Mad Love

Chapter 5

I continued to visit the joker for many months, each month I felt myself getting closer and closer to him. He began telling me stories that seemed quite personal and I listened to them with a large amount of empathy and understanding. One time I even found a single rose in a little vase on my desk with a note attached that read,
"come down and see me sometime - J"
I picked up the flower and held it to my nose, it smelled wonderful. He was so sweet- wait! Was I falling for him, one of my patients?! No! I won't believe it, it's too absurd. I'll talk with him tomorrow...maybe. I haven't stopped thinking about him since our first encounter. It didn't make sense, wasn't I afraid of him? I-. Just then the door flew open, it was Jessica, she was breathing hard. She held a phone in her hand and handed it to me without giving me a second to ask what it was.
"Hello?" I asked, unsure of who I was talking to.
"Hi honey, it's mom." My mother's voice sounded slower and sadder than usual.
"Hey mom, what's up?"
"Um...your brother-" just then my mom began to cry, hard.
"Mom?" I was really worried. My stomach was doing flips, the anxiety was killing me.
"H-he died last night." My mother choked out.
"What?" I was in disbelief, this can't be happening, my brother was in perfect health. We were so close and I loved him more than anything in the world.
"He became a lawyer as your aware and ended up losing his case. H-he lost all of his money into that case and became depressed." She seemed to have better control of her voice as her words were becoming easier to understand. "They found his b-body a few hours later in his apartment."
I was in shock, I couldn't even find words. I pressed end call without a word and dropped it.
"Harleen..." Jessica tried to comfort me but I wouldn't have any of it. It wasn't fair! He didn't even get a chance, why was my life turning into a living hell?! I then pushed past Jessica and ran to my now cluttered office, trying to calm down and get my thoughts straight. What was I going to do now? I have no where to go for comfort, I felt trapped. Wait! Maybe I could... No! He's the last person I would want to see right now, but he's all I got.