reason you became a therapist.â
âIt wasnât the unfulfilled dream of my mother, I can tell you that much.â
âWasnât it?â
âOh, please,â Zee said.
âWhat was the unfulfilled dream of your mother?â
âWe both know what it was.â
âWhy donât you tell me again?â Mattei said.
âThe Great Love. Itâs what she wanted from my fatherâand what she never got.â
âSo already thereâs a similarity to Lilly.â
âAnd just about every other woman in America,â Zee said.
âTrue enough. Your mother was onto something when she started writing fairy tales about The Great Love.â
âSomething that evidently killed her,â Zee said.
âWhich?â Mattei said.
âWas it the fairy tale that killed her? Or The Great Love?â
âArenât they pretty much the same thing?â
âYou tell me,â Mattei said.
When Zee didnât take the bait, Mattei asked a different question. âWhatâs the other dream of the fairy tale?â
âBesides true love?â
âWhat are both your mother and Lilly looking for?â Mattei asked.
âMy motherâs not looking for anything. My motherâs dead.â Zee was growing tired of this line of questioning.
âBear with me for a moment,â Mattei said.
Zee folded her arms across her chest.
âWhat did your mother want from you then, and what does Lilly want now?â
âI donât know,â Zee said.
âThink about it.â
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Z EE THOUGHT ABOUT M ATTEIâS QUESTION, and she thought about Lilly Braedon many times during the next few months.
It was William who finally contacted Zee. He was desperate. âSheâs not doing well,â he sobbed into the phone. âI donât know what to do.â He told Zee that Lilly had stopped the therapy within the first month. Convinced that the doctor was coming on to her, she had refused to step back into his office. âI donât know,â William said. âSheâs such a beautiful woman. Men canât help throwing themselves at her. I tend to believe her.â He tried to compose himself before going on. âShe wonât even get out of bed.â
Whose bed? Zee wanted to ask. But she didnât. Instead she agreed togo to the house to meet with Lilly, and with that, Zee crossed another line.
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T HE HOUSE WAS A MESS. It hadnât been cleaned for weeks, William told her. Finally, in frustration, he had hired a maid service, three women from Brazil who didnât speak much English, which he decided was a good thing, because he was afraid of what Lilly might say to them if she started talking. But instead of speaking even a word of hello, Lilly had taken to locking herself in her bedroom and crying the whole time they tried to cleanâhuge, wrenching sobs that finally upset the maids so much that they quit. âWhat was she crying about?â heâd asked the women, but they didnât know. Gesturing, they managed to communicate to him that Lilly had been talking on the phone with someone.
William thought that maybe the phone calls had been to Zee.
Zee didnât tell him what she already knew, that the phone calls were to Adam.
âYou didnât break up with Adam, did you?â Zee asked Lilly at her first return session.
âI couldnât,â Lilly said. Then she started to cry.
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L ILLY BECAME Z EEâS PATIENT ONCE more. And once again her meds were adjusted. Soon she was driving herself into Boston on a regular basis. She seemed better. Spring was turning to summer again, and Lillyâs spirits were lifting.
They didnât talk about Adam anymore. Lilly wouldnât, and there were clearly boundary issues that Zee had violated; she didnât want to risk making things worse. For now it was important not to drive Lilly away again. It was enough that she was here and that
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