Page 37 of Professor Next Door

I stared after him, my heart breaking for him, breaking for all of us.

I went back to the table, looking down at the papers. For a moment I resented the woman that had come before me. I felt like an ass, but there it was. It felt like she was ruining my life from the grave.

I sank into a chair, calling myself a million different names. Kayla had not done this to us on purpose, I knew that. It was her parents, it was Galen. Kayla had only tried to escape. Whether her death was an accident or suicide, she’d been trying to leave Rikki and Galen behind. She couldn’t handle whatever was happening to her and she’d run away.

Just as Galen was doing now.

I sighed and grabbed the papers Galen had been looking over.

Kayla could have been seeing the doctor for any number of reasons, maybe she’d realized she needed help and was trying to protect her family, maybe that’s why she’d left them? It was so irrational to think of a woman leaving her baby, to even consider it, but I knew personally it happened. Not every mother is cut out to be a mom. My mother knew that and left. It would seem Kayla had known that as well. That’s why she’d left Rikki with Galen rather than take her baby with her.

My eyes kept going back to the last report with her gynecologist, something tingling in my brain, but I wasn’t sure what. I picked up my tablet, wondering what diabetes did to a person. I felt confused when I saw Type 1 and Type 2 were different from gestational diabetes. In today’s world, it’s hard to not watch television without seeing some kind of information about diabetes, or catching glimpses about the rise in Type 2 diabetes in America and how obesity caused it. Kayla hadn’t been overweight, though. I glanced back at the report and saw she’d actually lost weight.

That’s when my eyes saw it at last, the thing that had been screaming at me, but my brain had refused to see. Under the diagnosis section, the term for her diabetes had changed from gestational to Type 2. I looked back at my tablet and saw that there was a difference, and that women that had gestational diabetes could sometimes develop Type 2. It would appear Kayla had not only developed it but developed it far earlier than was usual. While gestational diabetes can be asymptomatic, Type 2 diabetes could present in a number of ways with a variety of symptoms. Without care it would only get worse. Over and over again we’re told that Type 2 diabetes is caused by obesity, but according to the research I was reading, that wasn’t always the case.

I froze when I saw the word fainting. What if Kayla had been avoiding proper treatment for her diabetes, thinking her weight loss had cured the problem? Could she have passed out in the car while driving, her emotional state exacerbating the problem? I stared off into space, my brain running far too fast.

“There were no skid marks on the road.” John’s words came back to me, replaying in my head.

If she’d passed out, she wouldn’t have known she was about to die. She wouldn’t have reacted with panic, she’d have just driven into a light pole without a clue of what was about to happen. It all made sense!

I ran around the room, looking for my phone to call Galen home. I couldn’t find it and John pulled up into the driveway just as I was about to scream, Amanda not far behind him. They came in, laughing and carefree, but all I could do was stare at them with an odd mixture of horror and excitement.

“I think I know why Kayla died!”