The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,66

and if Zoe was suffering from it, he had to figure out what to do, now. He couldn’t wait till a tragedy happened.

Chapter 13

Austin read the book his mother gave him during his lunch hour the next day and on his way to and from work every day. He hid it in his locked briefcase at home, and only read it when Zoe was out or asleep. Too much of it already sounded familiar and painfully apt, and so much like Zoe, even the reasons for it. She had been starved for attention and affection for years during her youth and childhood and now she wanted to shine as a mom, as a savior and protector. He hadn’t come to any conclusions yet, but there was a huge question in his mind now. Was Zoe hurting Jaime intentionally, or just letting it happen in order to draw attention to herself once Jaime was injured? She claimed to be so diligent and careful, but he had evidence now that she wasn’t, like the incident in Florida. She played innocent every time, and was so convincing about it. Maybe there was a part of her he didn’t know. And if so, how dangerous was she to Jaime?

He was reading the book on Saturday, while Zoe and Jaime were at the playground, when a call came in from a doctor’s office, with a message for Zoe, confirming an appointment for Jaime. It caught his attention and when he asked what kind of doctor it was, the woman on the phone said he was an orthopedic surgeon. The appointment was for Tuesday, and they had managed to squeeze her in, in response to an urgent request from Zoe.

He didn’t beat around the bush and asked Zoe about it immediately when they came home for lunch.

“What’s this about? Why is Jaime seeing an orthopedic surgeon? And why wasn’t I told about it? That sounds pretty major.”

“It’s not major yet,” Zoe said calmly. “And I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to worry you. I want him to check out Jaime’s spine,” she said when they were out of earshot of Jaime, while she ate her lunch at the kitchen table. At least she had returned from the park unharmed. He was grateful for that now. A day without injuries.

“Why would you want him to check out her spine?” Austin asked her.

“For scoliosis,” she said simply.

“What’s that?”

“Curvature of the spine. I’ve noticed hers is a little off. And I want to get on it early if she has a problem.”

“Did you talk to Cathy about it? Does she think she has it?”

“It’s not her area of expertise. I want to see the orthopedic guy first.” Austin didn’t comment, but checked it out online and saw that scoliosis was sometimes repaired surgically, by inserting metal rods along the spine to prevent it from curving further. He felt sick as he read it. He had never noticed anything unusual about her spine, and he saw Jaime in the bath all the time. He felt panicked that Zoe was even taking her to the doctor, and called Cathy about it on Monday and told her about Zoe’s concern and the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. She brushed it off.

“You know how she gets, she panics about something, like leukemia. The orthopod will tell her Jaime is fine and that will be the end of it.” She didn’t sound worried at all.

“What if it isn’t? What if she talks him into putting rods into Jaime’s spine?” Cathy almost laughed at the suggestion.

“He won’t, unless he’s a total charlatan. Jaime’s spine is fine.”

He didn’t want to tell Cathy that he was having grave concerns about his wife. But the fact that she was trying to drum up a new illness for Jaime that would require excruciating surgery terrified him again. This was deadly serious.

The case studies in the book his mother had given him were endless and horrifying. Some were very extreme, mothers who had killed their children and gone to prison for it. Other cases were harder to discern and more closely resembled the incidents that Jaime had experienced, which had seemed normal or understandable at the time, but no longer did, because of the sheer number of them. His mother had been suspicious of Jaime’s injuries for several years. And what if she was right? The thought of it brought tears to his eyes and anguish to his heart. He still loved Zoe, but he was