, suddenly felt like a heavy rock in my purse. I wanted to throw it away, and in the end, I did. It was too heartbreaking to even look at it. Maybe someone who hasn’t passed through heartbreak would never understand, but right now, I feel like my chest is caving in. My heart is heavy, my throat dry, and my mind keeps spinning in circ

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CHAPTER 35DR. NOLAN’S POVI couldn’t stop myself from wanting to run after her when she left. Every part of me screamed to chase her, to pull her back into my arms, to beg her not to go. But I couldn’t. Not here. Not in the hospital where every nurse, every patient, every doctor watches every move I make. I had to keep calm, keep composed, pretend I was still the polished Dr. Nolan everyone respected.But inside, I was breaking apart.For a few seconds….no, for long aching minutes, I knew I had completely messed up. I should’ve listened to my sister when she warned me. I should’ve told Aria the truth from the very beginning. Maybe if I had been brave enough to open up, she wouldn’t have walked away. Maybe she would still be standing beside me, smiling the way she always does, lighting up the dark corners of my life.Instead, she said goodbye.The sound of that word is still echoing in my head like a cruel melody. Goodbye. I never imagined that one word could feel like a knife twist

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CHAPTER 36ARIA’S POVWho the hell did they think I am? Some cheap slut they can just ride and toss aside? The nerve of that man, sitting there in his spotless doctor’s coat, opening his mouth to spill filth about me as if I’m nothing. The memory of his smug face at the restaurant burns like acid in my chest. His careless words keep replaying in my head, cutting deeper each time. A starving artist. A gold digger. A mistress. The insult crawls beneath my skin until my hands tremble around the strap of my bag.I push through the late-night crowd outside the restaurant, my heels clicking like angry punctuation against the pavement. My heart pounds, not only from humiliation but from fury so sharp it almost tastes like blood. He thinks because he’s a doctor, because he wears a crisp white coat, he can say anything. Maybe he thought I’d be flattered, or too desperate to walk away. Maybe he thought I’d laugh it off and sit pretty while he shredded my dignity.I’m not that girl.I saw one

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CHAPTER 37ARIA’S POVOne date was already exhausting, but two blind dates in the space of a single day felt like running a marathon with my heart on my sleeve. My feet ached, my head buzzed, and my chest carried the dull weight of disappointment. Dating, I decided, was not for the weak. It was a battlefield disguised in soft lighting and pretty clothes, a place where strangers believed they could pick apart your life because they’d been given the right to sit across from you for an hour.Every man I met seemed to come armed with rumors, my dance studio, my online page, whispers about me being someone’s mistress. They all pretended their questions were innocent, but their eyes carried the smug look of people convinced they already knew my story. I hadn’t even opened my mouth and already they judged me. The moment they mentioned my dancing, or worse, those nasty things circulating online, a red flag rose inside me. My stomach would twist, and I knew the date was already over even bef

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CHAPTER 38ARIA’S POVI don’t know what’s wrong with me. Maybe I really do need to see a cardiologist for my heart. The very first day I stepped into Dr. Nolan’s office, I remember him teasing that I might need a cardiologist to check my heart. I laughed it off then, but now his words echo like a prophecy. Because right now my heart feels reckless, hammering against my ribs as if it’s trying to break free.I keep asking myself why I’m falling deeper and deeper for a man who once looked me straight in the eyes and said he wasn’t interested. That memory should have been enough to protect me. It should have been the shield I needed. Instead it’s only fuel, feeding the confusion twisting inside me.The restaurant’s air conditioner hums softly above our heads, cold enough that the people at the next table wear light jackets. Yet my skin feels feverish. Heat spreads from the center of my chest to the tips of my fingers. I can’t tell if it’s anger, embarrassment, or something far more dang

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CHAPTER 39ARIA’S POVAnyone who looked at me right now would know something was off. I could feel it in the way people’s eyes lingered as I passed—like my face carried a secret I couldn’t hide. I wasn’t myself, and even a stranger on the street would sense it. Nora had sensed it first. The way she’d looked at me earlier, sharp and curious, still played in my mind. I couldn’t even blame her. Anyone close to me would notice the difference.But Nora is only five. How could I possibly explain what happened between Dr. Nolan and me? How could I tell a child that her dance coach had been kissed…no, claimed! by a man she wasn’t supposed to care for? The thought made me almost laugh and groan at the same time. No, this was a story that would never leave my own lips.Still, my thoughts refused to leave him. Every quiet second brought me back to that moment, to his eyes, to the way the world had tilted when he said he was falling for me. I wanted to fight the memory, but it stayed, stubborn

40

CHAPTER 40ARIA’S POVSitting on my couch, I couldn’t stop thinking about my life, about the pieces that were mine to handle, and then contrasting it with what I had just witnessed. Candy of all people—living her own part of someone else’s life, playing a role that should have been sacred to another woman. My hands clenched into fists as anger and disbelief collided in my chest. It felt overwhelming, almost suffocating.How could she? How could Candy, the same woman who had been rude, proud, and jealous, be so audacious as to actually live as a mistress while calling me a mistress? The audacity made my stomach churn. She wasn’t just scheming in the way she’d been with me before, she was living a lie, manipulating, and smiling as if the world didn’t see it. And yet, she thought she could fool everyone including little Nora. But I wasn’t five. I could see everything. I had watched closely the way Mr. Mark’s hand rested so comfortably on her waist, the ease in his posture when she lean

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