‘What happened?’ he asked gently.
‘She’d been gone for a few days. We shared a flat close to campus, she often stayed over at her boyfriend’s unit. I wasn’t concerned.’
‘What was she studying?’
‘She was doing an aromatherapy course,’ Madeline said. ‘She was always a bit alternative. You would have loved her.’
He laughed and took a swallow of his beer waiting for her to continue. She was leaning forward on the table again, her elbow bent, her palm cradling her chin. He could see the creamy rise of her cleavage.
‘Then late one night Nathan, her boyfriend, came to my door, with Abby in his arms. He was really upset. She was sick, he said, and strode past me, laying her on the lounge.’
Madeline stopped for a moment and took a sip of her wine. She could still see her sister’s face and feel the horror when she had realised Abby had been desperately ill.
‘She was burning up, barely rousable. Nathan told me they’d taken her to a psychic surgeon earlier in the day and he’d removed her appendix and given her some white powder for the pain. She’d been asleep most of the day but had woken feverish and doubled over. The autopsy showed her appendix had ruptured and she’d had raging peritonitis.’
‘Nasty,’ Marcus said quietly.
She nodded. ‘I was furious but there was no time to rant and rave at them. Call an ambulance, I said. I tried to rouse her but couldn’t. And I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t have any oxygen or a doctor’s bag or anything. I had nothing to help her. Nothing. All I could do was wait and pray that the ambulance would make it in time.’
Her despair felt as raw today as it had five years ago. ‘Did they?’
‘Nope. She arrested a few minutes later. But just prior to that her eyes flicked open. She was trying to say something and I had to get right up close to her mouth to hear it. She said, “Don’t be mad, Maddy, you’ve been the best sister.”’
Madeline stopped and swallowed, trying to control the emotion that had risen in her chest. ‘I think she knew she was dying.’
Marcus saw a tear track down her face and she dashed it away. He leaned closer with both his elbows on the table and covered her hand with his. ‘Did she die in the flat?’
She shook her head, not trusting herself to speak. She took a deep breath before answering. ‘Officially, no. She died en route to hospital but she’d been in full arrest for five minutes before the ambulance got there and they spent another half-hour working on her. I don’t know how many times they shocked her but I wouldn’t let them give up. She’s septic, I kept saying like a demented idiot, ‘She needs fill. Fill her up, fill her up.”’
She stopped again, surprised as ever how raw the pain still was sometimes. Marcus’s hand on hers was comforting and the one thing that was keeping her anchored in the present. Without it she would have been sucked totally into the past and that terrible day.
Marcus sat quietly, stroking his thumb across her knuckles, letting her remember, her story incredibly moving. ‘You said there was an autopsy?’
She nodded and cleared her throat. ‘Her organs had already started to shut down. She was in DIC.’
‘So...there wasn’t anything you could have done that would have changed the outcome? Even if you’d had every medical knick-knack and machine that went ping?’
She smiled and slowly withdrew her hand. ‘No. And I know that, rationally. But in my heart, deep in my gut...she was my sister. My little sister, you know? It’s wrong that I couldn’t do a thing.’
Her eyes pleaded with him to understand and he did. When love was involved, right and wrong blurred and blame always came into play.
‘And then I get angry with her sometimes and I feel guilty about that, too. I mean, why on earth would she go to a psychic surgeon? That’s taking alternative a bit too far, right? And Nathan said she’d insisted that he bring her to me instead of the hospital. Wouldn’t let him call an ambulance. Why? How stupid was that?’
Fairly stupid, but Marcus chose his words carefully. ‘She did make some unwise choices,’ he agreed.
‘It was just so unnecessary,’ she said. ‘Such a waste of a life.’
He nodded. ‘Yes, it was.’
‘It was awful. I was in my final year of med school. Simon was amazing. So supportive. I don’t think I could have got through that time without him. He’s the only one who knows how bad it was. It bonded us.’
‘I’m pleased he was there for you,’ Marcus said, and meant it. Maddy had been through a lot of tragedy in her life. It just didn’t seem right that one person had to shoulder so much. He was pleased that Simon had served a purpose, even if it meant they’d developed an unhealthy codependency.
‘Sorry I came on so strong at you in the beginning. I guess now you know why. It just makes me so angry sometimes.’
‘Understandable,’ he dismissed quickly. ‘What happened to the...er...psychic guy?’
‘Nothing. A slap on the wrists. He didn’t actually operate on her, just made her think he had, so he couldn’t be charged with her death.’
That made Marcus angry. Alternative medicine struggled so hard to be recognised because people like that quack constantly destroyed their credibility.
Their meals arrived then and they were both pleased to have their conversation interrupted. They ate for a while, savouring the food, Madeline grateful to take a break from talking about herself. ‘So, now you know all my deep dark secrets. What about you?’
He chuckled as he cut into his steak. ‘Nothing too deep and dark about me, I’m afraid.’
‘Hah! Don’t believe you. What about your ex? What happened there?’
‘Ah.’ He smiled. ‘Long story.’
She smiled at
