Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64851 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Bright red spots surfaced on Adam’s cheeks, and he hung his head. “I didn’t realize. I’m sorry, Sis. I didn’t make things easy on you, did I?”
“No, you most certainly didn’t. But seeing you like this has given me the hope that I haven’t had in a very long time. I appreciate your commitment to getting better.” I reached over and grasped his hand. For once I actually believed him.
We held hands as a comfortable silence fell between us. I was just starting to piece my life back together, and knowing that things were looking up for Adam would take a big load off my shoulders.
“So how have you been, Sis?”
“I’m actually well. I got a new job as a private nurse, so I will be taking care of one patient, a very lovely woman who has lived a very colorful life.” I had managed to clear up the issue with the nursing board and soon after had found a position something that paid well and provided decent benefits.
Nick had kept his word and wired the rest of the money to my account. I had put most of it away to pay for Adam’s rehab, but I still had enough money left over to find a cute little two-bedroom apartment just outside of the city. I had even managed to rebuild my savings to an amount that would cover a rainy-day emergency.
I was finally finding my new normal, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Nick. He should have been the last person I was thinking about after all he had done to me but deep down inside I still cared. Maybe it was a bit of Stockholm Syndrome. Whatever it was I couldn’t stop thinking about him to the point where I figured something was clearly wrong with me to have suffered through that and still maintained feelings for him.
It bothered me so much that I had started therapy. I was taking baby steps, but things were starting to come together.
“That’s great to hear, Sis.”
“When you get out of here, you’ll stay with me of course.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it. And I promise I will do what I can to earn my keep. I will get a job, and I have plans to apply to art school.”
“That’s great, Adam. You were always very talented. It was a shame when you dropped it.”
“Look, I’m going to be honest with you Frankie. This is the longest I’ve ever been clean since becoming an addict, and when I leave rehab, it will be a daily struggle. The counselling here has taught me other coping mechanism to deal with my issues. I’m an addict, and I always will be, but I am going to fight like hell to maintain my recovery status.”
“And that’s all I could ask of you. And I promise I’ll be here every step of the way.”
We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and had lunch in the cafeteria. I was exhausted by the time I made it home, but it was a good kind of tired.
I didn’t have to go into work until later tomorrow afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day cleaning my apartment. At night when I settled down with in front of the television with dinner in hand, I flipped through the channels stopping on a cable news network when I recognized someone on the screen. A doctor was being led out of his private practice in handcuffs by police. Doctor arrested in the biggest prescription drug scandal in recent medical history.
It was Kenny’s former doctor.
Chapter Eighteen
Nick
“I’m in trouble.”
I’d been expecting this since I’d learned the news. As soon as I’d learned the connection between some random doctor and my brother, I’d felt a sinking feeling deep in my gut. For the past two months, every free moment I had, I scoured the internet for information on Dr. Gregory Laski. At first it had just been another news story that I didn’t pay much attention to, but once the national networks picked it up, it spread like wildfire making the story difficult for me to ignore.
I then realized the name sounded familiar, especially since it was local. I couldn’t pinpoint where I’d heard this name before or why it nagged me so much. It came to me suddenly. I had been in the meeting with a few clients, and I randomly shouted “Kenny.” They stared at me as if I had two heads, so I quickly steered the meeting back on track. The doctor’s connection to my brother, however, remained in the back of my head, so much so that I’d gone straight to my mother’ house after work.
I was almost certain that man had been Kenny’s doctor since he was a child, and my mother swore by him. She always said that she never trusted anyone as much as she trusted Dr. Laski because he was the only one who knew how to treat Kenny properly. According to the news, the man basically ran a drug mill for addicts and anyone who needed anything prescribed to them without a proper examination. Apparently, he wrote hundreds of prescriptions a day. What I couldn’t understand was why my mother would take Kenny to someone like him.