Free Pandora's Key by Nancy Richardson Fischer Page B

skin. They had to put her in wrist restraints so she wouldn’t hurt herself.”
    Evangeline swallowed the bitter bile surging up her throat. “She can fight the tumor. She can do chemotherapy—the doctors said that’d slow things down.”
    “Honey, Olivia is—your mom was—she doesn’t deserve the humiliation of a slow, painful—”
    “But it’s
her
choice,” Evangeline interrupted. “Dr. Sullivan said it’s
her
choice.”
    Samantha nodded and brushed the side of Evangeline’s face.
    “What? What’s on my face?”
    “Just some dried dirt—it’s gone now.”
    And then they just hugged each other because the woman both of them loved was dying.

Chapter Twelve

    Juliette eased open the door to Malledy’s bedroom. It was nearly midnight and when she’d left him hours earlier, after telling him secrets about Pandora and her descendant, he’d been so agitated she’d been afraid he wouldn’t get any rest. She was relieved to see that he was sleeping soundly. Dr. Aali had told her that being rested would help slow the progression of the disease. Any stress would only make things worse. That was why she’d told Malledy’s doctor not to tell him everything. If Malledy knew she’d meddle this way, he’d be furious, but she was willing to take the risk because she knew that Malledy couldn’t handle the whole truth.
    And the whole truth, clearly spelled out in the MRI scans, was that the Huntington’s disease had already made Swiss-cheese of the boy’s brain. The areas that affect the ability to maintain logic, equilibrium, and control impulses had been severely compromised—eaten away and rotted through. According to the doctor, the disease had been active for some time, possibly as long as two years and well before the irritability and hand tremors betrayed its existence.
    It was only because Malledy operated on a much higher mental plane than 99% of the world that he could continue to excel at his work. If the disease were somehow halted now, he might never need to know what the cruel disorder had taken from him. Juliette understood that for a young man who had an intense need to control his life and surroundings, learning what the disease had done already, knowing he couldn’t change what it had stolen, would completely crush him.
    Tip-toeing to the bed, Juliette rested a hand on Malledy’s pale cheek, remembering how she used to comfort him as a child when night terrors would fill his dreams and he’d awake screaming.
    “
D’accord
,” she murmured, forcing herself to leave the room and return to her own bedchamber to await the phone call that might save Malledy’s life.
    Malledy opened his eyes as soon as Juliette left his bedroom. He hadn’t felt like talking to her. For some reason, he’d experienced a sudden and burning hatred when she touched his cheek. He reminded himself that he loved Juliette and that she had done nothing but try to help him.
    Malledy climbed out of his bed and walked over to the narrow window beside his desk, peering out at the rain-soaked sky. For the first time in his life, he was on the verge of complete command of his future. Everything Juliette had told him earlier would lead him to Pandora’s Box. In addition, his mentor had identified the descendant.
It’s still hard to believe…but it must be true. I should’ve know—I should’ve been able to see it without being told.
    A wave of dizziness washed over him and he rested his head against the cool wall until it passed. Pandora’s Box was a talisman said in Greek mythology to have been created by Zeus to punish Mankind for accepting fire from Mount Olympus. It was filled with “Furies.” The box had been given to Pandora to deliver it to Mankind. But they’d refused to accept the gift. Curious Pandora had opened the box and released the Furies. And the rest was history.
    “Or was it?” Malledy asked the empty room with a sly smile. His research on behalf of his client, drawn from long forgotten texts