CELEBRITY STATUS (The Kate Huntington mystery series #4) by Kassandra Lamb Read Free Book Online Page B

behavior, until it got to the point where he was flaunting it in her face. They had a huge fight one night and he left.”
                Kate waited a beat, then asked, “How old were you?”
                “Twelve. I only saw Daddy off and on after that. He refused to come to the farm, even to pick me up. Sometimes he’d send a car, from Atlanta, to take me into the city to have dinner with him.”
                This time, Kate let the silence draw out. After a moment, Cherise continued, “Mama was weak. She couldn’t handle it, the rejection. She started taking all kinds of pills to help her sleep, and then to help her wake up, and then to help her not be too awake, if you know what I mean.”
                All of Kate’s mixed emotions about this woman melted away as she listened to her story. In a soft voice, she asked, “How did your mother die?”
                Kate watched the misty look on Cherise’s face turn hard. “There was a fire, one night, when I was sixteen. I couldn’t get through the smoke and flames to Mama’s room. She was so passed out from the dope she never woke up, which was a blessing, I suppose. She died of smoke inhalation.”
                Kate murmured sympathetic noises.
                “I thought Daddy would come home after that, but he didn’t. He stayed in Atlanta and left the staff to take care of me. I was already singing by then, had started to get a name for myself. My agent at the time suggested I apply for emancipation. You know what that is?”
                Kate nodded. Sometimes young people under eighteen were granted the legal status of an adult by the courts, under certain circumstances.
                “I discovered Daddy had deeded the farm over to my mother, and I was her only heir. I sold it and never looked back.”
                “Do you still see your father?”
                “Now and again. When we happen to be in the same city at the same time, we go to dinner. And he always sends me flowers the first night of a concert tour.”
                Kate glanced quickly at the clock sitting on the small table next to the cushioned client’s chair. Cherise caught the look and frowned.
                Kate leaned forward. “With the time we have left, I’d like to teach you some stress management strategies.”
                She started with some relaxation techniques the young woman could use to help her sleep better. The client was adamant that she wasn’t going to take any sleep aides, not even melatonin, a natural hormone. Considering her father’s drinking and her mother’s drug abuse, that was a wise attitude to have, Kate thought, even if a bit all-or-nothing.
                “I also want to work on how to manage your thoughts,” Kate said. “Self talk is a powerful thing. If you’re telling yourself that something terrible is going to happen, then you will be a basket case, and your anxiety might actually make you less alert to your surroundings, less able to think quickly should a bad situation develop.
                “So you need to monitor your thoughts a bit. I’m not saying suppress your fear. That isn’t healthy either. But when your thoughts start going down the ‘scared to death’ track, you need to stop them and start reminding yourself of all the precautions that have been taken, that Skip and Rose and their people are going to keep you safe, et cetera. That will help you stay calm so you can respond quickly to their instructions.”
                Cherise had been nodding throughout Kate’s little speech, and she even went along with a few minutes of role-playing to help her get the hang of shifting her negative self-talk toward the positive.
                With ten minutes left in the session, Kate brought up the issue of the waiver of confidentiality. Cherise