“Like clockwork!” I answered a little too quickly. “Every single day.”
That was probably one of the biggest lies I’d ever told.
I stopped taking them the exact day I found out about the surrogate position. No, I wasn’t sure if I’d get the job the day I stopped… or if I’d get it at all. Still there was no way I could risk antipsychotic medication showing up in my labs. Truthfully, I didn’t even fully know how long traces stayed in your body after stopping them.
Days?
Weeks?
Longer?
And that uncertainty alone was enough to make me paranoid.
Still, I wasn’t taking any chances. One flagged result and suddenly every doctor in the building would’ve started speaking to me in that slow, cautious voice people use before calling security.
Dr. Loomis’s eyes lingered on me briefly before he nodded. “How’s the job search going?”
“I’ve put in applications here and there, but nothing official yet,” I lied.
In reality, job searching had been the last thing on my mind lately. Between trying to reconnect withJaceand keeping my life from falling apart again, employment barely even crossed my mind.
The voices slipped into my head so quietly it almost blended with my own thoughts.
He doesn’t believe you.
He’s watching your hands.
I curled my fingers together tighter in my lap.
Dr. Loomis noticed immediately. “Is everything alright? You seem a littletensetoday,” he observed gently.
I smirked lightly and shifted nervously in my seat. “Really? I thought I was doing pretty good at pretending to be a functioning member of society today.”
Dr. Loomis didn’t smile.
His eyes stayed fixed on me carefully… too carefully.
That man studied people the way hunters watched movement in dark woods, patiently waiting for something to reveal itself.
Dr. Loomis slowly leaned forward, resting his elbows against the desk as his attention narrowed fully onto me.
“Haelyn… are you hearing the voices again?”
For half a second, my mind blanked.
I wanted to tell him they never truly left; I’d just gotten better at pretending they weren’t there.
This is not the time to start being honest, Haelyn.
Are you trying to get sent back already? We just got you out of there.
I straightened my posture, forcing calm back into my expression.
“No,” I answered carefully. “I think I’m just still adjusting to everything again, so my mind’s been a little overstimulated lately.”
Dr. Loomis’s expression relaxed… but not completely.
“Feeling overstimulated after a release is common,” he explained calmly. “A lot of patients struggle with the transition back into everyday life at first. The noise, the freedom, the lack of structure… it takestime.”
