The photograph was an old class picture, faded at the edges. Twenty-four children in front of a brick school, and beside them, a much younger me. Dr. Okafor pointed to a thin boy in the front row with a bandaged knee. \u201cDo you recognize him?\u201d I didn\u2019t, at first. Then I saw the crooked smile. It was Graham, at eight years old, in my third-grade classroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s more,\u201d the doctor said quietly. \u201cThe bottle your husband has been using contains an experimental Alzheimer\u2019s medication. It\u2019s being tested by a research company in our state.\u201d He paused. \u201cThe company\u2019s founder and majority owner is Graham Fairbanks. And the consent form enrolling you in his trial carries your signature, Mrs. Fairbanks. I don\u2019t believe you signed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Graham came home that evening, I was sitting at the kitchen table with the class photo and the dark bottle in front of me. He went white. Then he sat down and told me everything. His mother had died of early-onset Alzheimer\u2019s when he was nine. I had been the teacher who sat with him after school every day that year, when no one else did. He had kept that class photo for twenty-five years.<\/p>\n
He had built his company to find the cure she never got. Years later, he found me again, and he truly fell in love. But when he noticed me forgetting small things, he panicked. He was terrified of watching it happen twice. Instead of taking me to a doctor, he forged my consent and gave me his own experimental drug. The phone call was with his lead researcher. He wasn\u2019t trying to harm me. He was trying to keep me.<\/p>\n
I understood his fear. I did not forgive the lie. Dr. Okafor ran proper tests the following week, and the truth was almost laughable. I didn\u2019t have dementia at all. I had a severe vitamin B12 deficiency, made worse by the drug\u2019s side effects. Within two months of stopping the drops and starting simple supplements, my memory and energy were completely back. Dr. Okafor said trusting my instincts was the bravest thing I had done in years.<\/p>\n
Graham reported himself to the state medical board and stepped down from his company while the ethics investigation ran its course. The trial continued, with real consent, for other patients. We separated for six months. He went to therapy, and so did I. Last spring, he asked if he could make me a cup of tea, and I said yes, on one condition. I watched him make it. It was just tea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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