Good Medicine Read Free Page B

“I’ll be in this evening to see how you’re doing. Relax now.”
    As the medication gradually took the edge off her panic and her muscles loosened, Jordan was able to think more clearly than she had for weeks.
    Garry was a junkie.
    As an E.R. doctor, she’d seen enough junkies toknow that no one could help them unless they chose to help themselves.
    He wasn’t making the slightest effort.
    Her eyelids were heavy, and she knew that within a few moments, she’d be asleep.
    What are you going to do about you, Jordan?
    The answer floated to the surface. It made her terribly sad, and it frightened her as well, but it was the right thing for her. The only thing.
    As soon as she felt able, she was going to see a lawyer about a divorce.
    â€œT HE VERY LEAST you could have done was tell me you wanted a divorce before you saw this—this scumbag of a lawyer.” Garry’s face was scarlet with rage and disbelief. “How could you do this to me, Jordan?” He threw the copy of the proposed separation agreement she’d just handed him to the floor and stood glaring at her, hands knotted into fists. The pages scattered, landing at her feet.
    His voice rose. “You know I’m not well. I’m not over the accident yet! You could help but you won’t. What about the marriage vows you made?” Sarcasm dripped from every word. “I could swear there was something in there about in sickness and in health, till death do us part. Have you thought about my parents? They’ve treated you like one of the family, and now you’re doing this to me—to them.”
    Jordan’s heart was hammering. It was true, Meg and Edward had been good to her. She hated the thought ofhurting them. She kept her expression impassive and did her best to convince herself that the problems Garry was throwing at her weren’t hers to solve.
    This was all his stuff, as Helen would phrase it. And Meg and Edward had witnessed Garry’s recent tantrums. Surely they would understand her decision when they accepted the reality of their son’s addiction….
    It was helpful to remember Helen’s advice. Jordan now viewed the two days she’d spent in psych as an intensive training seminar.
    Right now she noticed that everything Garry said related only to himself. Lordy, how could she have missed how self-centered he was? She’d known him two and a half years, and yet she felt that during the past week, since she’d come home from the psych ward, she was seeing him as if he were a stranger.
    And it surprised her to realize she didn’t even like him anymore. His addiction had turned him into a bully and a whiner, not exactly a sexy combination. There hadn’t been any sex for months now, anyway.
    He was hollering at her again. “What kind of bull-shit is that dyke of a doctor pumping you full of, Jordie? You never acted like this before. What’s between us should stay between us. I don’t like you dumping your guts to some stranger.” His voice grew softer, and he tried to reach out and take her into his arms. “You’re my wife, babe. Shouldn’t you be talking to me about stuff that bothers you?”
    Jordan held up both hands, palms out, and moved away.
    He swore a long stream of curses, and then she couldsee him consciously turning on the charm again. “C’mon, Jordie. Honey, baby, don’t be this way,” he wheedled. “I said I was sorry for what happened in the E.R. I just couldn’t take the pain in my back anymore, and you wouldn’t give me anything for it, remember? I’m not good with pain, honey, you know that.”
    She moved farther back, out of his reach. She remembered everything. He sickened her.
    The second day of her stay in psych, Jordan had called home and left a message for Garry, telling him where she was. Hours later, he’d come to the ward, and on Jordan’s instructions, Helen and the