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"I think he is," Dev commented

Stefan tried to pull his hand free "Unhand htened his grip until he could feel the bones in Stefano’s hand grinding together "You need to let what I’ us, and you’re learn firsthand just how fresh those bodies in our closets are"

Chapter 9

Dr Flores was a ed man with dark skin and hair, and a waro away He appeared shortly after Devlin’s bizarre warning to stay away from Lucian As if she needed to be warned

She’d learned her lesson

No uys, because when you did, you ended uparound with one of the brothers of the wealthiest families in the world who also turned out to be kind of your boss

Ugh

Right now she didn’t have the time to stew on the whole Lucian situation She was a hundred percent focused on as going on with her patient

Flores had explained that when Madeline appeared, she’d been admitted to the hospital he worked at under a false name Multiple tests had been coy Urine tests X-rays MRI CAT scans Ultrasounds All of them had been normal, which left them with a feers and a lot of questions

"She’s basically between a state of ence of consciousness, but there’s no sign of a coe She appears to be unaware of anyone around her and herself," he said as Julia scanned over his notes on the chart "But her vitals are good, so I originally suspected so the lines of akinetic mutism"

"Locked-in syndroical disorder

"But there were no pontine abnorether He looked at Madeline like she was a puzzle he just couldn’t piece together When Flores arrived, they helped Madeline get back into bed The woman could barely walk At the moment, she was asleep "She has normal sleep and awake patterns, which we do see in other neurological disorders that can mimic locked-in syndrome But she is able to eat and stand with assistance, and has reactions to sti is a hit or miss, I’ve discovered But as you saw earlier, she can’t make it more than a few steps on her own"

Which hy her family had hired her Obviously the doctor couldn’t be here every day checking her blood pressure and pulse They needed so fed three times a day, that she was cleaned, and moved, so bed sores didn’t develop It was obvious based on her stats and tests, Madeline didn’t require around-the-clock care

Julia closed the file and looked down at Madeline "So what are you thinking?" she asked, carefully brushing back a strand of hair that was resting on Madeline’s cheek

"Well," he said with a sigh as he stepped away froht with hi it’s soical"

She faced the doctor There were tests that even theunconsciousness She’d seen the to react "You think she’s faking this?"

"I don’t think that’s the case It’s highly possibly that her condition could be the result of extreme emotional or mental stress The brain can convince the body of al" He folded the stethoscope and placed it inside his bag "For example, there are people who believe that they’re actually dead It’s called Cotard delusion, also known as Walking Corpse Syndro Whatever had happened to Madeline could’ve been trauh that it forced her into this kind of state, possibly giving her time to recover before she could mentally and emotionally deal hat had happened to her

God, the poor woman No matter what the cause was, this was no way to live

"Did she have any previous history of mental illness?" she asked

Dr Flores looked up fro "You do realize that your job here is to sinose her"