AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Lulu. Please. Please stop crying,” the doctor said, trying her best to console the teen. “Wellborn Ranch is highly respected. It’s the best there is. In the whole country. I promise you. We wouldn’t send him away from home if we didn’t think he was somewhere safe. Somewhere he can get real help.” The Ranch was famous in medical circles for sending kids home sober for good, with only a 10 percent recidivism rate. Success was practically guaranteed.
Lulu paused and her voice grew soft. “You left him alone all last year. All last year, he was all alone, and then you came back and sent him away.”
It wasn’t all year, the doctor thought. Yes, it was true, she’d flown to New York to help out colleagues at NewYork-Presbyterian hospital during the Covid pandemic. She’d put her life on the line to assist. It was her duty; what she signed up for in medical school. Josh was home with his father, and sure, okay, Steven was a distracted father—money, the bank, and who knows what else—that was true—but everyone was alone last year. Everyone had to hunker down and fend for themselves. It wasn’t a punishment.
“Honey,” the doctor said gently. “He really has to stay in Montana for the full three months. That’s how long the program is. Maybe longer.”
“And they took away his boots, so he can’t run away.”
“His boots?”
“He walks around barefoot.”
Run away? Why would Josh run away? And where would he run? Into the forest? Down a mountain? In the snow?
“Listen, Lulu. I do appreciate your concern. I truly do, and I’m glad you called, but Josh is not going anywhere. He’s not. My son has serious mental health issues, on top of the drugs—”
“You think I don’t know that?” Lulu said. “I know your son. I know him better than anyone.”
“Maybe. Maybe you do.”
“What if, what if he hangs himself there? Don’t you love him?”
“Of course, I love him. I’m his mother.”
“Then go get him!”
“He’ll be back in sixty days. Sixty-one. Two more months. It’s not that long.”
Lulu stopped crying. Her voice grew lower and serious. “He’s right, you know.”
The doctor sighed. Right about what? Did she really want to ask? Did she want to pursue this conversation? She finally did and girded herself.
“About what?”
“Your husband only cares about money. And you only care about your patients. You only love strangers.”
“Lulu.”
“That’s what he says. That’s how he feels. Did you know that?” She was like Jekyll and Hyde. One moment she was sweet and crying, the next moment she was spewing hate. “You spend all your time caring for strangers when he’s the one who needs your attention. He’s your son. You’re supposed to love him.”
“I do love him.”
“No, you don’t. That’s why he hangs out with us. Because we love Josh for who he is—for all his, like, problems—and not for who we want him to be.”
“All we want is for Josh to be healthy. Healthy and safe.”
“We’re his family. Not you. No wonder he hates you.”
“Listen, Lulu. I won’t have you speaking to me like—”
But it was too late. The line went dead. Lulu hung up.
CHAPTER 8
DR. PARKS WAS in the pool house, snooping through Masha’s things, while on the phone with her ex-husband. “What if Lulu is right?” said the doctor, pulling open the bedroom drawers.
They’d built the cottage as a playroom for Josh, when he turned twelve. It was his hangout, until it wasn’t—until they discovered his stash of weed and powdered Ritalin hidden inside. Then it was converted for guests or, in Masha’s case, permanent staff: a tiny two-bedroom, with kitchen and bath, an arcade Pac-Man, a foosball table, a pullout couch, and a flat-screen TV.
