“How can you have forgiven her?” Libby heard herself yelling. “She almost destroyed us. And now, just as we’re back on our feet, she’s firing a final salvo and getting exactly what she wants.”
“For pity’s sake, Elizabeth Jane,” Karen said sharply. “I want to slap you! Jess didn’t plan this as a piece of one-upmanship over you.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” Libby muttered.
Karen stood up. “I can’t talk to you when you’re like this. I don’t like you when you’re like this. I don’t even know who you are anymore! Jess deserves to die with dignity. I’m going to talk to Alice and your father about how we can bring her home and give her that. If you wish to be involved then come to dinner tonight.”
“I’ll be there,” Nick said.
“Thank you.”
When Karen left the office, Libby wheeled on him. “You don’t owe that woman anything!”
“I owe her exactly what I owe any fellow human being: empathy, compassion and kindness. I have to live with myself when she’s gone and I regret enough already without adding more to the pile. When Leo’s older, I want to be able to look him in the eye. How can I do that if I let his mother die alone?”
“She won’t be alone,” Libby snapped. “She’ll be well cared for.”
His face filled with pitying sadness. “You might have forgotten the times you’ve cried when patients died with just you and Penny by their sides, but I haven’t. We owe Jess this.”
“We don’t. She’s not even family.”
“You considered her family for a long time and Leo has made it real. I know she’s not our favorite person, but I can’t in good conscience walk away from her now. Not when I know she has no one else to turn to.”
This was the honorable man she’d fallen in love with. The man who’d admitted his mistakes, worked hard to re-establish his integrity and, in the process, won her back. But right now, she didn’t want honorable. She wanted someone in her corner, someone to see things from her point of view. More than anything, she wanted someone to understand.
Why did she have to forgive when she was the one who’d been hurt the most?
Duty, heartbreak and self-righteous protection knotted like fishing line. “If she asks for my help to die at home, I won’t refuse her.”
“Can you live with that if she doesn’t ask?”
“I’m going to be living with the evidence of what she did to me for the rest of my life.”
Nick grimaced. “That’s not what I asked.”
“I know.”
But Libby didn’t have an answer to his question.
Chapter Twenty-Four
November
Alice sat on a large towel, staring out to sea as Holly and Hunter tore down the beach, chasing the marauding seagulls who’d tried valiantly to pinch their fish and chips. Earlier, they’d all been rock pool rambling as part of Alice’s preparation for the mural. Initially, Alice had called Harry asking to borrow Hunter.
“I want to capture what kids see and he’s got the perfect mix of enthusiasm and interest.”
“He’s also reckless, plunging his hand in first and looking second. So, if it’s okay with you, I’ll tag along too.”
Alice could hardly say no and she found she didn’t want to. She kept remembering the way Harry had looked at her the night he’d dipped her. The way he’d winked at her and how her body had reacted with a rush of delight and lust. But sexy Harry was absent this evening and Alice kept wondering if she’d imagined the whole thing.
They’d spent a companionable hour exploring the rock pools and both she and Harry had grabbed Hunter by the back of the T-shirt at least once to avoid disaster. Holly, who now had occasional moments of being a disdainful teen, had been a kid again and equally as enthusiastic as Hunter about their finds. “How about this, Alice?” They’d held up all sorts of things while Alice rapidly sketched outlines and scrawled notes she hoped she’d be able to decipher later.
“Penny for them?” Harry asked.
In the distance, Holly caught her brother and tackled him to the sand. “I was just thinking how normal this is.”
“You mean the constant negotiations over who has the most chips and the three of us telling you in no uncertain terms exactly what you should draw in your mural?” Hunter’s shout of protest as Holly sat on him drifted on the air. Harry sighed. “And violent sibling affection.”
Alice laughed. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”
She pushed her hands into the warm sand and thought about Jess. She’d been discharged from the hospital and although she had little physical stamina, she wasn’t completely bedridden—yet. Karen had drawn up a care roster and Alice wasn’t certain if her mother was shielding her from too much one-on-one with Jess or giving her space while she could still have it.
So far, Alice’s role was taking Leo out for a few hours each day and it wasn’t a chore. He was a delight unless he was tired and he didn’t have a monopoly on that. Alice took him to the park and the pool and sometimes she just walked him along the coastal track through the tea tree while he napped in the stroller. She loved it, but it felt wrong to enjoy her time with him quite so much. Shouldn’t she be devastated that a woman of her own age was losing the opportunity to live and watch her son grow up?
She turned toward Harry. “Do you ever feel guilty that you’re here and Helene isn’t?”
In usual Harry style, he took time to consider her question. “At the start I did, when I was learning how to work and be a single dad. But not anymore. It sucks that her body let her down, but I’m just thankful I’m here for the kids.”
“Leo is not going to have that.”
“Isn’t your brother-in-law his father?”
“Yes.”
“What does Jess want to have happen?”
“For Nick to raise him. But Libby’s
