The Billionaire And His Son Want Me Back (Paisley)

"I'm fine, but thank you," Paisley replied with a polite smile.

"It's no trouble at all." The doctor was all eagerness, his eyes fixed on Paisley with undisguised admiration. "Oh, have you eaten? I could order something for you. There's this amazing restaurant nearby. Let me get you something from there."

Before Paisley could turn him down, someone else had already shut down the young doctor's offer. "Thanks, but we're good." Dominick's refusal was blunt, his eyes holding a clear warning. He towered over the doctor, his presence downright intimidating.

The doctor took a couple of steps back, clearly unnerved by Dominick but still mustering up some courage. "With all due respect, Mr. Vanderbilt, I wasn't asking you. I was asking Ms. Sutton." Dominick's expression darkened. "She's not interested either."

The doctor was about to question what right Dominick had to answer for Paisley. But one look at Dominick's intimidating face killed that thought really quick.

He was just a regular doctor. No way was he going to mess with someone who had Dominick's kind of financial power. "R-right, okay," he stammered before making an awkward beeline out of the room.

The moment the door clicked shut, Dominick turned to Paisley. "Could you maybe not flash those smiles at every guy who's obviously hitting on you?"

Paisley stared at him, speechless. "Dominick, you're actually insane."

She couldn't even deal with this crazy man right now. Rolling her eyes, she leaned back and closed them, trying to get some peace and quiet.

Out of sight, out of mind-that was the plan.

Footsteps faded away, and the hospital room fell quiet again.

A few moments passed before Dominick's voice drifted over from the window. "Paisley, can I ask when you started studying medicine?"

Paisley kept her eyes closed, but she wasn't quite drifting off yet. When she heard Dominick's question, she answered without giving it much thought.

As a patient's family member, it made sense that Dominick would want to know about the doctor's credentials.

"Three years old," Paisley mumbled, eyes still shut, her voice heavy with fatigue.

"Three years old?" Dominick was floored. In his mind, three-year-olds were basically living dolls,

completely helpless. He couldn't even remember what he was doing at that age.

No one in their right mind would make a three-year-old study something like this. But something about Paisley's tone told him she wasn't making this up.

"Why?" Dominick suddenly realized he barely knew anything about Paisley at all.

Paisley said softly, "I was three when my adoptive grandfather found me. He was already in his eighties then.

"Grandpa was completely obsessed with medicine. He spent his whole life studying Ancient Medical Arts.

Never got married, never had a family or kids of his own, never passed on his knowledge.

"Then he found me and took me in. Just like that, I became his only successor."

"But he was so old by then, there wasn't time to teach me slowly. So..." Sleep was starting to pull at Paisley, and her voice grew fainter. "I had to learn his entire life's work in just ten years..."

Dominick's breath caught in his throat. He couldn't even begin to imagine how Paisley had survived those ten years.

Paisley had started studying medicine at just three years old. A decade later, she was barely thirteen. And here she was, brushing off those painful years like they were nothing more than a footnote.

"Why didn't you tell me any of this before?" Dominick whispered. But all he got in response was the soft sound of Paisley's steady breathing.