1. Noelle

noelle

. . .

Okay, I’ll admit, I had no business crying and driving on a narrow mountain pass road in winter conditions.

But in my defense, that snow drift came out of nowhere.

Also, it had been less than 24 hours since my life completely blew up.

“Noelle Winters, please report to the HR office immediately.”

It started yesterday morning when that announcement sounded overhead just as I was settling in for the surgical team's morning briefing to review the day's cases.

I should have known what this sudden, urgent meeting was about by the way Dr. Bradford Tate—aka my evil ex and the new Head of Surgery—smirked as I got up to leave.

"We're going to need to reassign all of Winters' cases...." I heard him say before the door swung shut behind me.

At the time, I hoped he meant just for the day. But I soon found out he meant for the foreseeable future.

"I'm sorry, but one of Gemidgee General's surgeons has accused you of unethical conduct, including patient endangerment, creating a hostile work environment, and undermining them in the OR," an HR rep named Kathy informed me without any preamble.

I blinked, my mind reeling.“Wow. So basically… all the accusations.”

My voice wavered somewhere between disbelief and anger.“Would this anonymous surgeon happen to be Bradford Tate—the doctor I broke up with a couple of weeks ago?”

Kathy’s lips pressed into a thin line."Did you file your relationship status with HR?"

"No," I admitted. The word scraped in my throat as I mentally kicked myself. Brad and I had dated for two years before our Thanksgiving break-up. Secretly.

And when we moved in together, I had foolishly believed him when he told me he couldn’t risk filing our relationship status with the hospital while he was vying to be named Head of Surgery by the age of thirty-five. I thought I was protecting him, helping him achieve his ambitious goal. But, as it turned out, all I was doing was enabling him to set the stage for the perfect retaliation for daring to leave him after I found out he'd cheated on me.

“Well, we’ll have to place you on unpaid administrative leave while we conduct an investigation,” Kathy said, briskly shifting back to business.

“Unpaid leave?”My stomach twisted as I gripped the armrests of the chair. The words felt like a death sentence. I needed this job to pay for the motel I’d moved into after my relationship with Bradford imploded. Also..."Christmas is only a couple of weeks away!"

Kathy had the decency to avert her eyes."I’m aware this isn’t the best timing. But usually, we’re able to resolve these cases within ninety days."

"Ninety days?"My older sister, Holly, nearly screeched later that night after I called to tell her about my sudden change in unemployment status."That’s crazy!"

"I know, right?" I paced the short length of the motel room I’d been staying in, waiting for something affordable to open up in Gemidgee, where most of the cheap apartments were taken by college students all school year.“I don’t have three months’ worth of savings. Hell, I don’t even have ninety dollars in the bank right now. I had to pay Bradford out of the lease for the rest of the year when I moved out.”

"So, the new Head of Surgery, who earns five times more than you, made you pay your half of the lease before retaliating against my baby sister for wanting different things? This asshole is the worst!"

Holly didn’t even know the half of it. She was six years older than me and had what I could only describe as a Mama Bear temperament—which made her an amazing midwife but wasn’t exactly helpful when I didn’t want my big sister thrown in jail for physically assaulting the asshole who cheated on me, blamed me for it, and, worst of all, got violent when I tried to leave the apartment we shared.

The next day, I’d slipped out with whatever I could pack while he was deep into a ten-hour liver transplant surgery. Then I told Holly a partial truth—that it hadn’t worked out because I was ready to start a family, and Bradford was only ready to campaign for the next rung on the hospital ladder: Chief of Staff.

"Anyway, there’s no way I can afford three months in this motel. God, I wish I’d taken Aunt Joy up on her offer to sell me her house before she and Merry moved to Germany."

"Then you’d be jobless, partnerless, and stuck with a mortgage," Holly pointed out, clearly speaking from experience as someone currently paying palimony to her Canadian street artist ex-husband. "Okay, how about Mom? Her apartment’s tiny, but can you stay with her in Minneapolis?"

"Uh, no..." I bit my lip, glancing out the motel window at the snow-covered parking lot. "She’s gotten back together with my dad, and she’s, um… not interested in having me there for the holidays."

"Ugh! Not again!" Holly groaned. "Leaving Travis when that shithead started hitting you, too, was the best decision she ever made. I can’t believe she’s going down that road again."

A weight settled in my chest, guilt and shame pressing against my ribs like a corset of inherited trauma. Not just because Mom had returned to an abusive relationship but because I had unknowingly fallen into the same trap—with a narcissist who, much like my dad, had looked like the perfect catch on the outside.

"Well, I’m not letting my baby sister go homeless," Holly declared. "The hospital I partner with is desperate for holiday staff. They can get you a temporary work visa, and you can sleep on my couch until Gemidgee General clears you of these bullshit charges. But you’d have to be here by the fifteenth. Think you can make it?"

My sister’s wonderful offer was the only thing going right that Christmas. Unfortunately, it came late in the evening on Dec. 13th, and all the flights from Minneapolis to Vancouver were either sold out or four figures—more than a broke, temporarily unemployed me was comfortable putting on her credit card.

I had no choice but to drive the 27-hour trip as fast as possible in my 15-year-old Ford Focus.

I left early the next morning, determined to make it in record time. And maybe I would have if British Columbia’s Best 100.3—the only station I could pick up in this particular patch of mountains with an indigenous name I couldn't begin to pronounce—didn’t only play Canadian artists.

Specifically, "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell.

It came on just as I passed a“Welcome to Bear Mountain’sign overlooking a quaint, snow-dusted town nestled in a deep valley. The kind of place that looked like it belonged on a Christmas card—so cozy and safe. Too bad I didn’t have time to stop.

One moment, I was steadfastly driving past the town while Joni crooned about the bittersweet nature of growing up and out of love.

And the next, tears were streaming down my face because had anyone in the history of music ever been so right?

Then—BAM!

The world turned white, and the airbag exploded. I suppose I should have been grateful it still worked in a car as old as mine— and that I could get the passenger-side door open despite being halfway embedded in a snow drift.

But my ears were ringing, and the sharp, acrid smell of burnt plastic filled my nose. I stumbled out of the car, coughing, with the metallic taste of copper still sharp on my tongue.

The cold hit me immediately. A frigid wind howled around me, biting into my skin and cutting through my thin sweater like it wasn’t even there.

I had to… get my coat from the back seat.

But no… my vision was starting to blur. I didn’t have time to retrieve a warmer piece of outerwear. That town I’d resolutely passed by earlier was now my only priority.

I couldn’t pass out here. I couldn’t.

Oh hell, I already was. My knees gave out, and I landed face first in the snow with an ungraceful plop.

If not for the concussion and the almost certain incoming death—either by hypothermia or being run over by the next car that came around the bend—I might have made snow angels.

This was it. This was how I was going to die, right before Christmas.

But then, just as blackness started to creep into my vision, a hulking shadow loomed over me.

I tried to lift my head to see who—or what —it was, but the snow seemed to pull me deeper, swallowing me whole.

A warm gust of breath swept across my cheek, and something furry nudged my chin. I blinked up, dazed."Was that a…?"

The world turned to black before I could finish the question.