she heard him say, “I tried to explain it to you at the time. IUDs don’t always work. Sometimes your body rejects them. There’s nothing I can do about that.”
Sally shook his hand away and rose to face him. “Isn’t there? I wonder, Dr. Wiseman. I wonder if there’s nothing you could have done, or if there’s something you did do. And I’ll find out! You can’t stop me, Dr. Wiseman. Not you, not Steve, not my mother, none of you!” The last vestiges of her control, the control she had nurtured all day, dipped away from her. She stumbled toward the door, grasping at the knob. It stuck, and for a frightening moment she wondered if she had been locked in. But then it turned in her hand and she pulled it open, lurching into the waiting room. Steve, on his feet, reached out to her, but she brushed him aside. As quickly as it had deserted her, her self-control returned. She glared at her husband. “Leave me alone,” she said coldly. “Just leave me alone.” And then she was gone.
Sudden silence hung in the air for a moment, and then Steve heard Arthur Wiseman’s voice. “You’d better come in, Steve. I think we need to talk.”
Numbly, Steve allowed himself to be led into the inner office. Wiseman guided him to the chair that Sally had just vacated, then closed the door. He waited while Steve settled into the chair, speaking only after the young man seemed to have recovered from his wife’s outburst.
“You heard?”
“Only Sally, and only at the end. My God, what happened in here?”
“I’m not exactly sure,” Wiseman said thoughtfully. “I talked to her, and for the first few minutes I thought she was listening to me. And then I had the strangest feeling she’d just sort of clicked off, shutting me out. It was as if she was only willing to listen to what she wanted to hear.” He paused, then went on. “And then at the end, when I asked if she wanted our help—well, you heard her. She lost control.”
“Oh, God,” Steve groaned. “What am I going to do?”
Wiseman’s fingers drummed on the desk top. “I’m not positive, Steve, but it seems to me that Sally’s on the edge of a major collapse. I hate to suggest it, but I think it might be wise if she had a good rest. Not for a long time, but for a week or two at least. Get her out of Eastbury, away from everything that might remind her of Julie.”
“I suppose I could get away for a while,” Steve mused.
“That’s not what I meant,” Wiseman said quietly. “I think Sally needs to be by herself in an environment that’s structured for people with her kind of problem.”
Steve reluctantly met Wiseman’s steady gaze. “You mean a mental hospital.”
“I think it might be best.”
Steve shook his head. “She won’t agree to go.”
Wiseman’s fingers stopped drumming, and he picked up a pencil. “It isn’t always necessary that—well, that the patient agree.”
Steve swallowed hard, trying to dissolve the lump that had formed in his throat “I—I’m not sure I could do that.”
“If it’s best for Sally, I’m not sure either of us has a choice,” Wiseman countered.
Steve took a deep breath and shifted his weight forward in the chair. Surely, there was a better way. “Do we have to decide now?” he asked at last.
“This minute? No. But it shouldn’t be put off too long. Unless Sally gets some help, I don’t know how far she might go with this thing. And I can’t tell you what effect it might have on your son either.”
It was the mention of Jason, coupled with the memory of the morning, that made up Steve’s mind.
“All right,” he said, his shoulders sagging with defeat. “Let’s go find her.”
Sally paused in the corridor and took a deep breath. She had her control back, and no matter what happened, she must not lose it again.
Not in front of Wiseman, and not in front of Steve.
But who was left for her to talk to?
Her world, the world that only two weeks ago had seemed limitless, had suddenly narrowed to three people: Lucy and Jim Corliss, and Carl Bronski.
Three people she barely knew.
But three people who believed in her.
She moved through the corridor quickly, intent only on getting out of the clinic, getting to her friends. She was almost through the lobby when she suddenly heard her name.
“Mrs. Montgomery?” the voice said again. It was a familiar