The Patient from Silvertree: Book One in the Silvertree Series

by Marian Dribus

  Lisa didn’t know what to say.

  “Do you mind if we keep walking?” she said.

  “No,” said Josh. “It’s probably a good idea, considering everything.”

  This remark didn’t comfort Lisa. She felt discouraged. There were so many things she couldn’t tell him. She had somehow managed to ignore the fact that her father was guilty of murder, but she knew the truth would eventually come out if they told the police about Graham. She couldn’t look at Josh. Bowing her head, she trudged along without watching where she was going until Josh stopped her.

  “Isn’t that your dad?” he said in a barely audible voice.

  Lisa looked up. Sure enough, her father was standing there with his back toward them. Instinctively, she grabbed Josh’s arm and dragged him behind the nearest tree, a gnarled oak with Spanish moss hanging off its branches. Although they were concealed, Lisa still felt exposed.

  “Lisa, what’s wrong?” said Josh.

  “I haven’t talked to him since the wedding,” she said.

  “Well, maybe this is a good opportunity for you to tell him how you feel,” said Josh.

  “You don’t understand,” said Lisa. “We shouldn’t have come here. I can’t breathe.”

  She felt like she was suffocating. Her vision grew hazy and her face went numb. She decided she was dying and closed her eyes. Josh put his arm around her shoulders, and she clung to him in desperation.

  After several minutes, she realized she was still alive. She felt her face turning red. Josh probably thought she was the most pathetic girl he had ever met. She tried to pull herself together. Through the moss, she saw something she couldn’t believe was real. She blinked, but it didn’t go away. She reluctantly admitted the truth: her father wasn’t alone, and his companion was Graham. Lisa had never seen Graham in such a sorry state before: his eyes were red, and his face was swollen.

  “Hello, Andrew,” he said. “I apologize for being late.”

  “If this isn’t a good time, I’d be glad to leave,” said Lisa’s father.

  “No, the boss wants an update,” said Graham. He staggered to the nearest bench and sat down with a groan. “Don’t pay any attention to me. How’s our patient?”

  “Not good,” said Andrew. “Here are her most recent test results.”

  Lisa decided she was having a nightmare. Nothing about the situation felt real. She tried to wake up, but nothing changed. Her father gave Graham an envelope. Graham ripped it open with feverish excitement and extracted a report.

  “It must be difficult to get this information every day, considering the deplorable state of your laboratory,” he said, flipping through the pages. “I assume you’ve been outsourcing everything. It’s probably getting prohibitively expensive.”

  “No kidding,” said Lisa’s father.

  “To be honest, I actually regret the part I played in that whole fiasco, but it seemed like the right thing to do at the time,” said Graham. “At least nobody got hurt. It could have been much worse.” He finished reading the report. “Sabrina’s really going down the drain, isn’t she? What’s the timeline on the treatment schedule?”

  “She’s supposed to get the third dose tomorrow, but I’m not sure if she can tolerate it,” said Lisa’s father. “She’s very fragile. I don’t know how much longer she’s going to last. If you’ve got any suggestions, I’d be grateful.”

  “Unfortunately, we’ve hit a snag in our research,” said Graham. “You can only learn so much by playing around with rats. What we need is a real patient. To make a long story short, we’ve been getting some contradictory data, and we’re not sure why. The boss thinks we’re looking in the wrong place for answers and wants to run a few tests on some tissue samples.”

  “What sort of tissue samples?” said Lisa’s father.

  “Oh, the usual,” said Graham. “I brought you a list.”

  Lisa wanted to scream. She covered her mouth with her hands and looked at Josh, but he wasn’t paying attention to her. Graham removed a piece of paper from his suit with a flourish. Lisa’s father glanced at it before crumpling it up and throwing it away in disgust.

  “This is crazy,” he said. “Some of these procedures are painful, and none of them have any therapeutic value. Sabrina may be desperate, but she’s not stupid. There’s no way she’s going to consent to any of this.”

