Sweet Talk Boxed Set (Ten NEW Contemporary Romances by Bestselling Authors to Benefit Diabetes Research plus BONUS Novel) (75 page)

“No matter what happens today, I want to you remember something.” Nina grabbed her hands and held tight. “It makes no sense to regret past decisions. You’re here now. That’s what matters.”

“What aren’t you telling me?” Charlie asked. She had a feeling it was bad—really bad—and all of a sudden she didn’t want to walk any farther.

“She is surviving as only she knows how right now.” Nina sighed. “Charlie, medically you know as much as I do, from what I understand. You know what psychosis is like and what the various treatments are, so I’m going to talk to you instead as her sister, okay?”

Charlie could barely nod; the only thing she heard was the word
psychosis
. Walter had been right.

“Are you sure it’s psychosis and not just depression?” Charlie didn’t even recognize her own voice.

Nina hesitated, and Charlie could see her weighing her words.

“She’s still being monitored and undergoing tests. It’s possible that what your sister is experiencing is just a deep form of postpartum depression, yes. But . . . once you see her, you’ll understand.”

“Who is her doctor?” If it was as bad as Nina was making it out to be, she wanted her sister to have the absolute best care.

“Dr. Dube. I believe you know him.”

Charlie nodded, thrilled to know Diane would be under his care. She’d worked under his mentorship for over a year before  she joined Doctors Without Borders and knew he was the top of his field.

“I’ve worked with Dr. Dube for years and I trust him,” Nina explained. “While you were here, I was working with a private client doing home care, but I knew I recognized your name when I first met Brian.”

“You’re stalling,” Charlie accused. She appreciated knowing Nina’s connection with the doctor, but it didn’t matter right now.

Nina blanched. “You’re right; I am. I’m going to be blunt with you: Diane is living in her own world. She believes Brian is still in London, that her daughter is alive, and that she’s living in her home, rather than on this floor. Everything she says, does, or feels is in the moment with her daughter.”

“I’m sorry?” Charlie stepped back in surprise. “What did you just say?” Diane’s child died. Brian was dead. Diane knew this. They’d cried together, told stories of Brian to each other, talked about how Diane’s arms felt so empty from not holding her baby.

“Charlie, I need you to listen to me. Diane is not present with us, no matter how coherent she may appear.”

Charlie’s heart stopped. There it was, the words she hadn’t wanted to hear but knew were true anyways.

“Are you sure?”

Nina stopped in front of a door, blocking the window so Charlie couldn’t look in.

“I need you to be prepared,” Nina warned.

“Prepared for what? My sister can’t be living in a fantasy world of her own making; that doesn’t make sense.” Charlie denied what she was hearing; she didn’t want to accept it.

“Psychosis doesn’t make sense. We both know that.” Nina looked behind her, through the small window in the door, and Charlie watched as she visibly softened while watching her sister. She could see the love in Nina’s gaze. “The moment you walk into that room, you might see four walls, a bed, and a small desk, but to Diane that is her home, her office, her bedroom. Occasionally I can get her to leave and join me in the social room or the cafeteria for some tea, but then it’s as if we’re in her kitchen. She lives in her head one hundred percent of the time.”

Charlie tried to register that, tried to wrap her head around what that meant in connotation with her sister.

But she couldn’t because she wasn’t overwhelmed. Her hands shook as she wrapped her arms around her body.

“She’s changed.” Nina said. “She’s a mother taking care of her child; that’s all she’s focused on. She’s softer, not the hard-nosed career woman who made her way to vice president in her company. She’s very insecure now. I need...” Nina hesitated. “I need you to be gentle with her. Watch your words. Don’t try to force reality onto her; we want it to come gradually.”

An ache the size of a fist lodged in Charlie’s heart and she found it hard to breathe. She leaned against the wall for support.

“Breathe, Charlie. It’s going to be okay.” Nina was there, her hand on her arm as she gently coaxed Charlie through the beginning pains of a panic attack.

After a few moments, the fist in her heart loosened and Charlie pushed herself off the wall.

She shook her head. “I won’t force anything,” she agreed. She remembered working with women suffering from postpartum depression during her clinical days. The degrees of depression were astounding, and Charlie knew every woman dealt with things differently.

