Free Finding Bliss by Dina Silver Page B

cliché it all was. By the time I was done talking, Grace’s expression was more frightened than mine had been when Dixie “Maleficent” Reed had busted me swapping spit with her prince.
    “Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.
    Her mouth was agape. “I just can’t believe it.”
    “I know, right?” I said, motioning like I was about to high-five her and celebrate my one-night stand, but she left me hanging. “Grace, it’s fine.”
    “It’s really not. He shouldn’t have taken advantage of you like that.”
    “Whoa, he did not take advantage of me. I wanted him, you know I did.”
    “But he should know better,” she said.
    “Also, he has a girlfriend,” I said and burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all.
    She stared at me like I was huddled in the corner of the garage, hiding from federal agents. “I really don’t know why you’re laughing, Chloe. He took advantage of you, and I don’t like it one bit.”
    I wished she would stop saying that, so I cleared my throat and went in for the kill. The one thing she hated more than anything. The one statement that always sent her flailing into back-pedal mode. “I shouldn’t have told you,” I said and stood up.
    She shot up after me. “I’m sorry, but you know I’m only looking out for you, and he seems like a real shit. I can see in your face that you’re completely smitten with him.”
    She was right.
    “Please, Chloe, look what you just came home to. You have so much going on, and you start law school in a couple weeks…I just don’t want to see you get hurt. You know that,” Grace said and then gave me a good long hug.
    “Love you,” I said.
    “You too.”
    The next day I moved my stuff into my new apartment. I’d barely set down the last box when I had to dash out to meet with my mom’s doctor at the hospital. I hadn’t had anything to eat because nothing could fill the hole in my stomach.
    “How is she?” I asked, sitting across from him at his desk.
    “She’s doing much better. We gave her some Seroquel, which is typically used to treat symptoms of schizophrenia, although we’ve diagnosed her with delusional disorder.”
    “What’s that?” I asked.
    “Patients who have delusional disorder appear to function normally, but make unusually odd choices based on their delusional beliefs.”
    “Such as spending an afternoon on the garage floor to avoid imaginary law enforcement? Or whispering to the women at the dry cleaners not to wait on the man behind her in line because he’s one of them? Or hanging bed sheets over every window even though the blinds are already closed?”
    “Precisely,” he said. “We’re going to adjust her medication for the next few days to see where she functions best, but then she will be free to go.”
    I let out a breath that I’d been holding in. I was so relieved to hear that she’d be going home soon. Mom hated being out of her element. “Okay, thank you, doctor.”
    “Do you live at home?” he asked.
    “I’m starting law school, just moved into my apartment today actually, but I feel terrible about leaving her.” And I did. The guilt of having left her alone all summer was tearing me up, and the thought of doing it again, combined with the image in my brain of her huddled on the garage floor was almost too much to bear. “What if she skips her medication, or refuses to take it? She has no one to look after her.”
    “If she stops taking her meds, well, then she’ll have to live with her paranoia and delusions. There isn’t much we or you can do to force her unless she becomes a danger to herself or to others.”
    I massaged my forehead and sighed. “I just don’t know what I should do. I really don’t think I can live with myself if I abandon her at a time like this. I don’t feel right about leaving her alone again.”
    The doctor took his glasses off, placed them on his desk, and lowered his chin. “You want to know the truth?” he asked