It's Nothing Personal Page 18

  CHAPTER 40

  July 16, 2011

  Jenna, Tom, and Mia were at the end of a trip of a lifetime. The beach house they rented in Poipu was more amazing and beautiful than any place they had ever stayed before. For two blissful weeks, the three of them never stopped moving. The Reiner family hiked, swam, surfed, played games, read books, and made sandcastles. More importantly, they laughed, teased, cuddled, and talked. The one thing the Reiners did not do was bring up the lawsuit. Jenna, Tom, and Mia had made a pact before they left. If only for two weeks, the lawsuit did not exist. They had each kept their word.

  Their last night arrived sooner than any of them would have liked. Although she would not admit it to Tom or Mia, Jenna was nervous about going home and found herself on edge. While Tom and Mia reminisced about the high points of their trip over dinner, Jenna said very little. Before they left for the flight home, Jenna snuck out into the backyard alone. She descended the lava rock steps that led from their perch above the ocean down to the water. In her bare feet, she precariously hopped from one jagged patch of black rock to another, making her way out to a solitary mound of stone that jutted up from the sea. Twenty feet from shore, Jenna sat on the rock and listened to the rhythmic crashing of the waves. The tears trickling down her cheeks dripped into the ocean, blending in with the saltiness of the sea.

  Tom saw his wife, sitting alone, her legs curled up into her body. She was surrounded by the froth and mist of the ocean’s tides. He called her name from the yard, but she couldn’t hear him over the roar of the waves. Following Jenna’s earlier maneuver, Tom made his way out to the solitary rock. Instantly, he noticed Jenna was crying.

  He sat down next to her, and put his arm around her. Splashes of water hit their feet and bottoms, threatening to soak their shorts. Neither of them cared. Jenna rested her head on Tom’s shoulder and whispered, “I’m scared. I don’t want to go back.”

  She looked so innocent and frightened, like a young child. It pained Tom to see his wife in so much turmoil.

  Tom held Jenna tight, hoping to make her feel some level of comfort and protection. She melted into him. At last, Tom knew it was time to leave. He whispered into Jenna’s hair, “I don’t want to go back either, but we have to. Whatever happens, I’ll be there for you.”

  He held his hand out to Jenna, but she remained planted on the rock. Her eyes were bloodshot and wet, her face puffy and blotchy. “Can you give me just a minute alone? I promise, I’ll be right up.”

  Tom nodded and made his way back to the beach house.

  Jenna stood alone, looking out at the horizon and the sinking sun. The ocean had always captivated her. She tried to take everything in – the blues and greens of the water, the reflection of the sun glistening off the rippling waves, the smell of the mist. Tom whistled at her. The piercing screech got her attention. Before she headed back to the demons at home, she held two fingers to her lips, kissed them, and extended her arm toward the Pacific Ocean.

  She whispered to the waves, “Good bye, for now. Please take care of us.”

  Jenna turned and made her way back to the house. With each step forward, she was distancing herself from what she loved and moving closer into the jaws of evil.

  At the airport, Tom dropped Jenna and Mia off with the luggage, while he returned their rental car. Preoccupied by what faced her when she arrived home, Jenna did her best to check their six bulky bags.

  Tom returned to the main terminal to find his wife in a raging argument with a local airport employee about the weight of their luggage. Jenna had three suitcases splayed open. She was sitting on the floor in front of an airport scale shifting their belongings from one suitcase to the next. Clothes, bathing suits, towels, underwear, and shoes were strewn across the floor, in direct view of other mainlanders returning home. The humidity, combined with Jenna’s frustration, caused her to perspire, and her damp shirt stuck to her skin.

  Jenna was in the middle of frantically moving shoes from one suitcase to another when Tom discretely bent down and asked, “What in the hell is going on?”

  “What’s going on?” shrieked Jenna, a little too loud. Her hair was a frizzy mess, and her face was flushed. “What’s going on is that the luggage Nazi over there is making me move our underwear around in front of the entire island, so that we aren’t a single ounce over the limit.” Jenna pointed to the offending airport employee. The local woman shook her head in disgust.