Nina watched her carefully. “I need you to know something. There is a doll in Diane’s room.”

“A doll?”

Nina nodded. “She believes the doll to be Grace.”

“The one Walter ordered? That’s what he was talking about? How this is all his fault?”

Early on in Diane’s pregnancy, Walter had decided on a gift for the baby. A ‘Reborn doll’ that would look like baby Grace. He had a friend who created the dolls and sold them, and he wanted to not only help support his friend but give a unique gift to Diane. A rendering of the baby was made from a 3D ultrasound image, but Charlie assumed Walter would have canceled the order after the accident.

Was that damn
doll
that Walter had foolishly ordered the cause of all this?

“She was fine, dealing with her grief—until that doll arrived,” Nina explained. “I found her a few days later sitting in a rocking chair in her living room, holding the doll with tears streaming down her face.”

Days? Diane had been left alone for days?

Nina seemed to read her expression. “I should have checked in on her sooner, and for that I’ll always feel guilty. If I had gone even a day before, she might not be where she is now.”

“You took the doll away from her, right?” Charlie couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Not even you could have pried it from her arms. Dr. Dube believes taking the doll away could do more damage right now. Her treatment is going to be a slow process.”

“What exactly is her treatment, other than medication?” A slow boil of anger rolled within Charlie; the doll she’d told Walter was a bad idea had caused all of this.

“ECT.”

Charlie gasped. “Electroconvulsive therapy? Don’t you think that’s a bit...” she couldn’t wrap her tongue around the word. Shock therapy. Her sister. Her heart dropped as she realized just how bad Diane must be.

“I want to see my sister. Now. Please?”

Nina nodded. “I haven’t been able to get her to communicate with me today, but maybe if she sees you, she’ll respond better. See if you can get her to go to the cafeteria for tea. She hasn’t been out of her room yet.”

Charlie swallowed hard. She breathed in deep and pushed down the tears, the anger, the hurt she was feeling. It was something she’d learned to do years ago, a simple breathing exercise, but it worked.

She needed to get hold of herself, be in control of her emotions. She couldn’t let Diane see her fall apart.

This was her worst nightmare come true. She’d really thought they’d beat the odds, that psychosis wasn’t hereditary like she’d feared for so long...but if Diane was like this, then it was. And the chance of something similar happening to Charlie was a larger possibility than ever before.

She turned to Nina. “She’s not suicidal, is she?” Not like her mother. Did Nina know?

“She’s not. She’s so full of joy. Her only sadness is that Brian isn’t here to see his daughter. Don’t worry; Diane told me about your mother, and I’ve kept that in mind.”

Charlie let out the breath she’d been holding. Okay, that was good. Charlie rubbed her face and realized she was going to need to tell Marcus, explain her past to him.

Standing in front of the door, Charlie gazed into the nondescript white room. The room was bare other than a bed with a soft pink throw, a rug on the floor, and a small desk with a chair. Diane stood at the window, looking outside, and held the doll in her arms. She’d lost weight, but there was something about her, something that was off. Charlie looked at her sister, at the clothes she wore, her hair in a ponytail, but couldn’t put her finger on it—not until Diane turned toward her and smiled. Her smile. Charlie had seen that smile before on countless other women and men who lived somewhere else in their heads. Diane’s mouth moved as if she were speaking to someone, and her gaze flittered about the room, not landing on any particular article but skating past everything. Whom was she speaking to?

Charlie knocked on the door and watched as Diane turned, a full smile blooming on her face before she ran across the room and opened her door.

“Charlie!” Diane cried out with happiness as she stood at her open doorway, doll clutched tight in her arms. “Come in, come in.”

Diane’s reaction surprised her. After everything Nina had just told her, she expected a completely different reaction.

Nina’s gentle push on Charlie’s back forced her to step forward. “Dee, you look...Oh, my God, I’ve missed you.” Despite the awkward hug, with Diane holding on to the doll, Charlie held her sister close, unable to let go.

“What are you doing here? Where’s Marcus?” It was Diane who pulled away first. “I thought you would still be in the Congo or some other godforsaken place.”

