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Holly frowns. “When you were in high school?”
“Her dementia spiraled quickly. She was only in her forties, but she didn’t even recognize me anymore.” Reese swallows. “My aunt and uncle took me in when I was thirteen.”
“That must have been hard.”
Reese shrugs. “They did their best, but they had three young kids of their own to cope with. Last thing they needed was a teenager sulking around. And, as you can probably tell, I wasn’t the easiest kid.”
“Firestarter with a sass mouth?”
Reese laughs softly. “Little bit.”
Nodding, Holly considers how the trauma of being effectively orphaned in her adolescence, coupled with a genetic predisposition, could easily have triggered Reese’s descent into alcoholism.
“Lucky for me, the DNA tests say that I’m not at increased risk for early onset Alzheimer’s,” Reese says. “And so far, my liver has handled everything I’ve thrown at it like a champ.”
“Still…”
“It’s life, Dr. Danvers.” Reese’s smile is almost serene. “The point is, I never thought marriage… or kids were even on the table for me. But now—for the first time ever—I’m thinking I might be able to actually have a family of my own.”
“That’s beautiful, Reese.”
“No. It’s simply a fact.”
Holly hesitates. “The last thing I want to do is dampen your optimism. But things are going to have to change in our therapy. At least in the short term.”
“Because of Elaine?”
“Yes.”
“Change how?”
“I’m not sure if we’ll be able to continue with the psychedelics in the same way.” Holly repeats the same rationale she shared with Baljit.
“It’s such a waste,” Reese mutters. “All of it.”
“I agree.”
“How Elaine ever managed to convince herself that you’d be stupid enough to molest her in the middle of a group session…”
Holly can feel her cheeks flush. “You knew about that?”
“We all did.”
“The whole group?”
Reese nods. “She told JJ.”
“JJ? Why her?”
“JJ called Elaine after she skipped our last group session.”
Holly’s skin crawls. “There was no substance to Elaine’s allegations!”
“Obviously,” Reese says, as if Holly is having a hard time keeping up. “That’s what we all tried to tell her.”
“We all?” Holly’s jaw drops. “You discussed it with Elaine? All of you?”
“We went to see her. The whole group. To try to talk some sense into her.”
