Amber’s POV

    When I woke up the next morning, I had a splitting headache and no real recollection of the afternoon and evening from the day before. Anna had stayed the night, helping with Alice while I slept away most of my alcohol–induced

    state.

    As I walked into the living room, she said, “How are you feeling?”

    I groaned.

    Sheughed.

    As much as I would have loved to stay in bed all day and sleep away my troubles, bI /bcouldn’t be so lucky. Responsibilities were still waiting for me at work, and my patients couldn’t wait for me to try to get my act together. Part of being a Healer was always being prepared ready to heal anyone who needed it.

    A day of absence could mean the difference between life or death.

    I had to go, even if I really didn’t want to.

    When I arrived, the crowds of reporters were still lingering outside of the hospital, but today they were joined by a slew of protesters. The security guards weren’t messing around this time. They waited near the parking lot. When they spotted me, they hurried to give me personal protection to weave through the crowd.

    At first I was confused. Did they do the same thing for every Healer and hospital employee? But then I understood when we drew closer to the crowd.

    The signs the protesters held were about me.

    Fire Amber!

    Oust the Killer!

    Elder Jeffers Deserved Better!

    The things they shouted were even worse,ments and words about me and my person that I was d my daughter wasn’t around to hear.

    At the same time as the protesters were verbally berating nie, the reporters were trying to push through to get a

    statement.

    “How do you feel about –”

    “People are saying you –”

    “Did you really neglect –”

    The roar of the crowd was too loud that I couldn’t even hear most of what was being said. Instead, it was like a loud rumble piercing through my thoughts and leaving me nerved.

    Too many people were shouting for me to understand, but he looks on their faces couldn’t be misconstrued.

    7

    They were furious, their gazes filled with hatred. Their moths opened, teeth barred.

    These people believed the things I was being used of, angry in ways that I didn’t fully understand. All I did was treat Elder Jeffers to the best of my ability, and then respect his wishes as he sought the arms of the goddess. He had been surrounded by family. It had been handled in a respectful, by the book sort of way,

    Still, one sharp usation stuck out from among the rest, jarring and so shocking that I froze.

    “You killed him!”

    The security guards had to urge me forward, helping me push through the rest of the crowd before we made it to the stairs and then up into the actual building. The doors closed behind us, muffling the crowd but not silencing it.

    Yet, before bI /bcould rx, I heard a voice through a bullhorn

    “Healer Amber cannot get away with what she has done!”

    It was Kenb, /bstanding at the top of the stairs outside the entrance to the hospital. Beside himb, /bOlivia stood. She nced back at the hospital and looked at me straight through the window.

    Holding my gaze, she smirked.

    “I tried to stop him, but he’s always been too impulsive,” Roger, Elder Jeffers oldest child, said from behind me. Turning, I saw him approaching me from the nurses’ station. “I was waiting for you to arrive, Healer Amber.”

    From outside, Ken red, “She killed my father! He could have been saved!”

    None of that was true.

    “I’m sorry about him,” Roger said with a hint of disappointment in his voice. Roger was a stoic manb, /bever professional. I believed he was a top–tier businessman. He’d taken the money his father had given him when he branched out on his own and quadrupled it,