Charlie breathed in deep. She glanced quickly behind her to see Nina standing there and remembered what she needed to do: play along with her sister, not say anything too jarring. But she wouldn’t lie either.

“I took some vacation time to spend with my big sis.” Charlie planted a kiss on Diane’s cheek before she glanced at the doll in her sister’s arm.

“Charlie, meet your niece, Grace.” Diane held the doll out and waited for Charlie to take her.

Charlie hesitated, almost unable to touch the doll, but the look in her sister’s eyes, watery from tears, had her reaching out. She had to remember to hold it like a baby, like little Belle from the village rather than like a doll.

“Isn’t she beautiful? She reminds me of one of those Precious Moments figurines Mags used to make us dust every Saturday morning before we were allowed to go out to play.” Diane’s singsong voice jarred Charlie.

Charlie thought about Mags, their aunt who raised them after their mother’s suicide when their father left them. She had cabinets full of the porcelain dolls, and Charlie had always considered it a punishment when she had to dust the figurines.

“Remember how mad she got when they got broken?” Charlie couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory. Was it her fault her little fingers couldn’t always hold those dolls? They’d gotten in so much trouble that day; she’d never seen Mags as upset as she had been then.

“She was more upset with us for lying than for her doll being broken.” Diane reached out, and Charlie gladly relinquished her hold. It felt weird to hold the toy in her arms and pretend it was her niece. She needed to think of it as Grace, or find another name for it that wouldn’t give away her true thoughts. Normally Diane was über-perceptive and could read Charlie like a book.

Maybe that had changed. Please, God, let that have changed for now.

Diane had a funny look on her face, and Charlie realized she was waiting for her to respond. The dolls—she was saying her baby looked like a Precious Moments doll. “That she does,” Charlie agreed.

“How long can you stay?”

“I’m not sure. How about we play it by ear?” She’d sent her boss, Sabrina Duboix, an e-mail after landing and mentioned she would probably need only a few weeks, but now...it might be longer. She’d have to talk to Marcus and see what his thoughts were.

She glanced inside her room and thought about how to get her sister out of there. She needed to walk the fine line of being clinical and keeping her emotions at bay, but not appearing cold and making Diane worry.

It was hard. But she had to trust Nina and Diane’s doctor. She knew her sister was in good hands, and because of that, the possibility of her sister’s mind healing through treatment and medication was very high. There was still hope.

She wished Marcus were here. She missed him right now.

“Coffee?”

Charlie exhaled. “Dear Lord, yes, please! I came straight from the airport and haven’t had a good cup of coffee since my layover at Heathrow.” She stepped out of the way and Diane walked past her, leading the way toward the small cafeteria area. She watched as Diane placed . . . Grace—thinking the name hurt—down before reaching for a carafe that sat on a counter.

The doll really did look lifelike. Charlie was a little amazed.

She glanced around the room and noticed the various staff sitting at different tables or standing against the wall, watching the patients. And yet she could tell Diane didn’t see any of them. One of the nurses stood off to the side of the counter and watched Diane as she poured coffee into two cups, added cream and sugar, walked them over to a table, and then returned to the counter, where she pulled out some baked goods from a container.

Charlie slowly sat down and forced herself to adjust. If they were at Diane’s home right now, how would the conversation go? What would she say that would appear normal?

“So, what’s with the sudden visit? I thought you wouldn’t be back till Christmas this time.” Diane placed a plate of scones down and sighed with happiness.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nina sitting in the corner, watching them. By the look on her face, Charlie felt encouraged.

“Don’t tell me you’ve become all domesticated on me and taken up baking?” She forced a smile on her face and made sure the tone of her voice was light.

Diane chuckled. “We both know the likelihood of that.”

“Store-bought?” Charlie cut her scone with a plastic knife Diane had added to the plate and then reached for a small packet of jam.

“No, my nanny’s quite the baker.”

Charlie’s hand stilled. “A na-nanny?” She stumbled over the word.

“Nina. I know I’ve told you about her. With Brian away he didn’t want me to be alone, so I asked Nina to stay on to help with Grace.” She sipped her coffee and smiled. “I wish Brian were here. He’d love to see you. He was quite jealous about this latest trip of yours. It’s always been a dream of his to go to Africa.”