Good Deed Bad Deed, Marcia Morgan [summer beach reads TXT] 📗

someone would call her shop in search of Olivia. Chloe would be asleep by now. She couldn’t know if the girl had found Olivia’s number and shared it. Who in their right mind would give out a friend’s number to a male caller, and a stranger, she thought, and then set about tidying up the shop and removing cash from the drawer. The morning’s receipts totaled two, both paid by credit card. Happy to avoid a trip to the bank, she stuffed the cash in an envelope and put it into her bag. After checking locks at the back entrance, she gathered her belongings, switched the sign from open to closed, locked the doors and headed up the street to hail a taxi.

* * *

The last patient of the day had required a little extra time, and Dr. Kate had accommodated his need. But now she was more than ready to end what had been an unusually long and demanding day. The sunlight that seeped through the partially opened drapes had died, telling her that day was now night. She disliked taking the Tube after dark. No Tube after dark was just one of the mandates given to her years before by her late husband. She could still hear his voice reciting the various rules of safety, insisted upon throughout their marriage. Previously a mild annoyance to her on occasion, she now missed the consistent reminders given most mornings as they prepared to leave the house for their workday. It had been four years and she could still hear his voice. Would she forget it as the years passed? The thought disturbed her. She put her computer to sleep, informed her service she was leaving, turned off the lights and headed out to the elevator.

Once on the street, Kate was able to hail a cab very quickly. She was soon on her way home to Boris, her decrepit old Yorkie, and a welcome glass of wine followed by some sort of easy meal. She laid her head back against the seat and reviewed the day. She had had trouble focusing on the patients who came after Valerie. The confrontational experience of that session was weighing on her. Without bidding the memories, she was taken back to the first time she had seen Ben and Valerie, now more than seven years ago. She had consented to treat their marriage, not realizing what she was in for. It became clear early on that Valerie’s purpose was to engage an advocate for her point of view and to validate her role of victim.

Ben had been contrite, cooperative and unusually quiet. Kate expected that he had found talking made little difference when it came to Valerie’s complaints. It soon became clear that therapy was her idea, a last attempt to keep Ben in her life. In their first session Kate had learned that Ben was guilty of an indiscretion. Though unsubstantiated, Valerie maintained there had been more than one. After a few sessions with both of them together, it became more and more obvious what it must have been like to be married to the woman. She decided to see each separately, and when Ben had the opportunity to speak unimpeded, he was forthcoming about what was the real truth of their life together. Her experience and training made obvious which partner saw things realistically and spoke truthfully.

The more time Dr. Kate spent with Valerie, the easier it was to understand Ben’s actions, if not to approve of them. Yet she found the wife to be a very interesting case—a challenge— perhaps even a case study to be written about at some point. She had required complete allegiance, which meant that Ben was expected to bow to her whims and provide the amount of attention she expected. Ben concluded that no one could please her and thus responded to her demands by withdrawing further and further. The more attention she either asked for or demanded through tantrums and attempted manipulation, the less he was inclined to give.

Eventually he had withdrawn from her to the point where his need for physical companionship urged him to cheat. When Valerie became aware of his infidelity, she tried, very poorly, to dispatch herself with pills. It was clear to Kate that the act was Valerie’s deluded effort to bring him back to her. Kate’s intention in therapy was to guide her to that realization. She confided to Ben that if Valerie had wanted to succeed, she would have taken more pills. Nor would she have scheduled lunch with his sister, whom she knew would come looking for her when she didn’t show up at the restaurant. It had been an act of egocentric desperation. It was Ben’s sense of guilt that made him agree to take part in therapy. He had quickly established his position and repeated to Kate what he had told Valerie many times: He would not treat her like royalty.

Kate was roused from deep thought by the driver’s voice telling her they had reached her address. Checking her watch before paying, she realized that her review of the Ben and Valerie saga had occupied her mind for over half an hour. She scolded herself for failing to leave work at the office. Once out of the taxi she could hear Boris barking his usual greeting from the partially opened window of her third floor flat. He was perched atop the pillow she kept for him on the window seat. She realized that he had spent most of his life waiting for their return, now just hers. A small set of doggie stairs now helped accommodate the old legs that would no longer jump that high. She headed up the steps to the entrance, preparing to shut out the rest of the world and its problems.

CHAPTER SEVEN

A large café macchiato sat cooling beside her iPad, opened to the first page of the London Times. Ignoring both, Olivia Grace McKinnon relaxed at a small