Chapter 5 - The Doctor Who Never Examined Her
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Hannah Collins had not slept more than three hours.
She kept seeing Teresa Moretti stare at a signature she had made while she was frightened.
Margaret Ellis had left the copies in a locked folder.
She had told them to sign nothing else without her.
Teresa sat at the breakfast table with her wrist wrapped in a clean bandage.
Her silver hair was brushed back from her face.
Her hand shook only a little when she lifted her tea.
"You are hovering again," Teresa said.
"I am trying not to," Hannah said.
The smile faded when the front bell rang.
Luca Moretti had stayed in the guest room without announcing it.
He checked the camera before he opened the door.
Dr. Nathan Cole stood on the steps with his medical bag.
He was a tall man in his sixties with a calm voice.
He had treated Teresa for eleven years.
Teresa trusted him as she trusted very few people.
"Thank you for coming so early," Luca said.
"You said it could not wait," Dr. Cole said.
"It cannot," Teresa said from the doorway.
Teresa pointed at the chair beside her.
"Sit down, Hannah," Teresa said.
"This concerns you now whether we like it or not," Teresa said.
Dr. Cole checked Teresa's pulse and listened to her chest.
He unwrapped the bandage with careful fingers.
Teresa winced when he turned the wrist slightly.
"When did this happen?" Dr. Cole asked.
"It has hurt for two weeks," Teresa said.
"Vanessa made me practice with that heavy coffee pot every afternoon," Teresa said.
"Did you fall?" Dr. Cole asked.
"No," Teresa said.
"I kept lifting it because I was afraid of what would happen if I refused," Teresa said.
He pressed lightly along the swollen joint.
"This is a sprain," he said.
"It is sitting on top of arthritis we already know about," he said.
"It will hurt for another week," he said.
"It does not explain confusion," he said.
"Vanessa told Mr. Whitmore that she forgets meals and repeats herself," Luca said.
"I repeat myself when people pretend not to hear me," Teresa said.
He asked her to count backward from one hundred by sevens.
She did it slowly and correctly.
He asked her to name every person who worked in the house.
She named them all and added what each liked in their coffee.
This was the woman Vanessa had described as lost.
This was the woman a stranger had tried to place behind a locked door.
"How are you sleeping?" Dr. Cole asked.
"Poorly," Teresa said.
"How are you eating?" he asked.
"Less than I should," Teresa said.
"Are you anxious?" he asked.
"I am anxious because my son's fiancée tried to take my house," Teresa said.
"I think that is a reasonable kind of anxious," Teresa said.
"It is," Dr. Cole said.
He closed his small black notebook.
"You are under-eating," he said.
"You are tired and stressed and your blood pressure is high," he said.
"None of that makes you incompetent," he said.
The room went very quiet.
"Say that again clearly," Luca said.
"Teresa Moretti is competent to make her own medical decisions," Dr. Cole said.
"She is competent to make her own financial decisions," Dr. Cole said.
"She is sharp and she knows exactly what is happening around her," Dr. Cole said.
Teresa closed her eyes for a moment.
When she opened them they were bright with tears she would not shed.
"Thank you," Teresa said.
She placed a copy of the medical summary on the table.
Hannah recognized Vanessa's neat handwriting in the margins.
At the bottom was a signature in dark blue ink.
It read Dr. Elias Grant in careful letters.
Dr. Cole picked up the page and frowned.
"This is not my summary," he said.
"No one asked me for one," he said.
"Has Dr. Grant ever treated Teresa?" Margaret asked.
"Not through my practice," Dr. Cole said.
"Not once," Dr. Cole said.
It described wandering at night and missed medication.
It described angry outbursts and a woman who could not be left alone.
None of it sounded like Teresa.
All of it sounded like a story someone needed to be true.
Margaret called the number on the letterhead and put the phone on speaker.
"This is Dr. Grant," he said.
Margaret asked if he had examined Teresa Moretti.
The pause that followed was too long.
"I reviewed the submitted materials," Dr. Grant said.
"Did you meet her in person?" Margaret asked.
"I spoke with the family representative," Dr. Grant said.
"You mean Vanessa Bellini," Margaret said.
"She provided the history and completed the questionnaire," Dr. Grant said.
Luca stood so fast his chair scraped the floor.
"You signed a medical summary for a woman you never met," Luca said.
"I relied on collateral information," Dr. Grant said.
Dr. Cole leaned toward the phone.
"This summary says moderate cognitive decline," Dr. Cole said.
"It recommends supervised placement," Dr. Cole said.
"On what examination did you base that?" Dr. Cole asked.
"I may have used stronger language than the file supported," Dr. Grant said.
"You may have ended a woman's independence," Dr. Cole said.
"You will withdraw it in writing today," Margaret said.
"I need time to consider the wording," Dr. Grant said.
"You have until five o'clock," Margaret said.
"After that I file a complaint with the medical board," Margaret said.
"I will also notify the facility and Mr. Whitmore," Margaret said.
Dr. Grant agreed so quickly that Hannah felt sick.
Teresa had not spoken during the whole call.
Now she looked at the summary as if it were something dead on her table.
"He never even looked at me," Teresa said.
"He did not need to," Teresa said.
"Vanessa had already decided who I was," Teresa said.
At four forty a courier brought a sealed envelope.
Inside was a letter on Dr. Grant's letterhead.
He withdrew the summary completely.
He admitted he had not personally examined Teresa.
He admitted he had relied solely on information provided by Vanessa Bellini.
Margaret read it twice and placed it in her folder.
"This helps us," she said.
"It does not undo the application Vanessa already made," she said.
"She will not stop because one paper failed," Teresa said.
Teresa was right.
By the next morning the whispers had started.
A neighbor called to ask if Teresa was feeling confused.
A woman from church asked if Teresa needed special care.
In that story Teresa wandered the halls at night.
In that story Hannah had isolated her from her family.
In that story Hannah was a manipulative gold-digger after the house.
Hannah heard the last version from the delivery driver.
"I am a gold-digger now," Hannah said.
"That is what frightened people call a younger woman near money," Teresa said.
"I clean your bathrooms," Hannah said.
"I know what you clean and what you protect," Teresa said.
Luca came in with his phone in his hand.
Two old friends of his mother had sent the same strange phrase about Hannah's influence.
The phrase had Vanessa's polish all over it.
"She is building a story before we can tell the truth," Luca said.
"Then we tell the truth first," Teresa said.
Margaret advised caution on the phone that night.
She wanted no public fight Vanessa could twist.
Teresa listened and thanked her politely.
"I have been quiet because I was ashamed," Teresa said.
"I was ashamed that I let Vanessa sit at my table," Teresa said.
Hannah covered her hand across the table.
"You have nothing to be ashamed of," Hannah said.
"Maybe not," Teresa said.
"But I am finished hiding in my own house," Teresa said.
"What do you want to do?" Luca asked.
"I want the doors open on Sunday," Teresa said.
"I want my friends and my trustees and my priest in this room," Teresa said.
May you like
"I want them to hear me speak for myself," Teresa said.
"And I want Hannah standing beside me where everyone can see her," Teresa said.
