“Charlotte, it’s totally your choice, but I don’t trust this man to care for Matt. I think we should contact hospital administration to have a n...w doctor assigned to his case. Matt could have seriously hurt himself in there and they weren’t gentle with him.”“Doctor?” Charlotte asked, looking for confirmation.“It’s true that we discontinued Mr. Russell’s pain medication after his initial sedation wore off and he hadn’t resumed consciousness, but that’s not an uncommon treatment of short term. He didn’t date at all and had no one close to him in his life, though after a time she learned that he’d sought counseling for his depression. All that there was to know was that Karl-Heinz was a very unhappy man growing bitter all alone. Silke threw herself deeper into her work, but there came a time when the hollowness inside of her caught up to her, no matter how hard she tried to outrun or forestall it. The emptiness just took the wind out of her sails. She kept up to her schedules and. I'm sure she meant it to sound care free, but her voice was strained. I could empathize as it felt like things were finally coming together and yet falling apart at the same time."Totally," I agreed while trying to smile my way back into her good graces. "Now come on, let's go see if Miss Romero needs some help."Julie was tense when we rejoined the group, but soon loosened up as we offered advice on how to craft the 'perfect last night at camp.' We'd been instructed not to explicitly mention. I knew that mom and I hadbeen defeated and that I had no choice but to comply with Uncle Wally'sdemands. I was determined to get this degradation with over as quicklyand painlessly as possible."God your just fucking beautiful, Michele" he whispered and put his armsout to me.Uncle Wally stepped forward and embraced me, locking his strong armsaround me. His faced moved forward and I sensed he was about to kiss me.I forced myself to stay still as his lips came down on mine. It was thestrangest.