  “It’s your job to convince her,” said Graham. “Just tell her the third dose is probably the turning point and that you’ll be able to find evidence at the cellular level if she’s getting better—both true statements—and she’ll agree to whatever you have in mind.”

  “What about Richard?” said Lisa’s father.

  “That’s not my problem,” said Graham. “You never should have told him we were working together. I’m sure you’ll think of something to say. How hard could it be? He’s old and feeble.” He picked up the piece of paper, smoothed out the wrinkles, and gave it back to Lisa’s father. “You should keep this for future reference. We’re at a critical juncture, and my boss would be livid if you messed everything up.”

  He patted Lisa’s father on the shoulder and hurried away. Lisa’s father tucked the paper into his pocket and trudged off in the opposite direction until he disappeared into the distance. The sun dipped below the horizon. Lisa sat down with her back against the tree and tried to gather her thoughts.

  “There must be some mistake,” she said.

  “My poor mom,” said Josh. “She’s just trying to survive. Your dad is disgusting. Who does he think he is? He’s completely responsible for this. He probably planned the whole thing as soon as he found out she was sick. I bet he told her the drug was her only hope, even though he knew it wouldn’t help her.”

  “No, it was her idea,” said Lisa.

  “Oh, sure,” said Josh. “She was so curious about Peterson’s research that she actually got cancer so she could experience the effects of the drug personally. Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds? Look, I know you don’t want to admit this is your dad’s fault, but there’s no other explanation.”

  “Yes, there is,” said Lisa. His anger scared her. “Would you please stop jumping to conclusions and listen to me? My father didn’t have a choice. Your mother blackmailed him.”

  “You can’t possibly be serious,” said Josh. “You’re blaming her?”

  “Josh, I was there,” said Lisa. “She showed up at my house with her medical records, and when my father told her how sick she was, she insisted on being treated with the drug. He said it was a terrible idea, but she refused to change her mind.”

  “Well, I’m not going to let him get away with it anymore,” said Josh. “I’m going to tell my dad as soon as we get back to the house.”

  “You can’t,” said Lisa. As he turned to go, she grabbed his arm. “If you do that, both our families will be destroyed.”

  “Exaggerating much?” said Josh, pulling himself away. “My family will be just fine once it gets away from yours.”

  “No, you don’t understand,” said Lisa. Desperation filled her mind, and she decided there was no point in concealing the truth. “My father and your mother are keeping a terrible secret, and if anyone finds out, nothing will ever be the same.”

  “What secret?” said Josh. There was no hint of gentleness in his eyes. Lisa’s courage failed her. She got up and stumbled across the grass toward the barrier that held back the river. Josh seemed to recognize she needed time to collect herself, but she knew he was waiting for an answer. Her heart pounded violently in her chest.

  “It happened last year,” she said. “My grandmother had a heart attack. She managed to survive, even though she wasn’t supposed to, but she was really messed up. My father thought she wouldn’t want to live like that, so he gave her too much pain medicine, and she died. He told your mother for some reason, and she used it against him.”

  “Wait, you mean he did it on purpose?” said Josh.

  Lisa couldn’t speak, so she nodded.


  “They’re covering up a murder?” said Josh.

  “Yes, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Lisa in desperation. “Please, Josh, it’s not what you think. My father isn’t a bad person. I’m sure he thought he was doing the right thing.”

  “How can you defend him?” said Josh.

  “For the same reason you can defend your mother,” said Lisa.

  “My mom never killed anyone,” said Josh.

  “Well, congratulations,” said Lisa, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. “She’s still a criminal. It’s against the law to threaten people like that, so stop acting like she’s perfect. They’d both get into trouble if the police found out what they did.”

  Josh didn’t seem to have heard her.

  “Let me see if I’ve got this right,” he said, looking straight into the depths of her soul. “You’ve known about this for months now, and you haven’t done anything about it?”

  “What was I supposed to do?” said Lisa. “I didn’t have anyone to advise me, and I was afraid of making things worse. I don’t need you second-guessing me. You don’t know how difficult this is.”

