“Watch for your brother. He’s still little,” Margaret chided her two eldest. “Did you look yet?” she asked as she pulled a newspaper from her large bag.
“No,” Ruth said with some trepidation. “Did you?”
“We waited too.” Frank stepped from the car and shook Edward’s hand before embracing Ruth warmly.
“All right then, let’s get down to the beach and have a look.”
The four friends made their way through the property, the smell of blooming flowers washing over them as they walked. It was a fresh summer full of hope and possibility.
The property looked quite different now, what with the patients also out for strolls.
“Albert,” Ruth said as she passed Mr. Burdell on the lawn. “I’m so glad to see you getting some fresh air on this beautiful day.”
He looked over at Ruth and smiled.
“Are we on for tea later this afternoon?”
“Of course. I always have tea.”
Ruth knew that converting Magnolia Bluff into an aftercare facility for lobotomy patients was just a tiny step. So many needed more than what she could provide. But it was something. At least those who had remained at Emeraldine had the specialized care they needed, and a place to call home for the rest of their lives.
She, Edward, Frank, and Margaret ambled down the stone steps.
“Took you long enough!” Susie smiled as she and Meg stood up from their Adirondack chairs to embrace Frank and Margaret. “I’ve been dying to open this paper for an hour already. If I didn’t have Meg to keep me honest, I would have already read it three times over.”
They laughed.
“No Steven today?” Meg asked Edward as they settled into the remaining chairs.
“Unfortunately, no. He had to work. But he’ll be here tonight for our celebratory dinner. He doesn’t miss champagne if he can help it.”
They all laughed as they watched the children happily playing in the sand.
“Shall we?” Ruth asked, and they all opened their newspapers and together took in the headline:
FROM MIRACLE TO DISASTER: LOBOTOMY EXPOSED AS HORROR PERPETRATED BY MONSTER DOCTOR ON THOUSANDS
Ruth felt her heart pounding. She had provided all the information for this story, and even after everything that had happened, she still felt guilty for ruining Robert’s life. She wished there had been another way.
As if predicting what she was about to say, Edward grabbed her hand. “You did the right thing, Ruth.”
“Of course she did!” Susie chimed in.
“We wouldn’t be sitting here if it weren’t for you.” Frank lifted Margaret’s hand, and they looked at Ruth with appreciation and love.
“I still can’t believe it came to this.” Ruth sighed. She felt heartbroken at all that had been lost. Robert had been disgraced and his career was over; she no longer held her post at the hospital. She, at least, had started to move on. She kicked Robert out of their townhouse in the city and put the funds toward the conversion of Magnolia Bluff. She had heard that he purchased an RV and now spent his days visiting old patients. Still trying to justify his “miracle.”
She donated the Gramercy mansion, which her mother had given to her years before, to the Manhattan Women’s Sanctuary, the organization Susie had founded to help women who had no other options find a home. With Ruth’s help, they had expanded their mission beyond aid and shelter, to include medical research on female-specific issues—things the broader medical community had yet to acknowledge as illnesses. One of their first projects was the development of new, humane treatments for postnatal maladies.