Special Needs

Chapter 66: The Examination

UPDATE NOTE: Remember, in this new version, Harry and Juliette aren't married (yet).

No sooner had we celebrated a wonderful family holiday than I got a call from Nathan Greenwood. "Hello, Juliette. Sorry to bother you while you're with your family, but I need you to get back to Vancouver right away."

"That's okay," I told him. "We all knew we'd have to get back to reality after Christmas. What's up?"

"Theodore is going after you," he said and my heart dropped.

"What?!" I panicked. Then I realized he wasn't being literal. "You mean during the trial, right?" I asked slowly, to be sure I understood him.

"Yes, I apologize for the way I phrased that. Theodore wants to try to get you charged with sexual misconduct. He's saying that you and Harry were sexually involved, that you took advantage of Harry and manipulated him because he is intellectually disabled, and that you violated the terms of the contract."

"What the hell?" I said and tears started to prick my eyes. "Harry isn't disabled!"

"What's wrong?" Harry asked and I handed him the phone. He listened intently as Nathan told him the situation. When he hung up, he filled me in. "Nathan wants me to see an Intellectual Disability specialist and go through some testing to be sure that I was aware enough to give consent to our activities."

"Why is he doing this?" I demanded. "How does he think it's going to help him?"

Harry answered, "I think he just wants to hurt you in any way he can."

I knew that was it. I had never done anything to offend Theodore except defy his ridiculous rules for taking care of Harry. 

"Oh, and he said that you should bring a copy of the contract you originally signed," Harry added.

The contract! I hadn't thought about it in so long. I had sent copies to my parents and to Helena just to see if they had any feedback before I signed it. I wish I had thought of that way back when I challenged Theodore about the wording.

As soon as we hung up with Nathan, Harry broke the news to our families, "We have to book flights to Vancouver as soon as possible."

"Before the New Year?" Mom asked, looking disappointed.

And then Harry told them about the conversation with Nathan.

"What is today, the 29th?" I asked since we had all been nestled in our little holiday cocoon for a number of days. "I don't even know if we can get a flight out at this point. And what specialist could see Harry before the new year anyway?"

"Sounds like that's the place to start," Clive said. "Call and make an appointment first and then you'll know when you have to fly."

Nathan had given us the name of the specialist he recommended, along with both his work and home phone numbers. We were able to get in touch with him and make an appointment for January 2, 2018 at 8:00 AM, amazingly.

"All right, looks like we're flying whenever we can get on a plane," I said, knowing holiday travel was going to be expensive and hard to come by.

We searched for three hours before we finally decided on a red-eye flight going out around 12:30 AM the following evening. I apologized again and again to my mother that we couldn't stay for the New Year's Eve party she was planning to have. She had invited aunts, uncles and cousins, and she had been encouraging me to invite some friends from high school and college so everyone could meet Harry and his family. As I thought about it, I was somewhat relieved to not have to face all of those people yet, although I didn't admit this to my mom. And Anne still had to stay out of the news and the spotlight, so we really should have been more careful about planning such an event in the first place.