The Patient from Silvertree
Book One in the Silvertree Series
Marian Dribus
Copyright © 2020 Marian Dribus
All rights reserved.
For permissions, contact [email protected]
Website: www.mariandribus.com
ISBN: 978-1-7349545-0-0 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-7349545-1-7 (ebook)
Author photo by Stephanie Dribus
Cover design by Lena Yang
For Steph, my first audience
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Dear Reader
About Me
Chapter 1
Lisa wasn’t the sort of girl who usually avoided her father, but when she heard him trudging downstairs to answer the doorbell, she felt an overwhelming urge to disappear. She looked from the pitcher of water in her hands to the vase of flowers on the piano. They were starting to wilt, but they would have to wait. There was no time. With an apologetic glance at her grandmother, who was sitting on the mantelpiece in an urn, she disposed of the pitcher and crawled behind the couch.
It was fortunate that Lisa wasn’t a large person. The space was narrow, and it hadn’t been cleaned recently. Lisa pushed her blond hair out of her eyes and tried not to sneeze as the dusty air filled her nose. At sixteen, she was too old to be in such a predicament, but revealing herself was out of the question. With a touch of bitterness, she wondered how things had gotten so complicated. A gust of cold air swirled into the room, accompanied by a hint of perfume.
“Sabrina,” said Lisa’s father. “Please come in.”
“Andrew, it’s nice to see you again,” said a woman’s voice. She sounded breathless, but Lisa couldn’t tell whether she was anxious or excited. Neither possibility was reassuring. “I didn’t realize it would take me so long to get here. I’ve been on the road for more than four hours.”
“Do you want something to drink?” said Lisa’s father.
“No, I just want to get this over with,” she said. “I hope you can figure out this mess. My doctor was completely worthless. He said the word ‘cancer’ and—well, I must have zoned out because I don’t remember anything else he said. I didn’t even wait for him to finish. I just got up and walked out. I’ve been in a daze ever since. I keep telling myself it’s not real. It’s impossible, isn’t it? I gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby six months ago.”
“Sabrina, calm down,” said Lisa’s father.
“No offense, but doctors make mistakes all the time,” she said with a nervous laugh. “I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine—or at least as fine as I could be expected to feel after having a baby at my age. There’s only one thing that worries me.” For the first time, her voice faltered. “I have a weird-looking spot on my breast that showed up a few weeks ago. I thought it was an infection at first, but I took antibiotics, and it didn’t go away. If anything, it’s getting worse. Let me show you—wait, is your family home?”
“No,” said Lisa’s father. “Nora took the girls shopping.”
“Good,” said the woman. “If I walked into my house and found my husband fraternizing with a naked woman, my first instinct would be to murder them both.”
Lisa decided she would stay behind the couch for as long as necessary. She heard a zipper being undone, and a moment later, something soft touched her head. She looked up. The sleeve of a jacket dangled in front of her face. It was lined with artificial fur. The woman had thrown it over the back of the couch. Lisa was glad it hadn’t fallen down all the way. A sweater followed, and as Lisa watched with growing dread, a bra tumbled through the opening and landed on the floor.
Lisa was mortified. It would only be a matter of time before the woman started searching for the missing undergarment and discovered her. Lisa considered her options with a sinking heart, but she was so bewildered by the rapidity with which the woman had barged into the house and removed her clothes that she couldn’t think clearly.
“I know I should have made an appointment with your office, but I’m so sick of hospitals,” said the woman. “Can you see it well enough? It’s mostly on the side and underneath. What do you think? It doesn’t look too bad, does it?”
“Looks can be deceiving,” said Lisa’s father. “Unfortunately, I can’t definitively say what’s going on without more information. You can get dressed. Did you bring a copy of your medical records?”
“Yes,” she said. “I have them right here.”
Hoping her father and the woman were too distracted to notice, Lisa picked up the bra with shaking hands and returned it to the top of the couch. She was just in time. It disappeared, along with the sweater and the jacket. She heard the woman getting dressed, and the couch squeaked as they sat down.
Lisa tried to gather her swirling thoughts. It was a medical consultation, not an affair, but it was still mysterious. The woman’s identity was the strangest piece of the puzzle. As far as Lisa knew, her father didn’t have any friends. His career as an oncologist consumed every moment of his time, and on the rare occasions when he took a day off, he was too tired to do anything. If he had any history with the woman, it existed from the distant past.
“Did you get a biopsy done?” said Lisa’s father.
“Yes,” said the woman. “The report is in there somewhere.”
Lisa heard papers rustling. The ticking of the clock above the mantelpiece and the faint crackling of the fire seemed to grow louder. As the seconds passed, Lisa sensed she was being transported into a different world. She held her breath. Her father’s silence filled her with dread. Why was he hesitating? There could
