Needed: Full-Time Father (Medical Romance) by Carol Marinelli Read Free Book Online

state of Victoria knew Judith’s history, along with a few interstate hospitals she had frequented. Judith had a rare and complicated disease that went by the rather grand name of Munchausen’s syndrome, a baffling and extremely frustrating condition whereby the patient invented dramatic symptoms in an effort to get themselves admitted to hospital, often enduring unnecessary and painful procedures. And Judith had endured plenty. Listed in most emergency rooms, she often went under different names, but invariably she would be recognised or her story would alert the staff that this wasn’t a genuine patient and after a few enquiries the truth would come out…
    ‘I’m really sick, Sister,’ Judith gasped. ‘My stomach’s killing me. I really mean it this time.’
    ‘Let’s get her into cubicle two, guys, please,’ Madison directed, but Max gave her a startled look, clearly expecting Judith to be sent, as was more usual, to the waiting room.
    ‘Cubicle two?’ Max checked, shrugging when Madison gave a swift nod. She waited till they’d settled Judith on the gurney and then followed them outside when Max beckoned.
    ‘She called for an ambulance three times over the weekend. She’s got three bottles of painkillers in her bag, each one under a different name!’
    ‘I don’t doubt that she has,’ Madison said. ‘She’s probably been “doctor shopping”, Max, but you know that I’m far from a soft touch. I’ve sent Judith to the waiting room on many occasions, even walked her out of the department myself when I felt she was playing games, but today I don’t like the look of her.’
    ‘Fair enough,’ Max agreed, then his tone shifted. ‘Do you know when the funeral…?’
    ‘Not yet.’ Madison responded crisply to the question that everyone was asking today. ‘As soon as I hear I’ll post a notice in the staffroom and I’ll ring the ambulance depot.’
    ‘It’s gonna be big,’ Max said. ‘A lot of people will want to pay their respects. Will you be doing a reading or talking about him?’
    ‘Me?’ Madison gave a slightly startled look.
    ‘Well, you’ve worked with him for ages, you both set up this place…’
    ‘I’m sure there are far more relevant people in Gerard’s life to talk about him,’ Madison responded, then swiftly changed the subject. ‘I’d better get back to Judith.’
    ‘No one believes me,’ Judith said as Madison started to undress her. ‘They all think I’m putting it on.’
    ‘You understand why they think that, don’t you?’ Madison replied. ‘Judith, you’ve abused the system so many times, we’ve had this conversation on numerous occasions—you begging to be believed, insisting that this time there really is something wrong, only to find out a few days or weeks and heaven knows how many tests or operations later that there was, in fact, nothing wrong.’
    ‘You don’t believe me.’ Judith shivered. ‘Look at me. Surely you can tell that this time I’m not pretending?’
    But could she? Madison stared down at her patient, at the pale brown hair with grey roots that needed retouching, at the beads of sweat on her forehead. She felt the racing pulse beneath her fingertips and truly didn’t know—Judith had come in in the same condition before, on one occasion she had even injected herself with insulin to induce similar symptoms, with near fatal consequences.
    Judith knew as much as Madison did about hospitals. More perhaps. She knew how to fake her symptoms, had taken drugs to produce symptoms, had lied over and over again to get to the top of the list, had called more ambulances than Madison had ever called taxis, and though her games had seemed to have stopped for a while, it would seem she was up to her old tricks, giving false identities to unwitting doctors to obtain prescriptions, and calling ambulances at will.
    But even though the evidence was stacked against Judith, Madison actually had a lingering fear that, after all this time, Judith’s