Page 84 of High Society

“I told her it seemed far-fetched.” She hesitates. “But stranger things have happened.”

“Is that all?”

“I also told her the truth. That it’s rare for a victim to misinterpret abusive intentions.”

“You did encourage her to pursue it, then?”

“I encouraged her not to bury her feelings. To speak to you. To clarify what really happened.”

“What about the other women in the group?”

The color leaves Liisa’s cheeks. “What about them?”

“Did you suggest to any of them that I might’ve also been abusing them under ketamine?”

Liisa hops to her feet. “What is this? I feel like I’m back in front of the Board. Another inquisition!”

Holly rises from her own chair. They stand a few feet apart, the air electrified between them. “What have you done, Liisa?” she asks in a low voice.

Liisa shakes her head and begins to pace. She waves her hand around the office, contempt contorting her features. “Look at you!” she spits. “With your designer office. Your multimillion-dollar practice. Your celebrity clients. Is your board hounding you over your reliance on psychedelics? No! You’ve become rich and famous off them! While the Board of Psychology has turned me into a pariah!”

Holly gapes at her. “Does your resentment and bitterness run so deep that you’d throw away everyone’s shot at sobriety? Including your own?” Would you kill for it, too?

Without saying another word, Liisa snatches her bag off the chair and storms out of the office.

CHAPTER 41

Simon’s hip aches as he paces his deck, trying to force the memories to the surface. But only snippets of his session with Dr. Danvers float back to him. Something about Brianna and Kyla. He wonders why the memories are so fragmented. It didn’t happen with any of his previous ketamine sessions. Even when Dr. Danvers added MDMA to the mix.

“Hey, Simon!” some stranger on the beach calls out to him. The man is ripped, but with long, graying hair, he looks to be at least fifty. He pumps his arm in the air and makes the heavy-metal horn sign, extending his index and little fingers while tucking the others into his palm. “You rock, man!”

“Thanks, dude!” Grow up, asshole.

Simon has rarely felt this on edge. Ever since his lawyer called to tell him about Kyla’s complaint, his anxiety has peaked. He’s aware that he’s verging on paranoid, but that doesn’t help to calm him any.

What the fuck did I tell Dr. D about those girls?

Simon decides he needs to talk it through with someone else in the tribe. Maybe one of them has heard something? Stepping back inside his house, he grabs his phone and calls Reese. It rings through to voicemail. He texts her: Call me. Please. Important.

After fifteen minutes without a response, he decides to try someone else. But Salvador would be as good as useless, and Simon is afraid Baljit would bite his head off. Or worse, side with Kyla and Brianna. That leaves Liisa. Who happens to be a therapist, as well. If anyone has insider’s information, it will be her.

She answers on the fourth ring. “Simon?”

“Hiya, Liisa. How goes the battle?” he asks, realizing he’s trying too hard to sound casual.

“Did something happen?” Her voice is strained.

“Noooo.” He chuckles. “Just checking in. You know? After we all piled back onto the K-train. One at a time, of course. And since we don’t have a group session for a couple days, I thought you and I could debrief early. How did your session go?”

“Oh.” There’s a long pause. “Fine. And yours?”

“Same here,” he says, then calculates how much to reveal. “Except the whole thing is really cloudy. The other trips I remember so well. In fact, super-intensely. But this one… it’s all kind of murky, you know?”

“If you say so.”

“You’re a doctor, right? Do you have any ideas why my trip might have been like that?”

“I’m a psychologist, not a medical doctor,” Liisa says. “Maybe Dr. Danvers used a higher dose of ketamine this time?”