The Shocking Truth About Ramsey Read Free

fun-loving, dictatorial, sensitive boy was long gone to be replaced by a cold-hearted and cynical man.   Even so, she felt his pull on her and wondered if she had lost her mind.  She wanted to look at him some more and ask him a thousand questions about what happened; where he'd been; and what he'd been doing.  She mentally shook herself and got on with Maximus' examination.  She swallowed the hurt Jackson had inflicted and once again became the woman she'd trained herself to be; competent, thorough, and educated to a fault.  
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    "Mr. Steele is dehydrated and he has a urinary tract infection.  He will need to be placed into the hospital for a course of antibiotics and IV fluids.  You can drive him over to Baptist Desoto Hospital yourself or if you’d like we can have an ambulance come and take him over," Ramsey said to Jackson as civilly as she could. 
    Jackson wasn't feeling too good about himself.  He knew he had hurt her feelings and he had watched as she struggled to keep her composure.  He hadn't missed the frown of disapproval from Maximus and he felt confused.  He wasn't supposed to feel sorry about anything.  She owed him an explanation and an apology for ruining his life not the other way around.  But his comment had been rather ruthless. After all he had taken something from her that she could never get back. 
    "Listen Ramsey, I didn't mean to sound --," he began, but she cut him off. 
    "In the future, Mr. Steele, you may call me Dr. Laughterdale or Ms. Laughterdale.  Whatever happened in the past is over and done with, but I can assure you that you and I will never ever be friends.  So, please spare us both and don't make the effort.  No apology is necessary.  You've done nothing I'd consider atypical anyway," she finished scathingly.  
    Jackson felt his jaw clenching and he knew his nostrils flared.  She'd done it again; dismissed him.  He refrained from sputtering by sheer will alone and when she let her eyes slowly roam from his feet, up his body, and back to his face, before letting out a derisive laugh, he could have gone into a howling rage.  Instead, he stood there humiliated and watched her turn her back on him without him ever having answered the question as to whether he'd take Maximus in the car or allow the ambulance to transport him to the hospital.  She was long gone when Maximus, himself, stood up and said, "Well, I guess you'll be driving me over, son, since you let the doctor get away."  

CHAPTER 3
    Pamela Laughterdale was a self-composed woman whose demanding personality belied her small frame.  She'd raised Talmus her twenty-six-year-old son to be a man and Ramsey, her twenty-nine-year-old daughter to be independent.   They had dared not let her down.  Her standards had always been high for her children and she never ever wanted either of them to find themselves in the vulnerable situation of being dependent on some-one or some-thing.  To that end she had stressed education and the futility of love.  
    She had loved once and only once and what had it gotten her?  A broken heart, two babies and an unfinished life.  When her husband of eight years left her high and dry with Ramsey and Talmus to care for, she turned to pure ice.  She had always been militant toward men, but now she despised them.  So, she neither noticed nor cared that Ramsey had not had any male companions or offers of marriage.  Everything was as it should be in her eyes.  Ramsey was all she wanted her to be.   She was a beautiful, strong, educated, woman and the fault was with the men.  They were intimidated by her daughter and that was all to be said about that.  
    Talmus, on the other hand, was a womanizer; the very thing she hated in a man.  But she was still secretly proud of him, because what man could really claim manliness if women weren't drawn to him.  It was the girls own mothers fault if they found themselves used and discarded by Talmus.  After all, Ramsey was above such