  It was unlike Jenna to become so agitated. Tom recognized Jenna’s angst about returning home, but it didn’t justify her behavior, especially in front of their daughter. To Mia’s credit, she sat dutifully by her mother’s side and helped her sort out their luggage. Tom was not sure for whom he felt more sympathy. His wife, who was causing quite a scene and making a complete fool of herself, or their daughter, who was getting her fair share of pity stares from the strangers in the airport.

  Tom pulled Jenna up from the floor and told her firmly, “Go take Mia and stand in the check-in line. I’ll take it from here.”

  Jenna scowled at the airport worker as she left.

  While Tom successfully evened out their luggage, Jenna and Mia stood in the ticket line. After surviving a grueling check-in process, the Reiners reached airport security to find it completely backed up. Sweltering tourists were crammed into the maze. The line was not moving, and Jenna was uncomfortably hot. She wiped the sweat from her forehead as she asked snidely, “Can they move any slower?”

  Tom looked at Jenna with reproach and whispered, “Please, Jenna, calm down.”

  Mia, unaccustomed to Jenna’s lack of patience, moved closer to her father. For the remainder of the process, no one spoke.

  The Reiners barely got through security in time and nearly missed their flight. Jenna trudged through the narrow aisle of the crowded aircraft, clumsily bumping annoyed passengers in her path. To Tom’s relief, once seated, she shut her eyes. An hour into the flight, Jenna had just drifted off to sleep when Mia woke her to ask for a snack. Jenna snapped, “Goddamit, Mia! Go to sleep. You just had dinner. You don’t need any snacks!”

  Tears of shame and shock filled Mia’s eyes. People in nearby rows witnessed the exchange in dismay. Tom frantically reached into their carry-on bag and found some crackers. Jenna tried unsuccessfully to go back to sleep.

  The next morning, on the drive home from the airport, Jenna was mortified at her behavior. She apologized no fewer than twenty times to both Mia and Tom. Jenna had never barked at Mia like that before, for any reason. The rest of her antics she could live down, but she had a hard time recognizing herself as that woman on the plane, yelling at her child over an innocent request for a snack.

  The Reiners stumbled into their house in a complete fog. The red-eye back from Hawaii was always a dreadful experience, but this trip was exceptionally painful. To add to Jenna’s misery, her head pounded and her eyes burned.

  Mia immediately fell sound asleep on the couch, and Tom carried in their luggage. Jenna trudged into the office and checked her email. She had intentionally not allowed herself to look at it during their entire vacation, but the vacation was officially over.

  CHAPTER 41

  Ironically, at the same moment Jenna’s plane was touching down, Jim Taylor was sending her an email about the lawsuit. The time had come for him to inform Jenna that Allison Anders had filed a motion to amend the initial complaint, which included the addition of two more charges. The “Second Amended Complaint for Damages, Certificate of Review, and Jury Demand” was attached, for Jenna’s reading pleasure. More recently, Allison had also filed a motion to compel additional testimony from Jenna. According to Jim, Allison stipulated that Jenna had been excessively evasive in her answers during her first deposition. She argued that a second deposition was not only warranted, but necessary.

  Jenna’s gut cramped. Reading the document, she was appalled. Speculations were stated as if they were facts. Allison accused Jenna of having prior knowledge of the complaints and suspicions about Hilla
ry Martin that were shared amongst the medical and hospital staff. The complaint went on to state that Jenna was aware of prior and similar diversion activities, both at St. Augustine and at other facilities. In spite of this alleged knowledge, the complaint asserted that Jenna routinely left her drugs unattended, unlocked, unmonitored, and unsecured for extended periods of time.

  Her mouth agape, Jenna could not believe the lies. She had never known anything about Hillary Martin until the news story broke, four months after Hillary stole Jenna’s drugs. Moreover, she never had any specific knowledge about staff members stealing drugs at St. Augustine. In fact, Jenna clearly told Allison as much in her deposition.