  “Actually, I do,” he said. “My mom is dying, and your dad is scheming to cut her up into little pieces to keep himself out of trouble.”

  Lisa stopped trying to control her misery. She climbed onto the barrier and sat there with her head buried in her arms, feeling utterly wretched. Everything was ruined, and it was all her fault.

  “Lisa, I didn’t mean to upset you so much,” said Josh. “I’m sorry for freaking out on you, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this bad. It’s a lot to take in.” He sat down beside her, frowning into the gathering darkness. “Who else knows about this?”

  “Someone told my mother,” said Lisa. “That’s why she was mad at my father during the wedding. I don’t know who it was. Most of the guests were my parents’ friends. It could have been anyone.”

  “Maybe it was Graham,” said Josh.

  Lisa shrugged. She was too upset to speculate. She wondered if she should have told Josh the truth. What if he decided to take matters into his own hands? She hoped his desire to protect his mother would outweigh his inclination to destroy her father, but she feared he might view the whole thing as an opportunity to extricate his family from a bad situation. She waited, trying to prepare herself for the worst, but it was a long time before he spoke.

  “We’re in over our heads,” he said. To her relief, he didn’t sound angry anymore. “This is so bad that I honestly don’t know what to do. I wish we could tell the police everything, but if we go that route, it’ll start a cascade of events we won’t be able to control.”

  Lisa nodded. Graham’s comment about her father’s laboratory returned to her mind. According to the official story, the explosion had been caused by a gas leak, but now she knew what had really happened.

  “It’s too dangerous,” she said.

  “I agree, but I’m not going to let your dad take advantage of my mom,” said Josh. “I’m still going to talk to my dad, but I won’t say anything that could cause trouble for your family. I just want to make sure someone’s looking out for my mom’s best interests. That’s the most important thing right now.”

  Lisa didn’t know much about Josh’s father, but she was inclined to think well of him. Compared to the other prominent adults in her life, he seemed sensible enough, despite his incomprehensible blindness when it came to Josh’s mother.

  “What about your grandfather?” she said. “It sounds like he knows what’s going on between my father and Graham.”

  “I don’t know,” said Josh. “Graham told me some pretty awful things about him. He might have been lying, but I don’t think he was. I’m not sure if Richard is here because he cares about us, or because he’s trying to prove a point.”

  Lisa didn’t know what Josh meant, but she decided not to ask any more questions. His family was none of her business anyway. She felt grateful to him for being honest with her, but she couldn’t find the words to tell him.

  “I’m still worried about Graham,” she said.

  “So am I, but there’s nothing we can do about him at the moment,” said Josh. “Let’s forget about him for now. Do you mind if we talk about normal stuff instead? I’m sick of conspiracy theories, and we can’t go back to the house yet anyway.”

  “Why not?” said Lisa.

  “Our parents think we’re on a date, and if we don’t stay out long enough, they’ll get suspicious,” said Josh.

  He stood up and extended his hand. Lisa took it and scrambled off the barrier. They walked through the park for the better part of an hour. Their conversation was awkward at first, but it wasn’t long before Lisa realized Josh was genuinely interested in what she had to say. To her surprise, she found herself talking freely, enjoying his company so much that she temporarily forgot about her troubles. If his smile was any indication, he was similarly affected by her.

  It was only when they returned to the house that her anxiety returned. Josh thanked her for spending the evening with him and hurried upstairs to talk to his father. Lisa hoped he would honor the promise he had made to protect her family.

  ∞∞∞

  Lisa’s father arrived at the house the next morning to check on Sabrina. Richard met him on the porch and brought him directly into the sickroom.

  “Sabrina had a rough night,” he said. “We almost called you, but we were finally able to get her settled, so we didn’t. She was in a lot of pain. I’m really starting to question the wisdom of giving her another dose.”

  “I don’t have anything else to offer her,” said Lisa’s father.

