Chapter 110

Faced with Melinda's declaration that Donovan is an alien, Loid searches for a rational frame, wondering whether she means someone impossible to understand, and asks what behavior led her there. Terror seizes her before she can answer; she shouts that Loid cannot grasp what would happen if Donovan learned of this. Her raised voice reaches Nola in the hallway, where Fiona Frost, posing as a psychiatric nurse, calms the attendant and coaxes out her own worries about her madam.

Breathing exercises settle Melinda, and Loid vows that a doctor stands with his patients no matter their circumstances. Suspecting abuse, and aware a scandal could derail Donovan's push toward war, he raises the possibility, but Melinda insists her husband has done nothing to her. Loid counters that words and demeanor can wound as surely as hands, remembering how coldly Donovan brushed off Damian at the Imperial Scholars mixer, and tells her the suffering that drove her to the hospital is real. In pain, she agrees but calls it too late. Her memories are hazy, yet she knows that at some point between her sons' births Donovan abruptly withdrew from everyone and nearly stopped speaking. Her explanation, one Demetrius apparently shares, is that an alien abducted the real Donovan and took his place, and that this being reads minds. Too frightened to shield her sons, she protects only herself, swinging between engaging with them and ignoring them as she believes Donovan's whims demand, though she concedes he has never actually ordered anything.

Loid proposes that she talk through her fears with Donovan directly, even offering to host him at a future session, and urges her to stay open to gentler possibilities, a friendly alien or no alien at all. He hands her a notebook to log every moment she felt her mind was being read, schedules examinations, and prescribes light medication, clarifying that he sees her as suffering rather than sick. Comparing notes afterward, Fiona reports that Nola's account suggests Melinda genuinely believes the alien story, while Loid prefers to await the test results. Back home that evening, his ruminations about Donovan reading minds drift within range of Anya, who is stunned to learn the "evil superboss" might wield her exact power.

Melinda explains her alien theory: Donovan changed completely sometime between Demetrius's and Damian's births, and both she and Demetrius believe he can read minds. Fiona extracts corroborating worries from Nola while disguised as hospital staff. Loid assigns Melinda a journal of suspected mind-reading incidents and arranges medical tests, framing her as a sufferer, not a liar.

The closing scene hands Anya the series-shaking revelation that Donovan may be a telepath like herself.

The chapter fills 20 pages of Volume 16 in the Term Break Arc and released on January 20, 2025, with Loid and Melinda on the cover. The consultation echoes Loid's Chapter 77 session with Thomas Austin, another patient terrified of a spouse.

A continuity slip on page 19 showed Melinda without her headscarf one panel after wearing it; Volume 16 corrected the art.