Page 3 of The Girl He Claimed

Paige took a deep breath, trying tokeep her composure. She tried to think carefully. The trouble was, the more shethought, the more she knew that Dr. Chang had a point. She tried to state thetruth as calmly and professionally as she could.

"I would say that I'm avoidingaddressing my trauma and that I need to take the time to properly deal withit."

Dr. Chang nodded. "And do youactually agree with that assessment or are you just saying it for mybenefit?"

Paige hesitated. She had alwaysbeen a workaholic, throwing herself first into her research and then into herjob to avoid dealing with her own personal demons.

She nodded at last.

Dr. Chang was silent for severalseconds. "All right. I'm going to let you return to work."

That wasn't the response Paige hadbeen expecting after what had just happened. She'd thought that the doctorwould bench her for the foreseeable future, and that wasn't something that shewas sure she could have coped with.

"That's... a surprise,"Paige said carefully.

"Why?" Dr. Chang asked."As you say, you have experience in processing trauma, and I believe thatyou have the skills to cope with it. This death is obviously an importantevent, but I believe in you enough to accept that you will continue to be ableto do your job without it being an issue."

Paige let out a breath she hadn'tknown she was holding. She wasn't sure that she would have made the samedecision in Dr. Chang's position.

Dr. Chang leaned forward. "ButI'm giving you conditions. You need to attend regular therapy sessions. Andyou'll need to check in with me once a month for a progress report. I want tomake sure that you're taking care of yourself, Paige."

Paige nodded. "I understand.And I appreciate your concern, Dr. Chang."

She stood up, grateful that shecould get out of there. It was time for her to go.

"Just one more question,"Dr. Chang said. "Why did you choose to come here for this assessment? TheFBI has access to more than enough qualified personnel to conduct it."

"I thought a familiarenvironment would be better," Paige said. "And they wouldn't let medo this with Prof. Thornton."

It was true, but it was a long wayfrom being the whole truth. There was another reason she was there too.

"I imagine he would have ahard time remaining impartial," Dr. Chang said. "All right, AgentKing, you can go."

Paige breathed a sigh of relief asshe headed back out into the rest of the facility, briefly taking in the sightsand sounds of the place.

The St Just Institute was primarilya secure psychiatric institution, built on the grounds of an old manor house.It created a strange mix of the old-fashioned and the modern as Paige made herway through it. Much of it had a modern, clinical feel, with white paintedwalls and a disinfectant smell, but there were still some parts of the buildingthat looked like they had been there for centuries, like the wooden beams inthe ceiling in places, or the large library that had originally been for theprevious owner's collection but had now become a repository of medical andpsychiatric texts. Paige had spent a lot of time in there when she'd beenworking on her research, and she briefly looked in to wave to Caroline, theslender, dark-haired, thirty-year-old woman who had served as the librarian foryears.

"Paige, it's good to seeyou," Caroline said. She frowned slightly. "Are you here working on acase?"

Paige shook her head. "Anassessment before I get back to work. It's good to see you again,Caroline."

"You too," the librariansaid.

Paige kept on through the facility,heading for the front desk.

As she walked, Paige couldn't helpbut wonder if this was what her life had become. A mix of old and new, tryingto reconcile her traumatic past with her current job as an agent for the FBI.

It was almost time to get back towork and put everything Dr. Chang had said into action. She knew it wouldn't beeasy, but she was determined to face her demons head-on.

First, though, there was one otherthing she needed to do.

Paige wasn't entirely surprised tofind Dr. Neil waiting for her as she reached the main entrance hall of theinstitute, even though he was the director of the facility. He probably hadbetter things to do than meet with Paige, but he would probably also want tomake sure that she wasn't going to cause problems there. The facility'sdirector was an older man who always wore expensive suits, with his white hairslicked back. His slightly pinched features were trained on Paige as if hopingthat her presence wouldn't cause problems for him.

"I trust everything wentwell," Dr. Neil said.

"Well enough," Paigereplied. She wasn't going to give him any details she didn't have to. "Butsince I'm here, there's something else that I'd like to do."

"What's that? I assume youalready looked around the open areas of the place on your way back out."

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