Read Online Listed: Volume III by Noelle Adams - Free Book Online Page A

measuring the progress of the virus, since we don’t
even know what it is,” Dr. Franklin said, looking at Emily gravely from across
his large desk. “So all I can do is measure secondary effects and compare them
to your previous tests.”
    Paul
felt tense and like his stomach was twisting, but he wasn’t exactly sure why. 
He and Emily were in Dr. Franklin’s office for an update on her prognosis, but
it wasn’t likely anything said today could surprise them.
    Emily
shifted slightly in her chair. She was dressed more casually today than she’d
been for most of the week, during which she’d been attending the trial
hearings. Today, she wore a pair of well-worn jeans and a brown velvet jacket,
and her hair was hanging down around her shoulders. Paul thought she looked beautiful
but a little pale, and he knew she was as tense as he was about this visit.
    She
said, “Yes. I know that. Are things…progressing as you expected?”
    Dr.
Franklin leaned back in his chair and gave her a little smile. “It’s actually
better than I originally expected. It’s definitely progressing, but not as
quickly as I’d anticipated.”
    Paul
leaned forward. “So she has longer than thought?”
    “If
it continues at the rate it has progressed for the last month, then, yes, I
would guess she may have as long as three more months.” Dr. Franklin looked
from Paul to Emily. “There are no guarantees, of course, but perhaps you have a
little more time than I’d originally predicted.”
    Paul
turned his head and met Emily’s gaze. An extra month. An extra month she might
be alive. It was a lot. It gave his investigators more time to find out whether
the virus came from his father’s research facility. His heart accelerated with
something like hope.
    “That’s
good,” Emily said, a little haltingly. She was looking at Paul, as if she were
waiting for his reaction. “I guess.”
    “Of
course, it’s good.” He reached over and squeezed her arm. “It’s a month we
hadn’t expected to have.”
    She
smiled at him, the expression growing slowly on her face and momentarily taking
his breath away. “Yeah.”
    Dr.
Franklin cleared his throat, breaking into their shared gaze. “Now, would you still
prefer not to pursue any courses of treatment for the virus?”
    Emily
shook her head. “I don’t want to spend my last days in the hospital, subjected
to a bunch of experiments that won’t work.”
    “We
don’t want to pursue blind guesses—treatments that are basically shots in the
dark,” Paul added, cutting his eyes from Emily to Dr. Franklin. “But if you
come up with a treatment for which there is some evidence that it might be
effective, we would want to try that.” He gave Emily a questioning look.
“Wouldn’t we?”
    Her
brow lowered, and she looked a little confused. “Maybe. I guess so. But there
isn’t any treatment like that, is there? No one’s had this virus before except
my aunt.”
    Paul
looked back at Dr. Franklin, who shook his head. “All I have right now to offer
you are blind guesses, the most obvious of which we already tried on Mrs. Marino’s
aunt with no success. But I’m still doing research. It may be that this virus
or something similar has been diagnosed before but hasn’t been written about in
the literature.”
    “You’ll
keep looking?” Paul prompted, trying to convey through his level gaze how
significant his expectations were for the doctor.
    “Of
course, Mr. Marino. Your wife’s case is my top priority. I can offer you only a
very slim hope, but I suppose that is better than nothing.”
    “It
is.” Paul glanced back over at Emily, whom he discovered was looking at him
strangely.
    He
didn’t understand the puzzled expression on her face. Maybe she thought he was
being too presumptuous in this discussion with the doctor. Maybe she thought he
should sit back and let her handle the questions. She’d told him this morning
that he didn’t even need to come to the appointment with