The Secrets You Hide: A Mind-Blowing Thriller (The Psychosis Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

mailbox sending my journal to him and hoping that it would stop him from escalating the situation further. I sat there blankly looking at the clock on the bottom right of the screen of my laptop waiting for it to indicate the beginning of a new day.
    I closed my eyes. My hands were placed on the keyboard of the laptop feeling the warmth of its surface and the mild vibrations resulting from the whirring of the exhaust fan inside it. I tried to focus, to stop my body’s physical response systems from going into overdrive. I took a few deep breaths.
    When I opened my eyes, my attention fell upon the reflection of the bookshelf in the glass windowpane opposite me. The bookshelf consisted of three levels all packed with a variety of books. On the top-most level, I had placed one copy each of the four books that I had authored over the years. The books captured the various experiences I had had as a psychiatrist–both at my private clinic and at the correctional institution.
    For no reason, I found myself staring at the reflection of the book which I had written last. I had dedicated it to my mentor who had passed away recently in New York earlier that year. As a tribute to him, I had written an entire chapter capturing the many things that I had learnt from him. Some of those things were trivial and yet they had had a huge impact in shaping my outlook as a psychiatrist. For a second, I felt guilty for allowing myself to think about something so random instead of focusing on saving my wife and daughter. And that is when clarity hit all my senses at once. I realized why I was staring at that book and remembering my mentor. Even from the other side of the grave, he was coming to my rescue. Focus on empathy, not sympathy. Focus on perspective, not emotion.
    I remembered quoting those words from him on the first page of that book. And as I remembered that, I imagined myself, for a fleeting moment, sitting in his cabin in college listening to him speak.
    “Diseases,” he had said, looking up at me, “can be contagious.” He was sitting in a chair on the other side of the table facing me.
    “Obviously,” he continued, “that’s the reason we doctors take precautions to prevent catching a disease ourselves or to prevent passing it from one patient to another. We wash our hands every time we touch something. We use a sanitizer every time we go to the operation theatre. We use a fresh pair of gloves…all the time. We take precautions. And these precautions work.
    “These precautions work against obstacles which are physical in nature. Yes, you cannot see bacteria and germs and viruses with your eyes, but you know that if you obstruct them physically, they will not spread. But what do you do, if the disease has nothing to do with anything physical and is still contagious. What do you do against psychologically contagious conditions and illnesses?”
    I looked away from him and down at the table before me. I did not have an answer.
    “Not all psychological conditions are contagious, mind you.” he clarified. “But can you tell me what makes some of them contagious? What is it that’s like a virus for doctors of the mind like you and I? What is it that’s the agent of contagion for diseases of the psyche?”
    I thought hard for a second and I believed I had the answer. But I wasn’t sure. So, I shrugged.
    “Emotions, Robert,” he said promptly, “Emotions are the virus. Emotions are the agents of contagion for diseases which are psychological in nature.
    “Sit beside a person who is mourning the loss of a loved one, talk to someone who is laughing like crazy because she just got married to the love of her life, get into a conversation with someone who is so angry he is shouting his lungs out at you…and more often than not you will find yourself mirroring the very emotions that you see the people around you expressing.
    “Emotions spread…from one person to another. And the emotions that stick…the emotions that stick