Life Curse: Taber Blood I

Chapter 9

Back in the car, Macey took deep breaths to calm her nerves. She just started a war with the Greyson's, and she wasn't sure it was the battle she needed to fight right now. Through the windshield, the playground remained deserted, including Paul's absence. If Paul were here, he'd console her or tell her when she's crossed that line of decency. The thing is, she wouldn't have stooped so low before Paul died. That's part of the reason he chose her. When Roxanna used the lure of sex to capture Paul, Macey had already established herself as Paul's friend. His one friend at the time. Their love grew when they shared time in the attic, falling in love with few words between them, as Paul used to say. She read her romance novels, and he created entries in his journal—neither foretelling the future. No one could have known her current dilemma of raising a child, managing a mansion, and fighting old enemies without Paul. But here she is, and she isn't above getting ruthless, not when happiness is at stake. Someone blared their horn, and Macey jumped inches off the car seat. The parents were impatient. She couldn't blame them, though. Not when they are dropping their kids off and rushing to work. She shifted in reverse and pulled out of the parking lot, mouthing,  "I'm sorry," to people. 

Paul had secret sessions with a psychiatrist when he was a child. His doctor's name was Polinski, who approached his senior years when he treated Paul. Macey hoped the doctor was still practicing today. It's been a good twenty years, so she guessed he'd be in his late seventies. She drove three and a half miles to his office just outside of Fredericksburg City. The landscape was well maintained. A promising sign he was still open for business. If she's going to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Polinski was an ideal pick. Not because Paul had seen him as a child, but because Polinski kept all of Paul's secrets to himself. Including the fact that Paul was seeing him for his services. The good doctor came to the mansion for his sessions with Paul and never breathed a word about it. At least, that was how it stood nine years ago.

Everyone in town thought the doctor and Mr. Elijah Taber were old friends who enjoyed occasional cigar smoking in the man's den at the mansion. Macey remembered listening to people at Jack's Subs talking about it. "I heard they served in the Vietnam War together," one said. Another, who happened to be Roxanna's father, said the two were lovers. Jealousy brings out the mean side of people. But it was one of the things that pushed Macey to become friends with Paul. Elijah Taber earned his reputation, but Paul didn't deserve the treatment he received from the other students or the townspeople. She found Paul at the park sitting on a bench one sunny day. After commenting on the weather, they struck up a conversation on Virginia's history and hadn't parted until his death. He didn't tell her about Dr. Polinski until their senior year leading up to his marriage proposal. Macey had fallen in love by then and found humor in the local's assumptions about the doctor and Mr. Taber. She and Paul laughed for hours, and he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him in the attic where their love blossomed. After Macey accepted his proposal, he said, "I made dinner reservations. I planned to ask you during dinner, but," his cheeks flushed, "thought I'd be spontaneous."

"I would have said yes if you proposed by telegram," Macey said, then she cried. 

That memory made her smile as she rang the doorbell at Dr. Polinski's office, a structure built in 1890 for the well-to-do Tillinghast family. No relation to the Polinski's. But, his family did buy the house in 1930. Dr. Polinski was the sole beneficiary of the estate. When he moved in, the office had a separate entrance on the side of the building. Not that he needed it after his wife died ten years earlier, but it was a good purchase in the perfect part of town for his psychiatry practice. Macey heard footsteps approaching the door, and her palms sweat.

A man of about age forty answered the door.

"Sorry, I was looking for Dr.  Polinski," Macey fumbled her words.