“I’ll only be a minute.” Lila sat on the sofa.
Ross sat across from her.
Mattie brought two bottles of water, though Lila had said she didn’t want anything. “I’m going to finish unpacking,” she said, “give the two of you time to catch up.”
Ross waved her over for a kiss before leaving.
Lila smiled. “Beautiful girl you have there.”
“Thank you?” Ross wasn’t sure what to say. He was still too shocked. “What happened to you? I went back to Lakeside and I thought—”
“The police were there to arrest me? Mark had said.”
“One minute they were there and the next they’d left.”
“It was a new patient admission sent over from the hospital. Mark said it was an out of control teen.”
“Mark seems to have said a lot. I didn’t think you talked to him so much.”
“I didn’t. Only recently. There were things that needed tying up.”
“Does he know?”
“What I did? No. He suspected after what he’d heard from Ruth and Dr. Oliver. You are the only person I admitted the truth to. Thank you for not saying anything. I know you were getting pressured, that your job was threatened.”
“I wouldn’t have talked regardless. All things considered, you made a valid decision. How did you get out of Lakeside? What happened? Is everything all right?”
“It will be. I signed a lot of paperwork going in that I shouldn’t have. I made a call to my lawyer and she came to help me. I had no idea what I was doing, or who was doing what to me when I was admitted.”
“You mean Ruth?”
Lila nodded. “Her house was my first stop after the lawyer’s office.”
“Speaking of houses, what about yours?”
“No sale. It’s taken a couple of weeks to get everything straightened out, but I’m home where I should be thanks to you.”
“Me? What did I do?”
“You understood me. You helped me believe I had done the right thing, for me, honoring Blake’s wishes, and you reminded me that there was a life outside Lakeside. If you hadn’t told me about the house being on the market, I’m not sure I’d have acted so quickly or so drastically. I needed the push to get out of my own way. I came to terms with things the way Blake had come to terms with his mortality. He wanted to die before the disease ruined him, before he became something neither of us would have wanted. He saw an opportunity and he took it. I know it and I’ll make sure Garrett Wade knows it, too, because eighteen-years-old is too young to have someone’s death on your head. The kid was high, frantic. Blake took advantage. He had told me once that his father might as well have been an invalid his entire life because that was how he remembered him. You know how I remember Blake?”
“How?”
“The night of the shooting, I had been studying for my first nursing exam. It had been a long time since Blake and I had been together, you know, physically—since the day he pushed me, actually. He had a harder time forgiving himself for that than I had forgiving him. I knew he didn’t mean to hurt me, but I also knew it was the beginning of changes neither of us was prepared for. We made love the night of the shooting, on the living room sofa, and I was going to cook us a late night snack, but we were out of eggs. When I think of Blake, I don’t think of him as sick, or dying. I remember him as young and healthy, running to the store so we could have omelettes. He told me he loved me and that night, I felt it. Losing someone changes people, but Blake was ready to go. I’m not sure I would have accepted that without your help, so thank you.”
“You helped me, too, believe it or not.”
A knowing smile spread across Lila’s face. “Looks like you’re working on your second chance.”
“Second? More like one-hundred-and-second. Everyone needs forgiveness, right?”
Lila nodded.
“What’s next for you? What about Ruth and the paperwork? I got the impression she was out for blood.”
“Was. Funny how the right lawyer can put the fear of God in someone. Ruth stands to be in as much trouble as I would have been for the forgery, or worse, for what she and Dr. Oliver did to me. She went too far, crossed too many lines. The paperwork I signed under heavy sedation nullifies any hold she had on me or Blake’s estate. Ruth doesn’t want Blake’s illness exposed, nor does she want his memory tarnished. He died a hero. People wouldn’t look at him the same way if they knew his death was more of an assisted suicide.”
“What about Guy?”
“Lakeside’s troubles being what they are, I don’t expect him to be supportive of Ruth since she’s not making that donation he had hoped for. Mark told me everything after all. Things are as they should be. Ruth and I reached an understanding, which is more than I’d have expected.”
“So everything’s settled between the two of you?”
“We agreed that trying to destroy each other means neither of us wins. She even returned Princess.”
Ross managed a smile. “Then I guess this is happily ever after?”
“As much as it can be for people like us.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
*Runner-up Halloween Book Festival 2012 and optioned for film, Cure
*Honorable Mention New York Book Festival 2014, Better Left Buried
*Amazon Top 100 Medical Thriller, Fatal Reaction
After fifteen years of working in healthcare, Belinda Frisch's stories can't help being medicine influenced. A writer of dark tales in the horror, mystery, and thriller genres, Belinda tells the stories she’d like to read. Her fiction has appeared in Shroud Magazine, Dabblestone Horror, and Tales of the Zombie War. She is the author of Cure, Afterbirth, Fatal Reaction, Better Left Buried, and The Missing Year. She resides in upstate New York with her husband and a small menagerie of beloved animals.
Visit her blog at: BelindaF.blogspot.com
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