More Lies and Alibis (Using Lies as Alibis #2) by Tiffany L. Warren Page A

first.  She’s stable.  That clot can wait a bit.”
    I consider this for a moment.  “No.  We can use laparoscopic surgery to get the clot.  If we don’t crack her chest open, we shouldn’t have a problem going in near the base of her spine to get the silicone.”
    “Okay.  That sounds good,” Fatima says to my surprise.  Maybe she’s not just here to contradict everything I have to say. 
    “I want her to live,” Fatima says as if she read my mind.  “This is a senseless reason to die.”
    We work together feverishly on Stephanie.  First, Lucas and I remove the clot.  He’s got the steadiest hands in the hospital, so it makes sense for him to do it.  Then, Fatima and I meticulously remove the silicone lumps.  Some of them have adhered to muscle and fat, so it is a tedious process.  The silicone remaining in her buttocks is the hardest to remove.  The pieces that have hardened are easy but the gel substance is difficult to grasp with our tools.  I suction some out with a mini-vacuum while Fatima uses a scraping motion to remove the pieces that have attached to the underlying skin tissue.
    After three hours of work, the plastic surgeon comes in and does the best he can to reconstruct Stephanie’s buttocks.  Even if he does his best work tonight, Stephanie is going to need skin grafts and several reconstructive surgeries before she looks “normal” again.  She probably looked just fine before this surgery and now her young body is mutilated.
    I don’t feel comfortable until Stephanie is stitched up and she’s being wheeled to recovery.  It’s then that I realize how tired I am.  I feel a crash coming on.
    “Good job Sydney,” Lucas says.  “You were amazing.”
    “Thank you Dr. Jeffries,” I reply with a wink.  “You are pretty amazing yourself.”
    Fatima makes a gagging noise and goes to the sink to wash her hands and remove her scrubs.  Lucas and I do the same.
    I stand next to Fatima at the sink and we wash our hands in silence.  It is an awkward silence, because I think both of us want to say something.
    “Thanks for your help,” I say, deciding to be the adult.  “That was a pretty complex surgery.”
    “You’re welcome.  I don’t know if we got all of the silicone, but I don’t know that anyone could’ve.”
    Lucas pulls off his gloves and stands next to me at the sink.  “No one could’ve gotten it all.  I think you all saved her life.”
    “We all did,” I say.
    Fatima chuckles.  “We make a pretty awesome threesome.”
    Crickets.  Dead silence.  Like really, Fatima?  Really?
    “Okay, it was a bad joke,” Fatima says.  “But I do like working with y’all.  Looking forward to being in surgery with you both again.”
    Fatima dries her hands and leaves me and Lucas at the sink.  He lifts his eyebrows and smiles.
    “Threesome?”
    I narrow my eyes at him and growl.  “Don’t even think about it.”

 
    Chapter Fourteen
     
    Camille
     
    “Do you think you can help me…be happy?”
    Dr. King taps her ink pen on the side of her journal, as I ease back onto the couch.  There, I said it.  I hope she can help me.
    Because I think, Lord help me, that I might kill Bryan if he tries to sell my house.
    “Happiness means different things to different people, Camille.  What does happiness mean to you?”
    I breathe deeply and carefully choose my response.  “It means that I can have what God wants me to have.  It means me doing exactly what I’m on this earth to do, and enjoying my life.”
    “And what’s keeping you from that now?”
    “Rules.  My husband and his rules.  He feels that God has empowered him to be the priest of our home, which I don’t disagree with, but he thinks that means he has absolute power over me.”
    “Is this new?  Has Bryan always acted like that?  Was he like that before you married him?”
    Dr. King’s questions feel like an attack.  A flurry of things that I haven’t thought of before. 
    “Bryan