A little while later, Madeleine entered her front door, her heart almost as heavy as the grocery bags she carried.
To her surprise, Tom rushed out to the hallway from the kitchen, a spring in his step and, incredibly, a smile on his face. They’d had so little to smile about lately that she was truly taken aback by his demeanor. Her heart softened on cue; this whole thing had really taken its toll on her husband. Though, thankfully, things had become a little less stressful since they’d decided to circle the wagons and Madeleine had gone quiet on the media front.
But she was never sure when the next blow would strike or where it would come from.
Though judging by the ecstatic expression on Tom’s face, whatever was going on must be positive for a change. But while her husband might be happy about something now, she knew she was definitely going to ruin his mood when she told him about her run-in with Kate at the shops.
“Great news, Maddie,” he said with palpable excitement. “I just got an email that could be huge for our defense. Seriously huge.” He took several of the bags she had been struggling with out of her arms and onto the counter.
Waiting for him to elaborate, Madeleine smiled encouragingly.
“So do you remember me telling you about that doctor from the States, a neurologist I contacted a couple of weeks back? Dr. Pitt?”
She searched her memory for the conversation that Tom was referencing. She couldn’t really remember anything like that, but in truth she might not have been listening as hard as she should have been. After all, she had been pretty distracted lately.
But she didn’t want to admit that to Tom. “I think so,” she replied.
“Well, I just received an email from him. I contacted him through his website and told him all about our case. About why we were being sued.”
Tom briefly provided Madeleine with the doctor’s bio as she began unloading the shopping bags. Pitt was a ranking member of the California Medical Review Board. Apparently there had been some disapproving mutterings in the US because of his sometimes-controversial stance on vaccines, but nothing had ever come of it.
“The guy is perfect, Madeleine. He came out and admitted publicly that the presence of viruses did mean that ultimately some people would get sick and die, but that the human body also had ways of countering these attackers—which has been happening for hundreds and thousands of years before the introduction of vaccines. He believes that there is a new reality that needs to be faced—children should not be injected with unnatural, man-made chemicals—and the pharma companies only promote these ‘medicines’ in order to line their own pockets.”
Madeleine nodded, wondering why this was such a big deal. They’d basically come to the same conclusion themselves years ago. It was hardly news and she had no idea why he was so excited about it. There were pro-and anti-vaccine proponents all over the place, and on the internet especially.
But her husband was still smiling like it was Christmas morning and he had just received a new Lexus tied with a big red bow. She looked blankly at him, urging him to continue. “And? How does this help us?”
“Because he’s agreed to act as an expert witness for us.” Tom cheered. Madeleine really wouldn’t have been surprised if her husband had started dancing a jig on the kitchen floor.
“That is promising,” she agreed. She was well aware that Matt Townsend had been having a hard time securing bona fide medical professionals to defend their position on vaccination in building their case for the trial, and it sounded like Dr. Pitt was exactly what they needed.
“Madeleine, here is a guy who regularly contributes to respected medical journals. He was recently published in the North American Journal of Pediatrics. This is absolutely huge. No one is going to be able to call him a quack or some kind of conspiracy theorist. He’s still a practicing neurologist, too, but he has developed this other line around his work. This is seriously the best thing that could have happened for us.”
Feeling her heart lose some of its heaviness, Madeleine moved a few steps forward and put her arms around Tom’s neck. “And you did this all by yourself? Tracked him down, I mean?” She had been married to him long enough to know that her husband loved to feel like a hero in situations such as this.
Puffing out his chest ever so slightly, Tom looked at her as he pulled her close. “Indeed I did. In fact, he was quite indignant about what we had been through and what we were being accused of, so much so that he even agreed to provide his expert testimony at a reduced rate.”
Madeleine thought about it, but decided not to ask just what that rate was. She didn’t want to ruin the mood. It was the first time she and Tom had anything to be happy about in weeks. Turning back to the kitchen counter, Madeleine continued putting away groceries. She reached into a bag and, spying the liter of milk she had been holding when she ran into Kate earlier, she debated briefly whether to tell Tom about the encounter.
But she decided against it. Her husband would have a stroke if she admitted she’d been in the same room as Kate O’Hara, let alone spoken to her. She was intrigued, though, that Kate had seemed embarrassed, apologetic, even, when all this time she had assumed the other woman hated her.
But even if Kate had wanted to talk to her, apologize, even, Madeleine realized sadly that they both knew it was much too late for that.