  He looked down at Sabrina. She was still alive, but he sensed death lingering in the air. He told himself it was a figment of his imagination. Arthur sat beside Sabrina, holding her hand. Not knowing what to say, Lisa’s father picked up the clipboard and glanced through the copious notes Agnes had taken during the previous night.

  “She’s not doing well,” said Agnes. “She’s disoriented, she’s hurting, and I can’t give her anything to make her feel better because she’s having trouble breathing. The drug isn’t helping her. I think it’s time to talk about other options.”

  Lisa’s father grasped Sabrina’s wrist. Her skin was cold, and her pulse was irregular. She didn’t respond to his touch beyond a brief fluttering of her eyelids. He thought about Graham’s outrageous proposal and felt utterly wretched, but what difference would it make in the grand scheme of things? Sabrina was dying anyway.

  “There aren’t any other options,” he said. “We need to keep trying.”

  “No,” said Agnes. “We need to stop torturing this poor woman.”

  “I’ll take another sample of her bone marrow to see if her body is producing any cells that might be fighting the cancer,” said Lisa’s father. “We’ll have the results tomorrow. Then we’ll decide what to do.”

  He ignored Agnes’ protests and turned his attention to Arthur, who had listened to the entire conversation in gloomy silence.

  “I can’t do this without your permission,” he said. “If I don’t find irrefutable proof the drug is helping her, I’ll stop the treatment and focus on keeping her comfortable instead.”

  Arthur touched Sabrina’s sunken cheek, but she didn’t respond. The sound of her shallow gasps filled the air.

  “I don’t want her to suffer,” he said.

  “If you want to save her, you can’t sympathize with her,” said Lisa’s father. “She knew what she was signing up for. It’s only one more day.”

  “When you’re in pain, that’s an eternity,” said Arthur.

  “No, death is an eternity,” said Lisa’s father. He hadn’t expected Arthur to oppose him, and Graham’s threats filled him with panic. “Look, I don’t want to put her through this any more than you do, but I’m just trying to honor her wishes.”

  “And I’m trying to do what’s best for her,” said Arthur. “If honoring her wishes means subjecting her to pointles
s suffering, I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do. I’m sorry for questioning you about all this stuff, but I talked to Josh yesterday evening, and he made me reconsider our approach.”

  “He’s a teenage boy,” said Lisa’s father.

  “I know, but he loves his mom dearly,” said Arthur. “She was in agony last night. It might be different if I could comfort her, but I don’t think she even knows I’m here. It’s time to face the truth: she isn’t getting better, Andrew.”

  “What are you saying?” said Lisa’s father.

  “I don’t want her final days to be miserable,” said Arthur. “If the drug were going to work, we would have seen evidence by now. I don’t want you sticking her with needles or injecting her with poison anymore. We’re done.”

  Richard turned around.

  “You can’t do that,” he said.

  “Actually, I can,” said Arthur. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

  “No, but your kids are going to ask you a lot of awkward questions when their mom dies and Peterson comes after them,” said Richard.

  Arthur released Sabrina’s hand and stood up.

  “Not now,” he said. “Can you please just let me focus on my wife?”

  “Arthur, I’m not trying to contribute to your grief, but you need to listen to me,” said Richard. “There are so many things you don’t know. The details aren’t important, but I was right about everything. Graham is Peterson’s stooge. He’s operating out of Hamilton Estate. He’s got a rich sponsor bankrolling him and a whole crew of accomplices. In the few short months since his arrival, he’s incinerated a building and orchestrated a murder, and if that doesn’t disturb you, he’s been manipulating Andrew to get information about Sabrina and passing it along to his boss.”

  “I think you’re certifiably insane,” said Arthur.

  “Andrew, tell him the truth,” said Richard. “It’s time.”

  Lisa’s father felt trapped, but he knew he had to say something.

  “Before I started treating Sabrina, Graham told me he was putting together a team to research the drug,” he said. “He tried to recruit me, but I turned him down. When Sabrina started deteriorating, I asked him for advice because I thought he might know something useful. Ever since then, he’s been demanding more and more details about her.”