Wicked Burn(24)
Author: Beth Kery

“Sorry,” Rose offered with a sheepish grin. “Not very professional of me.”

Niall gave a choked laugh that freed her trapped voice. “Maybe not. But human. And I mean that as a very big compliment. It can’t be easy for you to remain so emotionally available.” Niall reached out and covered Rose’s hand with her own. She held up the tissues meaningfully. “Thank you, Rose.”

She was glad to see by Rose’s wide, warm smile that the woman knew she was grateful for much, much more than the tissues.

When Niall had composed herself sufficiently both women stood and dumped their respective wads of tissues in the garbage can.

“Niall, there’s something important I wanted you to know, especially now. I tried to call you last week about it,” Rose said as they picked up their coats.

“I’m sorry. I was in Tokyo all week on a business trip. I just got your message at work late yesterday afternoon.”

Rose nodded in understanding. “I figured it was something like that. You’re usually so prompt about returning my calls.”

“What is it?” Niall asked anxiously when Rose didn’t speak for a second, but just bent to retrieve her purse.

Rose patted her arm reassuringly. “I just wanted to inform you of something. In light of the circumstances, I wish I had gotten hold of you sooner but . . . well, it couldn’t be helped. I was calling you to tell you that I’d received official notice from the state of your impending divorce,” Rose continued. “Now, I have a longstanding principle as a legal guardian that I follow in these situations. If I judge—given psychiatrists’ and other mental health professionals’ feedback—that the person who is under my guardianship is mentally stable enough to hear information like this, I provide it to them in person. People like Stephen aren’t children. They’re adults with clear legal rights. As part of my duty I have to decide if the harm to my client or to others outweighs his right to at least hear the truth about critical legal decisions that impact them. I’ve told you from the very beginning—haven’t I, Niall?—that I’m Stephen’s advocate.”

“Yes, of course,” Niall agreed quickly, not in the least offended by the slightly stern edge that came into Rose’s voice. She wasn’t sure she could have given guardianship to anyone who didn’t get the militant gleam in her eye that Rose did when she discussed the rights of mentally ill individuals. “I would have told Stephen myself if I hadn’t thought it was possible he would destabilize. You know how he can get around me sometimes.”

It should have been you, Niall.

She shut her eyes reflexively, trying to banish the automatic thought. Another one, equally unwelcome, abruptly rushed to take its place.

“Wait . . . are you saying this because you told him about the divorce?” Niall asked in shrill panic. “Is that why he attacked that man at the hospital?”

“No,” Rose said firmly. Her hand rose to Niall’s elbow reassuringly. “I’m bringing this up because I thought you might have this kind of reaction if you thought about it in the future and I wasn’t here to tell you otherwise.” Rose made sure she had Niall’s full attention before she continued. “I haven’t told Stephen about you filing for divorce. All of my reports from Dr. Fardesh and the staff at Evergreen Park argued against the wisdom of that.”

“Then why did you call me?”

“Because it was my duty to tell you my philosophy on the matter—that if Stephen was deemed sufficiently stable, I would at least inform him of the fact that he was about to undergo a legal divorce from his wife and ask him if he would like to state his opinion on the manner. Not that it would change the outcome of things. But he is a human being, after all. You would rather I make attempts at acknowledging Stephen’s human rights instead of just signing the divorce papers at work between responding to an e-mail and taking a bathroom break, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course!” Niall responded desperately. “Just tell me again that this recent relapse wasn’t related to you telling him about the divorce.”

“No,” Rose repeated passionately. She glanced over when a male nurse at the nursing station cleared his throat loudly, subtly informing them that they needed to calm down. “The reports from Dr. Fardesh have been far from encouraging that kind of communication. Then Stephen had this recent relapse—”

“. . . which had nothing to do with—”

“No! Dios, believe me, girl!” Rose insisted, earning another frown from the male nurse for her loud volume. She toned it down a notch as she continued. “I had already decided that it wouldn’t be in Stephen’s best interests to have any more possible stressors placed upon him. Then he had this latest relapse . . .” Rose paused and shook her head dispiritedly.

“I should probably also tell you that after this particular incident of violence I’ve agreed, at Dr. Fardesh’s urging, to give consent for Stephen to be given a new medication.”

“Another one?” Niall asked dully.

“We have to keep trying. I’ve held off on consenting to this medication because it has a dangerous side effect. A small percentage of patients experience a drastic drop in their white blood cell count when taking it.” She saw Niall’s worried expression. “Evergreen Park will monitor Stephen’s blood closely for that very rare side effect, Niall. It’s not as if he’s out in the community and might miss regular blood draws. And who knows? This is an older drug, but it has had amazing results for people with severe psychosis.

“Stephen’s most recent relapse aside,” Rose said, “in my capacity as his legal guardian I felt it was important to tell you that if Stephen should stabilize while your divorce is still ongoing—which we both know is highly unlikely, given that it will probably finalize in the next few months—that I might consider telling him what is occurring that legally concerns him. Might, Niall. And even if that should happen the chance of it actually affecting your divorce proceedings is a million to one.”

“And this is definitely what you called to tell me last week, right?”

“Yes,” Rose repeated with an amused laugh of frustration. She knew perfectly well from her experience with clients’ families that they needed to be frequently reassured that they were not somehow directly responsible for their family member’s mental illness or the sole cause of a relapse.