Chapter 1

My father gave free acupuncture to poor patients for three years, turning stubborn, hopeless conditions into medical miracles.

One of those patients turned around and reported him, claiming he had no license and was playing fast and loose with people's lives.

My father was suspended from the hospital, and the patient rode the publicity to open his own physical therapy shop.

But before long, that shop had a medical accident, and someone reported him too, for having no license.

He came to my father's door, asking what he should do. My father didn't open it.

"I don't dare think up a plan for you."

"Afraid you'll report me."

1

My father gave someone free acupuncture, and the patient reported him for illegal medical practice.

People from the state health board showed up and cornered him in his own home.

Several patients who couldn't afford a hospital were lying on the treatment table, silver needles still in their backs.

The health board people went through the case records and confirmed, in the end, that my father had never taken a single cent. The needles and supplies had all come out of his own pocket.

The one in charge softened a little, but stayed strictly by the book.

"Dr. Gilbert, your intentions were good."

"But treating without a license, running a private clinic, that violates medical regulations."

"We'll notify the hospital. Your eligibility for the annual excellence award is revoked, and there's a formal warning on your whole record."

Some of those patients were sanitation workers, some were small vendors, and they all climbed up to defend him.

"Dr. Gilbert's been wronged!"

"He was saving us. How is that illegal medical practice?"

The one in charge said, "Dr. Gilbert was reported, and the people upstairs take it seriously."

"You'd all better mind yourselves, unless you want your own licenses pulled."

The one who reported him was a patient my father had cured, Justin Kane.

Five years ago, Justin was carried in.

Bone necrosis, both knees deformed, couldn't walk, couldn't get a full sentence out.

His wife, Irene Whitney, knelt on our floor and kowtowed until her forehead bled.

"Dr. Gilbert, please save him. We really don't have any money."

My father cleared out our living room, and that became five years of treatment.

Three times a week, rain or shine, and he never took a cent.

Now Justin stands straight, his knees move freely, and he can run and jump.

A while back he even made the local news, called a "medical miracle."

When word got back to the hospital, the director called my father into his office and slammed the desk in front of every department head.

"Otto Gilbert! You're the face of our acupuncture department. The students you trained are department heads now."

"And here you are, practicing medicine illegally for people? What about the rules? What about the hospital's name?"

"One more time and we'll have no choice but to fire you. You don't want to ruin everything you've built at the end, do you?"

My father stood there, his back caving in, his voice low and rough.

"Yes. I didn't think it through."

That spine of his, always so straight, just bent.

I was right out in the hallway. I pushed the door open and rushed in.

"Someone like Justin Kane, he knelt in front of my father begging for his life."

"Said his family was poor, that the pain was killing him. My father took pity and stepped in."

"Five years! Five years, rain or shine, giving him acupuncture and treatment!"

"Now he's bouncing around good as new, and he turns around and reports us?"

"Is that something a human being does?"

"Abigail Gilbert! Watch your tone!"

The director cut me off sharply.

"Illegal medical practice is illegal medical practice, money or no money!"

"This is a disgrace to professional ethics!"

His shouting made me clench my fists. In this world, was there any justice left at all?

I wanted to keep arguing, but my father shook his head and led me out of the office.

Justin was standing outside the door, in a brand-new polo shirt.

Nothing like the gaunt man who had curled up on the floor five years ago.

He said, smiling, "Dr. Gilbert, I know you're upset."

"But the law is the law. I did this for your own good."

"If there'd been a medical accident one day, your whole life would've been ruined."

"Reporting you was for your future, to pull you back from the edge."

That was the moment I lost it.

"For my father's own good?"

I ground the words out through my teeth. "You said your family was poor. My father didn't take a cent from you in five years! He bought the needles with his own money."

"And you, the second you're healed, you turn around and stab him in the back!"

Justin didn't so much as flinch.

"One thing has nothing to do with the other."

"Gratitude is gratitude, the law is the law. I'm a law-abiding citizen."

My father tugged at my sleeve. "Let's go, Abby."

We'd barely gotten home when Irene's call came through.

"Dr. Gilbert, our Justin's physical therapy shop opens at the end of the month, and you have to come!"

My father held the phone, silent for two seconds. "No. Someone like me, an 'illegal practitioner,' I'd only cause you trouble by showing up."

Irene was taken aback. "Oh, come on, Dr. Gilbert, how can you hold a grudge like this!"

"Justin reporting you was for your own good too."

"But think about it. If Justin hadn't recovered so well and vouched for you, who would ever have heard of Otto Gilbert?"

"Half of your reputation, more than half, came from our Justin!"

"Don't you owe us a little gratitude?"