**6 months later**
After a long discussion between Hayden and the boss, a hard decision was made with the intent to remove Hayden and me from the Torex gang as much as possible. It took a long time and multiple conversation with the boss for a decision to be reached that allowed Hayden to change his last name from Torex to something else.
Of course, that also meant that I wouldn’t have the Torex last name, and neither would our children if we ended up having them in the future.
The decision probably wouldn’t have been reached had it not been for Harvey’s support. In the end, the boss had to give in on this. For the boss, this was a very big deal because the decision held significant symbolic meaning. Publicly, it would look like Hayden had been disowned from his family.
"Are you sure that this is a good idea?" I asked.
"Of course, it is. We’ll be freer to do whatever we want to do without the Torex last name on our backs and it’s not like I’ve been disowned for real. Within Torex, I will always be Hayden Torex. I’ll have access to everything that a Torex should have. It’s not all bad," Hayden replied with certainty.
Since he seemed so sure about it, I didn’t have any objections about it either. Hayden assured me that this move would somehow help us move on with what we wanted to do with our lives. For Hayden, that was running his hospitals and clinics to help the poor. For me, that was reconnecting with my old life and building my career as a professional artist.
Time passed by in a flash, luckily both Hayden and I had some achievements to show for that. After working hard with the design team and then supervising the renovations of the gallery for the next two to three months, the art gallery was ready for its opening day. I held a very small gathering to celebrate the official opening of my first ever art gallery.
It was a great chance for me to reconnect with my university friends and professors. After putting my personal life on hold for a long while, I managed to step back into my old life with a powerful big and new change.
Despite our formal removal from the Torex group and family, Hayden still retained all the luxury and wealth that came with his birth in a very convenient way. That also included the support from his family for funding for his project. Since he wasn’t truly disowned, Hayden still had access to all his wealth. Hayden would always joke about how his project was funded by dirty money from the mafia.
"Just like Robinhood, you know. Paying and giving back to the society," Hayden said half-jokingly.
Just like we had agreed before when he took me to visit his hospital, we developed a routine to fly around from the mansion to the hospital. I tried to make myself as flexible to his schedule as much as possible. When we stayed at the mansion, I would work at the studio in the mansion or at the gallery. When Hayden worked at his hospital, I would work at the studio inside the house.
Overall, everything worked out fine.
It all turned out as I had imagined in my mind, if not better. Just as I had wished, I got to see new sides of Hayden that I never saw before. Every time I learnt something new about him, I felt so excited.
Since Hayden started working as a doctor again in his hospital, I got the chance to see him in action as a doctor more often than ever before. At first, it was a sight that I had trouble wrapping my head around. However, I soon got used to it and I also developed a sense of respect for him and the work that he does.
"So, where does it hurt? Here? What about here?" Hayden asked a young boy who looked clearly malnourished.
The boy was admitted to the hospital along with his mother after suffering from a case of extreme domestic abuse from his father. His mother was also a victim of the abuse. It didn’t take me long to learn that almost all patients that got admitted to Hayden’s hospital had some disturbing baggage of some kind.
It wasn’t just their lacking financial status that made them seek for help here, usually there were other factors as well.
--To be continued...