When Sandy first heard about the situation, she couldn't help but find it a bit amusing. William was the first to openly admit that his brother had a mental health issue. While it was true, hearing him say it so nonchalantly in front of Kiran was unexpected. Kiran had always been sensitive about it, and nobody had ever dared mention his past struggles with schizophrenia in his presence.
“Dr. William, what do you make of all this?” Sandy asked. After finishing college, she decided to drop by William's place to offer some support. She even brought along a fruit basket and a bunch of lilies.
William glanced at the fruit basket and lilies combo, and with a sigh, said, "Thanks, Ms. Sandy, for being the first to rib me about it."
"I'm not making fun, I'm serious," Sandy replied earnestly. "My brother's just like that; he's all about appearances. Please, don't take it personally."
“I do take it personally! It really gets to me!” William shot back. “I’m a big name in the medical world, and this apology makes me a laughingstock among my colleagues.”
“How can that be? You're their mentor. Which of the top names in medicine today didn't learn from you? No one's going to laugh at you.”
“Oh, so embarrassing myself in front of my protégés doesn’t count? They’ll all disown me as their mentor.”
William was still fuming.
Sandy tried to reassure him, “It’s not a big deal. If it comes to that... I’ll use your product and sing praises of your brilliant invention?”
“You?” William sized up Sandy and asked, “Do you have a mental health condition too?”
“...Of course not.”
“Then why would you use it? That's not okay.”
William added, “Even if it doesn’t harm the body, you can’t just use it willy-nilly. Medicines, by their nature, have side effects. You should just let it go.”
William was gearing up to head to Brighton.
William had already bought his ticket to leave the country.
Once William left, Sandy found herself genuinely curious about the medicine. Before, she was just trying to soothe William's bruised ego, but now she really wanted to know if the medicine was effective.
“Miss, are we heading home?” the driver asked Sandy.
Sandy’s mind flashed back to the bottle of medicine Kiran had tucked away in his drawer. Could it be that the medicine William gave her brother was the same one?
With that thought, Sandy’s face lit up with a smile. “Yes! Let’s head home!”
She was determined to find out just how potent that medicine really was.
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