  The stakes had increased substantially. Whereas there had previously only been two claims against Jenna, now there were four.

  There was a claim added for “Medical Monitoring.” Allison maintained that Jenna should establish a fund that would be made available to Ms. Hollings for future treatment of her hepatitis C infection.

  Jenna wondered how they could demand such a thing. St. Augustine already promised free and unlimited lifetime medical care for all infected patients.

  Allison also added a claim for “Reckless and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.” The claim stated that Jenna’s conduct was extreme, outrageous, irresponsible, and intentional.

  Jenna grabbed the phone and dialed Jim’s cell phone. He answered on the first ring.

  “So this is my welcome back?” asked Jenna with an odd mixture of sarcasm and fear.

  Jim fully expected the call. He decided to forego the pleasantries about her trip and got right to the issue at hand. “I take it you read the email.”

  “Yeah, I read it alright. So, Allison Anders loses on round one at the deposition, and that means she gets another chance to have a go at me? If I had lost, like she wanted, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be granted the luxury of requesting do-overs!”

  Jim tried to keep calm, hoping to bring Jenna’s emotions down to his level. “For one thing, understand that this is just a motion to compel you to be redeposed. We have written a very persuasive counterargument. The judge has yet to rule on it. I sat through your entire deposition and listened intently. You were not being evasive, by anyone’s standards. I would be very shocked if the judge ruled in their favor.”

  “Then what about this amended complaint? Now they double the number of claims against me? And how can they state as if it were fact that I knew about Hillary Martin’s diversion practices? I didn’t know anything! St. Augustine made sure of that. Then what about the second claim? Is that the same as punitive damages?”

  Between sleep deprivation, her guilt over her actions the night before, and Jim’s email, Jenna was rapidly escalating into a fit. In anger, she slammed the glass French doors to the office shut, causing the panes to rattle.

  Tom walked past the office door with the last 50-pound suitcase in his grasp. Behind the closed doors, he heard his wife shrieking as she spoke on the phone. Tom figured it was either the airline calling about Jenna’s misconduct last night or her attorneys. For Jenna’s sake, he secretly hoped the airline had caught up with her. He motioned for Jenna to turn the phone on speaker as he silently entered the office.

  Jim’s voice filled the room. “I know you are upset. I’m so sorry you have to come home to this. As far as making claims about what you did or didn’t know, right now they can basically say anything they want. When it comes time for trial, that’s our chance to prove those claims are untrue.”

  “What about the reckless and intentional claim? Does that mean what I think it does?”

  “Yes, I’m afraid it does. It doesn’t mean that the judge will accept it, but it definitely lays the groundwork for a punitive damages claim against you. As we discussed, if a jury is allowed to rule on that and finds against you, those damages are not covered by your malpractice policy.”

  Jenna looked at Tom and shook her head sadly.

  Jim continued, “Jenna, you have to understand that a lot of this is just posturing. Most cases settle out of court. Every other hepatitis case that has been filed so far has settled. Allison Anders and Lyle Silverstein do not want to go to court. Every hour, every minute they spend preparing for trial is money that they won’t see in the end. This is the phase where things can get really ugly. They will use words, accusations, and threats to intimidate you and wear you down. They hope that you’ll do what most doctors do.”

  “Which is?” asked Jenna.

  Gravely, Jim responded. “Reach a breaking point. The point where the stress on you, your family, and your existence is so excessive and relentless that you just want it to go away. They want to get you to the point where you are chronically worried, you can’t function, and you can’t focus. Whether you allow them to get you there or not is up to you, but we are here for you whenever you need us.”

  “What about punitive damages? The thing is, Jim, we don’t have much. We own a house that’s under water. We have very little in savings. Our retirement accounts have been decimated over the past several years by the stock market. What can they take if we have nothing?”

  “I suppose they can go after what little you have and then garnish your wages.”

  Jenna’s words were as cold as ice. “I’d quit my profession and live as a vagabond before I’d work a single second of the day to give money to that slime ball attorney and her lowlife client!”

