Chapter 16
Ken was staying in a hotel in Denmark Hill while Donna was in the hospital and Bex had intended to do the same thing, until Linda’s daughter, Iris, had asked her to stay.
She had a ground-floor flat in East Dulwich, about ten minutes away from the hospital, where her mum and Ken would be staying once her mum was discharged.
Staying in such close proximity to the hospital would allow Donna and Briony to go for regular check-ups in the weeks following the surgery, and Iris had offered up the flat so that they wouldn’t have to worry about finding accommodation.
But there were no pets allowed in the flat and Briony had evidently decided that she wanted to make her own arrangements, in order to be able to have Merlin with her.
As well as accommodating her parents after the surgery, Iris had kept insisting that Bex should stay with her while she was up in London, until she’d finally agreed.
It wasn’t that Bex hadn’t wanted to stay.
She just felt bad for putting Iris out, when she was already doing so much to help.
As Linda’s daughter and Donna’s goddaughter, Iris felt like part of their extended family, and Bex had invited her out for lunch on the day of the surgery to thank her for offering up her flat.
If Bex was honest it would also provide a distraction to help her to cope with the intensity of her own thoughts, at a time when her mother was lying just a few miles away, on an operating table.
She was still trying to pretend that her mother was the only focus of her concern, but when she’d gone to bed in the spare room in Iris’s flat the night before, and closed her eyes, it hadn’t been just her mother she’d pictured.
Sleep had been largely elusive, and she’d missed Matt and the boys more than she’d ever believed possible.
It had only been one night so far, but if her husband had been there, he wouldn’t have minded her waking him in the dead of night and telling him she couldn’t sleep.
He’d have got up and made her a drink, told her one of his stories, or just held her in his arms while she poured her heart out.
Either way she’d have felt better just for being with him.
If she’d still been worried the next day, she’d have woken up to the perfect distraction in the shape of her sons.
It was impossible to focus on the negatives with them around.
Henry could do the best impressions of people they knew, and the funniest one of his dad trying to dance.
Matt had far too many good qualities for her to be able to count, but his ability to dance was not one of them.
They’d all witnessed his attempts the previous December, when they’d been invited to a family-friendly New Year’s Eve party that Rowan and Nathan had hosted.
Matt had been like the fifth Inbetweener, doing moves that looked like he was cleaning the shower door with a cloth, swishing his hand left and right while moving up and down, before going on to demonstrate another move that made it look as if he was posting envelopes through a letter box.
All three boys had laughed themselves silly, but Henry could mimic the moves perfectly, right down to the expression on his dad’s face.
Every time Henry wanted to cheer his mum up, or wiggle out of doing a job she’d asked him to do, he’d pull out the moves.
Ollie was the hugger of her three boys and even though he was getting a bit less demonstrative as he edged towards adolescence, there wasn’t a day that went by when he didn’t show her some kind of affection, even if it was just a brief lean of his head on her shoulder, and it always lifted her heart.
As for Tom, he was her ball of endless energy, talking non-stop, with an ability to find humour in any situation – from someone sitting on a chair that made a strange noise, to hiding a plastic snake in his dad’s work boots.
His giggle could make Bex smile on the hardest of days, but what she hadn’t realised about him until the past few weeks was just how kind he was.
It was clear he’d hated the idea of Briony being left out of the family, or the possibility of her being lonely.
Of course he had no idea about the full story, and she had no intention of telling him, but she was so proud of all three of her boys.
Whatever mistakes she might have made in life, she knew she’d done something right to end up with three such amazing kids.
It hurt so much to be away from them, but it was a good reminder of just how lucky she was.
‘Are you sure you want to go out to lunch? I know you’re waiting for the hospital to ring.’ Iris gave her a slightly wobbly smile, her own apprehension written all over her face.
‘Definitely. I think waiting for the call might be too much otherwise.’ Bex let go of a long breath.
She’d offered to go to the hospital to sit with Ken, but he’d said he’d find it more stressful that way, because he’d be worried about her as well and she knew the way he’d always coped with pressure was to go quiet and focus on practical solutions.
