prescription form waiting for a doctor’s signature. It was folded but from the letters he could see, it looked like a prescription for Methadone.
“What you doing here, anyway?” Elias asked.
Caden caught Elias’ eyes on the paper and he quickly tucked it into his pocket, straightening up.
“I’m dropping something off for one of my mom’s patients,” he explained, “confidential.”
“Heroin addict?”
Some of the older addicts at rehab had been withdrawing from heroin and they’d been allowed Methadone while their bodies were coping with the sudden loss of the drugs. They were the only people in the place allowed any kind of drug to make things easier.
“I can’t say,” Caden’s smile said it all, “but they’re in a tough place. They have it worse than you.”
“Is that possible?” Elias laughed, rubbing his sweaty palms together.
The door to his sister’s office creaked open and an old lady clutching a handkerchief to her nose shuffled out. Before Ronda could call for the next patient, Elias bolted, leaving Caden behind.
“What can I-,” Ellie’s voice trailed off when she saw her brother, a frown instantly forming, “I’m working.”
She dropped her pen on the table and leaned back in her chair in front of the window looking out onto Havenmoore’s floral square. Perfectly manicured fingernails clutched the edges of her expensive chair.
“Nice to see you too,” Elias quickly sat in the chair, “this won’t take long. I just need something.”
“No,” swaying her short, dark hair, she leaned forward with a dry smirk on her face, “get out of here. I have real patients to see.”
“Please,” he pleaded, “hear me out.”
“There’s nothing you can say to convince me to help get you high. I’ve done that before and I almost lost my license because of it, Elias. This is your mess. You clean it up.”
She had only ever helped him out before because Elias would usually blackmail her with something. It was usually something emotional to make her crack. He always hated himself for doing that but he never felt like he had any choice. He just needed something to keep his mind off the drug he really craved.
“I’m trying, I really am,” he scratched his scruffy hair with both hands as his tongue flicked against his lip ring, “honestly, I didn’t touch anything.”
“You smell like a brewery,” she wrinkled her nose.
“It’s just beer. Nothing else, I swear.”
Ellie’s doctor eyes wandered over him, quickly examining him. His eyes may have been bloodshot from the lack of sleep but they weren’t extremely dilated.
“You promise me you’ve not touched anything?”
“I promise,” he held his pinky finger out, “pinky swear.”
It was something they used to do as kids and neither of them dared to bring out the ‘ pinky swear ’ unless they were being truthful. Ellie stared at the pinky but she didn’t reach out to join in.
“I believe you,” she gritted her sharp jaw tightly, “but why?”
“Why?”
“Why haven’t you cracked? It’s been a week, so why are you still clean?”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Elias tried to laugh it off.
“You’ve been to rehab before and you’ve come out making bold claims about trying to stay clean. This time, you haven’t touched anything. Why?”
Elias didn’t want to tell her why. He didn’t want to admit that hearing that his nephew looked up to him had shaken him and got under his skin. He didn’t want to be a role model to a kid. I can’t even look after myself.
“Kobi needs an uncle,” he wiped the sweat from his brow, “and I’m trying for him. I don’t know why, but I’m really trying not to crack.”
“You’ve never cared before. Does this have anything to do with the fact you nearly died this time?”
“Don’t.”
“No, I will,” Ellie leaned across the table, “I was the first one they called. You’d taken so much coke you were about to meet your maker. You almost