Jake waved the thank you part of that away and focused on the other thing. The bit about the happy ending. ‘Don’t give up on the fairytale, Ella. Don’t give up on us.’
She started to shut the door. She almost had it shut when a voice from inside rang out, ‘Hold on!’
Sam’s head appeared behind Ella’s hip. She blocked him from coming out the door.
‘I said wait!’ Sam yelled. ‘Where’s Jake going? I want him here. I don’t want you,’ he said, kicking at Ella, who couldn’t restrain him because she didn’t want to hurt his arm.
‘Erik’s coming this afternoon, Sam, all the way just to see you,’ Ella said.
‘So what, Mum? He lied to me too. You both did. I wish you were both dead. I wish you weren’t my mum. I wish Jake was my real dad. I wish my real dad was here and wasn’t so far away.’
Ella tried to push him back in the house and shut the door.
Sam yelled, ‘No, no, I don’t want Jake to go!’ and wouldn’t stop yelling, wouldn’t stop crying, and Ella gave in. ‘Okay. Okay. If Jake says it’s okay, I’ll ask him if he can come back when Erik gets here, okay? But, Sammy, Jake has jobs to do. He has his farm. He can’t be here all day.’
‘Please, Jake,’ Sam said, all puppy eyes and heartbreak. ‘Please.’
And there was really no going back after that.
‘Text me and I’ll be here, Ella. Okay?’
CHAPTER
33
Ella got the front door shut after Jake said he’d come back. Sam stopped yelling and went to his room, and she slumped on the carpet with her back against the wall. Slid down the wall and sat there, hugging her knees.
Had there ever been a day since she learned she was pregnant, and then learned Marshall didn’t want to know her or the baby, that Ella hadn’t thought about the day she’d have to face the truth that was here right now?
So many decisions she’d made, some of them with Erik, none of them with Marshall, but all of them hers and now her cross to bear.
She should be stronger than this. She had to be stronger than this, for Sam’s sake. Ella knew that, but she couldn’t make her legs push her up. Not to make a cup of tea or make her bed; not to throw a load of washing on or pack the rugs off the couch where Jake had slept last night.
Eventually, not even the wall was solid enough to hold her, and she rolled sideways until her cheek touched carpet, and she lay curled with her knees into her chest, tight as a frightened echidna.
That’s where Erik found her when he knocked on the front door, tried the handle and found the door unlocked.
‘Ella?’
Erik dropped to the carpet beside her, trying to unfurl her legs and arms.
‘I cannot carry you, Ella-my-Bella. You must rise up.’
No. She didn’t have to get up. She was happy here. Thanks.
‘Ella? Where is Sam?’
Through the fog, Ella realised the name was important. Sam was important. ‘Sammy?’ she said, utterly confused because she should know the answer, and she really wasn’t sure. ‘He’s in his room.’
Erik left her to check and quickly returned.
‘No, he is not in his room,’ Erik said.
That was important too. Ella sat straighter, moving her limbs under her own steam this time. ‘He might be outside. He doesn’t want to be under my roof so he might be outside. He hates me.’
‘He could not hate you. It is shock.’
No. He hates me. I hate me.
Between the strength in Erik’s one arm and the blood returning to Ella’s legs, they got her up and she shuffled into the kitchen and collapsed in the nearest chair.
‘Stay here. I will check the yard,’ Erik said.
He was back before he’d had much chance to be gone. ‘Sam is here. I see him sitting on the step.’
‘Did you say hello? Does he know you’re here?’
‘First, I want to know what did the doctor say? His arm, is it broken?’
Ella explained about the greenstick fracture and the cast, and then she got to the part where Jake brought Sam home. How Sam had shouted he hated her, and she and Erik were liars, and he wished Jake was his father. He’d hoped Jake might be his father.
Erik’s face turned grim, then grimmer. Then he let out an almighty, ‘Mhmmm.’
And it was so very comforting to have Erik here, Erik and his mhmmms, that Ella found a smile for the first time since she’d trod on Jake’s toe as they danced last night.
‘Thank you for coming, Erik,’ she said, leaning across from her seat, hugging him close.
‘I always am here for you. Always.’
His one hand rubbed her back, and Ella let herself sink into his hug and draw from his strength.
‘This Jake who was with you at this disco and took Sam to hospital, he is the same Jake who owns the famous house for sale? He is becoming important to you? I think this is obvious,’ Erik said.
Ella pulled away and wiped at her eyes. ‘I’m not sure what I think about Jake right now, but yes, he’s important. I have to let him know now that you’re here. Sam wants him here.’ Her fingers fluttered towards her phone.
There were so many other things she should think about. Sam. Her career. The pool. So many other things to be so much more important, and yet Jake had her heart. He mattered.
She didn’t need to tell Erik. He saw it in
