Chapter 4 SILENT VOWS

"BELLAMY MEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER" was boldly written at the top of the skyscraper that housed the hospital. This part of town was filled with towering skyscrapers, but this one stood the tallest and most magnificent.

Elias looked at the woman beside him with a small frown on his face. "What is your name?" He asked as they pulled to a stop.

"Pardon my manners," she replied, facing him. "I am Harper. Harper Bellamy."

Elias looked at the top of the skyscraper and back against her again. She flashed him a tight smile and nodded. "My father owns the building..."

Elias remained silent as they got into an elevator.

There were two men in black suits and sunglasses standing in front of the suite. Harper gave them an acknowledging nod as she and Elias passed by.

Elias stepped into the VVIP suite and immediately felt out of place. Everything was white and clean and expensive. He was still wearing the same tattered clothes he'd worn out of prison. He felt like a stain on the carpet, but he held his head high.

The rich man whom Elias had saved in the afternoon was sitting up in bed, he had a tube inserted into his wrist, but he was fully awake and alert. He was taking a sip from a glass cup as they walked in.

"You are supposed to be resting," Harper said, concern immediately filling her voice. "Why are you up?" She hurried to his side.

He waved her off without a word and looked at Elias. His eyes widened in surprise as he took in Elias's appearance. "Coffee?" He asked.

Elias shook his head.

"You are the doctor that saved the chairman's life?" another voice said. Elias turned to see a smallish-looking man with balding hair and thin-framed glasses. The man stood up and brushed his brown suit pants. He kept his distance from Elias, as if he were afraid of being infected by dirt.

"Doctor Marcus..." Harper said in surprise. "Are you here to check on my father?"

"The chairman asked me to come. He said it was a matter of immense importance," Doctor Marcus said. He was the lead surgeon in the hospital. He looked at Elias again as if he were a speck of sand.

"What is going on?" Harper asked, glancing at her father. "I thought you just wanted to thank the man."

The chairman nodded.

"Good," Doctor Marcus said hastily. "We will give him some money and he can be on his way. You need to rest, Mr chairman." He began walking out, expecting Elias to follow, but the chairman halted them.

"Is there anything you would like? As a way to show my gratitude..." the chairman asked.

Elias looked around. This was Charles Bellamy, one of the wealthiest man on the continent, and owner of this hospital. He looked at Harper, sitting beside her father and he thought of asking for her hand in marriage. He smiled again at the thought. It would be outrageous, and he would be rejected certainly. Instead, he said, "I want to work here."

"Oh, yeah," Doctor Marcus said. "I'm sure we have some entry level positions as a janitor or cleaner-"

Elias glanced at the snobbish look on the face of the doctor and repeated himself. "I want to work here as a trauma surgeon," He said, cutting in.

"What?" Doctor Marcus's head snapped. "You are ridiculous. We can't... Do you know the amount of rigorous training every doctor in this hospital has to pass through before -"

"Done." The chairman said, cutting through Doctor Marcus. "You will be paid a bonus advance, and will start whenever you want."

"In two days time," Elias said in a steady voice. He nodded at the chairman and Harper, who had a slightly confused frown on her, and then walked out before Doctor Marcus could pick his jaw from the floor.

Harper remained in the room for another second. Her face was puzzled with confusion as she looked from her father to the dazed Doctor Marcus, and then to the swinging door from which Elias just walked out from. She muttered a curse under her breath and hurried after Elias.

"What do you think you just did?" She yelled immediately she caught up with him.

He turned to look at her with an eyebrow half raised. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know you, Mr Harper," she said angrily. "But i don't think you have the right to play such games... before we employ anybody in this hospital they must have gone through a rigorous training and the board must approve of their certificates."

"With all their rigorous training, they won't still be able to save your father if they had seen him sprawled on the road." Elias countered.

Harper spluttered, unable to reply because she knew he was right.

"I will be resuming in two days," Elias continued. "I expect to have gotten a payment advance before then." He gave her a nod and then turned and walked away.

As he walked out of the large building complex, Elias wondered if he had overplayed his hand and bitten more than he could chew. After all, what was his acupuncture needles and medical skills learnt in prison against the big certified doctors of the world...

He looked back at the building and could envision the sneering, snobbish look of Doctor Marcus, and the jeering laughter of Beatrice and her lover.

With a fresh new determination, Elias swore to himself that he was going to make it work, no matter what.