He Let Me Grieve a Lie, Now He Begs Forgiveness novel · Chapter 9 of 24
Chapter 9: A Good Trap
Dr. Coombs saw her at six, after the last patient had gone.
She listened to the whole story without interrupting, with her glasses off and her hands folded.
When Chiara finished, she did not say anything for a while.
"Cedar," she said at last.
"The man in the elevator smelled like it."
"Was it your husband's?"
"I don't know what Elio smells like."
Dr. Coombs wrote one line on her pad.
"I told you suppression fades when it is fed. I did not tell you how fast, because I did not know. In some patients it holds for years. In others, a scent opens the first crack in a week."
"And then?"
"And then the rest tends to follow. Not in order. Whatever mattered most to you comes back first, and I would expect that to be the thing you wanted gone."
Chiara said, "What happens if it all comes back?"
"You will be where you were on the road with the phone in your hand. With the difference that you will know it, and that you will have lost a week."
"I don't want to be where I was."
"Then I can repeat the treatment. It's stronger the second time, and it leaves less to feed on. It would take your festival and your stairs and the rest of the file, and the same people again."
Chiara looked at her hands.
It would be easy.
She could say yes in this chair, wake up tomorrow with a clean quiet head and a three-step husband, and never think about a hot dog line again.
She heard Elio's voice in her head, very low.
Nobody sat you down and asked you what happened.
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