Pending Litigation

Charity McLaughlin is a well-respected, 32-year-old trial lawyer with a stormy past and a secret.

Charity suffers from manic depression and has been hospitalized in mental institutions twice. Her condition causes her deep distress, and she must live with the fear that she could spiral into mania at any time. Through determination and treatment she maintains a semblance of normalcy in her life, and excellence in her law practice.

One rainy day in February, Deborah Elledge comes to her and explains that her husband recently died under mysterious circumstances in the mental ward of Good Hope Memorial Hospital, while undergoing treatment for manic depression. Mrs. Elledge asks Charity to pursue a possible medical malpractice case against the hospital.

Charity is chilled by the story, and her heart goes out to the grieving widow. In spite of her concerns that the facts surrounding the case are personally disturbing to her, Charity takes the case and becomes deeply involved in its investigation. She is shocked to uncover not only malpractice, but murder. What she does not realize is that in pursuing the case she is not only risking her sanity, but very likely her life as well.