Page 75 of Unnatural
“I know what you’re thinking,” Autumn said before they had to figure out a diplomatic way to suggest her mother was being less than truthful to absolve herself from blame or regret. It wasn’t an off-base assumption. Autumn had strongly considered it too. Until…suspected ADHM.“She could have been lying. She could have forgotten or been wrong. But then I stole my case file from a social worker.”
Their eyes widened. It really was almost comical how in sync they were. Autumn told them about taking the file from Chantelle’s file cabinet, how several others had come with it, and how she hadn’t had time to put the others back.
One of which was Kaden’s.
“I’m sorry that I invaded your privacy,” Autumn said. “But it’s been like pulling teeth to get answers. Even so…I wouldn’t have stolen anyone else’s file on purpose, but…well, I’m hoping maybe we can work together to try to come up with some answers.”
“I’m glad you’re here, however that happened,” Kaden said. “But what do you need help answering?”
She reached in her purse on the floor next to her and removed her file and his, then flipped hers open on the coffee table in front of them. “Well, here”—she pointed to the place where the words were written—“it says suspected ADHM.”
Kaden leaned forward, looking at the place she’d indicated. “So they thought you were born positive but weren’t sure?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Autumn pulled Kaden’s file from beneath hers and flipped it open. “The other files I took list a positive ADHM diagnosis. But yours says the same thing as mine. Suspected ADHM.”
Kaden’s frown deepened as he sat back. “Suspected ADHM,” he repeated.
She watched him process that for a moment. “Is there any indication your mother never actually took the drug?” she asked gently.
“I don’t know. I mean, I never heard that that was a possibility.” His gaze shifted for a moment, obviously thinking. “I was only at Mercy for six years before my aunt camefor me. She’d had her issues too, but she got her life together and petitioned the court to adopt me even though she knew how sick I was. It was a bit of a battle, from what I know, but she prevailed, and I came here to live with her.” Kaden glanced at his wife, the worry lines on his forehead growing deeper. “Tammy, that’s my aunt, had turned into sort of a homeopath. She credited herbs and detoxes and who knows what else for helping her kick drugs.”
“She took you off the medication,” Autumn whispered.
“Yeah. She did. And I immediately felthuman.”
Oh God.At the news, Autumn barely managed to hold herself upright. Her stomach clenched. She knew exactly what he meant because she’d experienced the same thing.My special, beautiful girl. Grow strong. Oh, Salma.For all intents and purposes, someone had “taken” her off the medication too.Thank you, Salma. Oh, thank you.If Salma hadn’t put the idea in her mind, she wouldn’t have done it. And then she wouldn’t have been released, wouldn’t have gone to live with Bill… She couldn’t consider it. She blinked away the tears suddenly burning the backs of her eyes.
Kaden had paused, but now he continued. “I started thriving. I gained weight. I could eat. I could sleep without more meds. I could focus at school.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
He glanced at his wife. “Not for a while. I was young and I trusted my aunt, or maybe I just felt so good I didn’t want to question it, but in any case, she suggested I don’t mention it to my doctor, so it was a good year before he realized why I was doing so well. He said we were being reckless and insisted I go back on the medication.”
“Did you?”
“No. Tammy fought it. She was a fighter, and I thinkshe’d lost enough times that she simply wasn’t afraid to toss it all on the line. For herself. For me. For anyone she loved.”
“God rest her soul,” Ashtyn said softly, and Kaden gave her hand a squeeze.
“Anyway, I hadn’t developed any tumors. I was feeling great and doing well in school. The doctors were amazed. They ran test after test.” He paused for a moment. “Then Dr. Heathrow came to the house to see me.”
“Dr. Heathrow?” That surprised Autumn. Why would Dr. Heathrow want to be involved in the treatment of a boy who was no longer at his hospital?
“Yeah. He talked to my aunt, asked for an exact account of side effects I’d experienced and how those had lessened or gone away entirely.” He frowned. “I remember him patting my head like a dog and saying, ‘I wanted to see the miracle boy,’ which sounded kind of nice, but the look on his face was something else. He didn’t look happy at all. I remember his expression as barely contained anger.”
A shiver went down Autumn’s spine as she pictured the man, his face still clear in her mind though she hadn’t seen him for almost a decade.
Kaden went on, “Anyway, the next day, I got called into my doctor’s office and was declared healed. No more tests, no nothing. That was it. Thinking back, it was abrupt. Strange. But again, I was ten.”
Autumn nodded slowly. She was disturbed, still confused, the pieces coming together in a way she wasn’t sure she was ready to acknowledge just yet. “My story is similar, at least as far as the abrupt declaration that I was healed. I’d gone off my medication on my own.”
Kaden raised his brows. “At the hospital? You must have had to sneak.”
“I did. The hospital staff never said that they knew I was no longer taking the drug cocktail.” But now she wondered. Had they suspected? Had they caught her on camera sneaking around the other facility as she’d once believed? Both? In simple terms, was she suddenly more trouble than she was worth? “Kaden, did you ever have dreams of being in the woods?”
He looked briefly confused. “What woods? The woods surrounding the hospital?”
“Yes. Or…general woods. Any woods.”
