The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,70

Cathy had listened to him and seemed to take it seriously. Admittedly, the list of Jaime’s illnesses and injuries was hard to refute. He had been shocked by them too when he wrote them down.

He wondered what the psychiatrist she knew would tell Cathy. Munchausen by proxy, or factitious disorder imposed on another as it was also called, wasn’t something doctors, or even psychiatrists, ran into every day. He was impressed that his mother had spotted it so early, but she was a smart woman and still kept up on her psychology journals, and read voraciously. And he believed now that she was right. What he didn’t know was what to do about it, what to say to Zoe, and how to protect Jaime from getting injured again and again, or taken to doctors for illnesses she didn’t have. Zoe was reaching out past Cathy now to specialists, like the orthopedic surgeon she had taken Jaime to. The thought of Jaime needlessly having spinal surgery made him feel ill. Their situation was a nightmare, and he didn’t know how to wake up.

* * *

—

Cathy was having similar thoughts about everything Austin had said. She loved Zoe, and they had become close friends. She was a wonderful person and remarkable human being, with the work she did, and Cathy had no doubt that she loved Austin and Jaime, yet what Austin said seemed so valid. What if it was true? She didn’t know enough about the disorder to know what the remedies were or if it could be treated with therapy. But if what he said was accurate, Jaime wasn’t safe with her mother, and Cathy couldn’t let their friendship cloud her vision and fail to do what was right for the child. Munchausen by proxy was a form of child abuse, a virulent, insidious kind that was difficult to identify, and harder still to prove. Cathy knew that much about it from the literature she’d read, but she didn’t know a single physician who had ever run into it. She hoped Paul Anders had and could shed some light on it, and give her some direction. If Austin was right, they had challenging times ahead. It was all swirling around in her head like a tornado, as she waited for Zoe to show up with Jaime. She hoped the dog bite wasn’t bad. She was due to have the stitches in her chin taken out tomorrow. Cathy was going to do it for her, and now she had another injury, so soon after the last one, and also on her face.

The nurse at the front desk buzzed Cathy when they arrived, barely five minutes after Austin had left, and she hurried to the exam room where they were waiting. Jaime was clinging to her mother and looked traumatized, and she had Zoe put Jaime down on the exam table. She was shaking, and Cathy feared at first that the bite was deep, but on closer inspection it didn’t look quite so bad.

“Hi, Jaime,” Cathy said gently and rubbed her back for a minute, as Zoe looked devastated. It was hard to believe that her fear for her daughter wasn’t real. She looked almost as shaken up as Jaime. But Cathy had to focus on Jaime now. “You ran into a big scary dog, huh? Did he chase you and knock you down?”

Jaime shook her head. “No, he was on a leash,” she said clearly, as Zoe shook her head.

“No, he wasn’t, Jaime,” Zoe said firmly, “he was off the leash, the leash was in the man’s hand.” Jaime moved her head from side to side again, disagreeing with her mother.

“Mommy said I could play with him,” she volunteered.

“Jaime!” Zoe objected. “I told you to stay away from him.”

“What kind of dog was it?” Cathy asked them.

“A German shepherd,” Zoe responded.

“He looked like a wolf,” Jaime added. “And he had big teeth.” All the while they were talking, Cathy was eyeing the wound on her cheek. It wasn’t bleeding profusely as Zoe had said her chin had, but the bite was deeper than Cathy liked. She didn’t want it to leave a scar on her face. She’d been lucky not to lose an eye, or the dog could have killed her. She turned to Zoe then, trying not to think of everything Austin had told her. She didn’t want to make any judgments yet, she didn’t know enough and needed further information.

“I’m going to give Jaime a booster