“Hold it! I’m not going to get involved in this lawsuit.”
“No, no. I don’t expect you to. I just want you to ask them if they’ll meet with me.”
Dok sighed. That was a weighty request. “Wren, that’s asking a lot. You’ve barely settled in here, and these people don’t know you. They have no reason to trust you.”
“But they do trustyou. I’ve seen how much respect your patients have for you. They’ll listen to you. If you ask them, they’ll say yes.”
“They won’t agree to a lawsuit,” Dok said, shaking her head.
“They might,” Wren said. “I’ve read about how the Amish will allow others to represent them in court.”
Dok sighed, leaning back in her chair. “That usually only happens when they are being forced to do something that’s against their beliefs or traditions. And even then, it’s very rare.”
“I’d still like a chance to talk to them,” Wren said. Shedropped her chin to her chest, as if gathering her thoughts, then lifted her head. “Look, Dr. Stoltzfus, these three women had no idea they were part of a clinical trial. They sought help and it ended up making their lives worse. They were vulnerablebecausethey were Amish.”
That was hard to argue. Harder to dismiss. “It’s really my brother David who needs to be involved in this. A bishop is a bit of a gatekeeper. He’s the one who needs to be convinced that dredging up old history is worth doing. And I’m not at all sure he would agree to anything. This all happened long before David was the bishop in Stoney Ridge.”
“Yes, I realize that,” Wren said. “I’m hoping you’ll be able to get him to see why this is so important. And why time is of the essence.”
That statement was like an electric shock to Dok; it clicked into place a full picture in her mind.Thiswas why Wren wasn’t angry. “Wren, are you hoping to cash in from the lawsuit?”
Wren stiffened in the chair. “This is about justice.”
Was that the whole story, though? Dok wasn’t quite sold. She knew all too well about the mountain of debts that came with medical school. “But you wouldn’t mind a little monetary relief if it came your way, right? And you mentioned the case had a better chance of winning if the other Amish families joined in, didn’t you?”
“What Isaidwas that someone needs to be held accountable to stop this from happening to vulnerable people, like those poor Amish women.”
That wasn’t quite how Dok remembered it. “What about Charlie? What’s his role in all this?”
Wren hesitated for a moment. “What do you mean?”
“Why is he here?”
Wren’s eyes dropped. “Charlie is ... he’s here for his residency.”
“Does he have a part in this lawsuit too?”
She wouldn’t look at Dok. “You’d have to ask him.”
Dok swallowed an apple-sized knot. What had been going on with these two residents, right under her nose? She felt a sinking feeling from her head to her toes. This was a mess, one that she helped to create by being careless with Finegold’s files, by giving Wren and Charlie weeks of free time, by being such a reluctant, distracted supervisor. Clearly, she was not cut out for supervising.
“I’ll talk to my brother,” Dok finally said, “but no promises.”
“Thank you,” Wren said.
Dok glanced at her watch. “And for now, this topic needs to be set aside. We have a day of work ahead of us.”
Wren stood to leave. “Just remember, the deadline to join the lawsuit is just a week away. We need to act fast.”
But do we,though?Dok thought as the door clicked shut.Or rather,doyou?Because it seemed pretty clear Wren had already joined the list of plaintiffs. No doubt about that.
However this rolled out, it was clear to her that Wren was not the partner she’d been hoping to find. She had a bright future in medicine ahead of her, but not as a country doctor, not to the Amish. She was far too cunning, too canny. Dok doubted Wren would even stick around once this lawsuit business was settled.
Dok leaned back in her chair and let out a long sigh. Evie’s contract was almost up. Every time Dok had casually mentioned extending it for another three months, Evie had seemed open to the idea. But when Dok brought it up again on Friday, just in passing, Evie dropped a bomb—she’d had a change of heart. Apparently, she needed an adventure.
Dok had blinked, baffled. Medicinewasan adventure.
Meanwhile, Annie was gearing up for her final EMT exam and would probably be moving on soon—assuming they could figure out how to tackle her ongoing battle with motion sickness.