  Jenna had clearly made the leap from simply hating Allison Anders to hating Michelle Hollings, too.

  CHAPTER 42

  October 2011

  Jenna came straight from the hospital to meet her attorneys. She was still wearing her blue scrubs and brown, soiled OR clogs. Over the past several months, since her deposition, they had exchanged countless emails and phone calls. The time had come for them to once again meet face-to-face.

  Nancy ran out to grab some documents. Alone with Jenna, Jim looked at her compassionately and asked, “How have you been doing?”

  Jenna paused for a second. “Do you really want the truth?” Her annoyance and frustration were evident.

  Jim sat back, stunned at Jenna’s tone. “Of course,” he said. Suspecting an imminent meltdown from Jenna, Jim stood and closed the door.

  Jenna shuddered, “Every day, I think about this. Even when I try not to, there’s no escaping it. I’m bombarded by emails or phone calls from you guys requesting this or updating me on that. I look at every patient and wonder which one is going to sue me next. I second-guess every decision I make at work. I used to be relaxed, easygoing, even funny. Now, I’m filled with hostility. I hate Allison Anders. I hate Michelle Hollings. I hate all of the legal mumbo jumbo. I hate my job. I hate every other doctor around me who loves what they do. I’m completely exhausted. So, you asked for honesty . . . there it is.”

  Jim slid his chair closer to the table and removed his reading glasses. He was a bit taken aback by Jenna’s frankness, but not completely. Jenna had proven to Jim and Nancy numerous times that she saw no need for false pretenses. He thought back to the afternoon of her deposition. Jenna had been so energized, so ready for battle. Jim and Nancy both knew that Allison would eventually wear her down, but he was hoping, somehow, he could prevent that from happening.

  Jim tried his best to console Jenna. “What you’re feeling is completely normal. This is a relentless process. There’s always something that comes up. You think it can’t get any worse, and then it does. I understand where you’re coming from. If things are becoming unbearable for you, we can always initiate settlement negotiations. Nothing is worth living in hell.”

  Although Jim had not intended for his words to come out threatening or condescending, that was how Jenna interpreted them. Jenna thought back to the deposition and the brutality of spending seven hours being interrogated. She recalled the indignity of the cameraman’s insinuation that she was standing behind him, urinating on the floor. The lies Allison had written about her in the most recent complaint created another fresh, seepi
ng wound.

  Jenna was determined to be strong. There was no way she would give up.

  Staring intently at Jim, she said, “No! I absolutely will not settle. We go all the way. It may be hard. I may have my bad days, but there is no way I’m giving up!”

  “Okay,” Jim replied. Inwardly, he wondered how much more Jenna could endure before she broke. Right now, he thought Jenna was teetering precariously close to the edge.

  A light rap on the door interrupted their conversation. Nancy entered, smiling and cheerful. Her smile quickly vanished when she saw the serious expressions on Jim’s face.

  “Did I miss something?” Nancy asked with hesitation and a hint of dread.

  Jenna shook her head, and Jim shifted his eyes. Nancy knew to let this one go and quietly took her seat. Besides, she was certain that Jim would fill her in later.

  Unsure of what to say, no one spoke. Finally, Jim broke the silence. “Jenna, we wanted to go through the case with you today, piece by piece, to let you know where things stand and how they are shaping up. Why don’t we start with some good news?”

  Jenna smiled weakly. “I didn’t think there was such a thing as good news where this lawsuit is concerned.”

  Jim overlooked her pessimism. Jenna was testy today, which was not like her. “In this case, I think you will find it very good news. The judge ruled on Anders’ motion to redepose you.”

  The words slowly registered. Jenna stiffened her posture and raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”

  Jim passed Jenna a copy of the court ruling. “The judge ruled in our favor. In her motion, Anders sent him cherry-picked excerpts from your deposition. The statements were manipulated and taken out of context in an effort to make you appear evasive. In our counterargument, we sent in the entire transcript and videotape of your deposition. This judge is a fair and thorough man. I’m certain that he either watched or read your entire deposition before he made his ruling.”