Annie looked at Emily as though she were suggesting Annie might wish to fly to Mars.
“If you were discharged,” Emily said, “you’d be a free woman, and unmarried.But you could see your son.”
Annie puffed out a long breath, made a soft drum-roll sound.“I mean…that’s just a dream, isn’t it?I’ve asked Dr.Stone so many times—”
“Annie,” Emily’s heart thumped with anger at the mere mention of Stone’s name.“There’s something I need to tell you.”
“All right.”
“I know you’ve asked Stone yourself for your release, but Annie, your mother has appealed to get you out of herefourtimes in the past ten years.Stone has blocked every one of them because the law is set out so that the prisonphysicianhas the final say, not the judge.”
Annie’s mouth opened in shock.“My—my mother has tried to get me out?”
Emily nodded.
“Helen Sharrock?”
“Yes, that’s the name on the records.”
Annie’s hand came to her mouth.“How do you know this?”
Emily heaved a breath.“Because last night, I broke into Stone’s office and took both our files.”
Annie stared.“Emily, oh my God…”
Emily grabbed Annie’s hands and held them tightly, not caring at this point if the matrons saw.“I know.I know.But Annie, the point is, you have a place to go.Your motherwantsyou released.She hasn’t abandoned you.It’s Stone that has prevented your release.”
“Butwhy?Why would—”
“Because Stone is corrupt,” Emily said emphatically.“She has a whole business here, running drug trials under the table for kickbacks, taking bribes from inmates and who knows who else.You’re atest subject, Annie.A lab rat she makes money off of.She controls all the psych patients with drugs and the authority this ludicrous law allows her.”Emily was breathing heavily now, hardly able to channel her rage.She couldn’t wait to get her fingers on a typewriter a week from now.Her brain was utterly bursting with this story.She released Annie’s hands.
“So here’s the thing,” she continued, as tears began to course down Annie’s pale cheeks.“We can use this.We can use this evidence to blackmail her into signing off on your release.I’ll tell her I know what she’s doing, and that I’ll go to the authorities with the evidence if she doesn’t release you.It’s that simple.”
Annie was wringing her hands now, panting.“Oh Emily, I don’t know, I told you before, Stone isn’t anyone to trifle with—”
“At this point, I don’t care,” Emily said firmly.She could almost feel the fire burning in her own eyes.“What’s she going to do?My family is expecting me tomorrow, and so is my boss.My infection has cleared.She can’t keep me here.I think we have her cornered, and I want to use thisinformation to get you out with me.”She looked into Annie’s eyes.“So you can see your son, Annie.Yourson.”
Annie still looked doubtful, but Emily spied a crack of hope.The thought of her son was powerful motivation.It shone through Annie’s fear like a bar of morning light.
“God, I just want to be able to explain everything to him,” she said, blinking back tears.“I want to hold him, tell him a day hasn’t passed that I haven’t dreamed of his little brown eyes.”She sniffed, and held Emily’s gaze.“All right, say we do this,” she began, and Emily almost beamed.Annie was so much stronger than anyone gave her credit for.“Aren’t you lying to Stone?”She dropped her voice and glanced around.“Aren’t you going to publish this article anyway?”
“Yes.”
Annie hesitated.
“I have absolutely no ethical issue with double-crossing Eris Stone,” Emily said with conviction.“She doesn’t deserve either of our leniency.She sure as hell hasn’t shownusany, has she?”
“No,” Annie said quietly.“She certainly hasn’t.”
“She’s kept you away from Gregory for fifteen years, Annie.”
Annie swiped once again at the tears on her cheeks, which even had a little colour in them now.
“So do I have your blessing to do this?”Emily asked, placing her hands on Annie’s shoulders.She rubbed a thumb back and forth, felt the rough cotton fabric of Annie’s blue dress.How liberating it would surely feel for her to finally change out of it and shed the stigma of her illness, a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.Emily would take her to Eaton’s and buy her any dress she liked, in any style or colour—except blue—with pumps to match.
Annie took a deep breath, then leaned forward and embraced Emily with surprising strength.Her dark hair tickled Emily’s cheek as they held each another for a long moment, a quiet little island in the middle of the raucous dining hall.
“Yes,” Annie whispered.“But please be careful.”