It was how he’d handled the fall out of her cancelled wedding to Liam.
He hadn’t felt able to listen to her pouring her heart out, as she had to her mum, but he’d sorted out contacting everyone who needed to know and cancelling all the plans.
No doubt he’d be spending the time while her mum was on the operating table sorting out the practical things she might need to aid her recovery, and the last thing he needed was to have to soothe his stepdaughter’s nerves.
It was probably why he’d been so keen for her to go and stay with Iris.
‘Okay then, if you’re sure, I know just the place.
’ Iris had led the way to a fantastic restaurant serving Georgian food and she’d suggested a dish called megruli khachapuri, which was a cheese-coated bread filled with yet more cheese.
It had sounded just about perfect to Bex and yet somehow it had still exceeded expectations.
‘Oh my goodness, this is amazing,’ Eating at places like this always ended up making Bex feel a bit of a country bumpkin.
It wasn’t that Cornwall didn’t have fantastic restaurants, it had more than its fair share of Michelin-starred places, and Port Kara, the village neighbouring Port Agnes, was well known as a haven for foodies.
It was just the breadth and diversity of cuisine in London was on a whole different level, and she’d never eaten Georgian food before. ‘How did you discover this place?’
‘I was helping an author to research the Battle of Khunan, which took place when Georgia was invaded by the Mongols in 1220. It was for a novel he was writing, and he brought me here for lunch.’ Iris was a freelance historical researcher, who worked with filmmakers, authors and academics.
Bex didn’t understand half of what she did, but it always sounded fascinating.
Iris was five years younger and she’d probably been closer to Briony growing up, because back then it had seemed like a huge gap, but it had narrowed more and more as time had passed.
These days it was probably geographical distance that had stopped them becoming closer than they might have been otherwise, but Bex still viewed her as the next best thing to a cousin.
‘That sounds like a great perk of the job.’ She smiled at Iris and took another bite of the deliciously cheesy bread, wondering whether the restaurant would consider a delivery service all the way down to Cornwall.
‘Hmmm, well it might have been if he hadn’t decided that lunch bought him the right to try and stick his tongue down my throat.
He still had most of the cheese from his khachapuri caught up in his moustache and it would have been enough to put me off this place, if the food wasn’t so great.
’ Iris laughed and it made her eyes light up.
Her name suited her because the green of her irises was so striking.
‘Oh God, that’s definitely not a perk.’ Bex shuddered, an unwanted advance from a man with cheese in his moustache sounded every bit as revolting as it clearly had been.
‘At least being a freelancer, I could tell him that no amount of khachapuri would ever be enough for me to sit across the table from him again.’
‘Good for you, I think it’s—’ Bex stopped dead the moment her phone began to ring.
Maybe it wouldn’t be Ken, it was sooner than she’d expected, and as she snatched up her phone she wasn’t even sure whether she wanted it to be him.
Not knowing was unbearable, but if anything had happened to her mum that would be more devastating than she could bring herself to imagine.
Bex forced herself to pick up her phone. It was Ken.
‘How’s Mum?’ She couldn’t even wait for him to speak before blurting out the question.
‘She’s come through the op and she’s doing really well.’ Ken was saying what she desperately wanted to hear, but his tone was flat and it meant she couldn’t believe him.
‘What’s wrong?’ Her question was barely more than a whisper, and she locked eyes with Iris as she waited for him to answer. The look on the other woman’s face mirrored her fears.
‘It’s Briony. She had a massive bleed and—’
‘Oh my God, is she…’ Despite cutting her stepfather off, Bex couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. It was all she could do to keep breathing in and out.
‘It’s touch and go. They managed to stop the bleeding eventually, but she’d already lost so much blood that they had to put her into an induced coma to try and prevent damage to her brain and other organs.
They’re hoping they can reverse the situation without lasting damage, but the next twenty-four hours are crucial, and they aren’t making any promises. ’