Chapter 69 Louise
LOUISE
Her eyes. That’s where I saw it first. On the eighth day of treatment, the gleam came back to them, the one that had disappeared even before I’d taken her for those fateful first tests. It was like she was becoming her again.
She was still pitifully weak, of course. She’d have to regain all the weight she’d lost in the last few months and her body would take a long time to get back to full strength. But that gleam in her eyes was the tipping point. I told Sean and he pulled me close, wrapping me up in his arms.
On the tenth day, the doctors started to agree. The test results were good enough to be cautiously optimistic, they said. What reassured me wasn’t the numbers but the sight of her chowing down on a breakfast of croissants and hot chocolate.
On the twelfth day, she started to quiz Sean on his history, his tattoos, and his intentions. Sean flushed and looked at me, lost for words. That’s when I knew she was back.
On the fourteenth day, the doctors said the words we’d been waiting to hear: reversal of disease and remission. I pulled Kayley into an enormous hug and, for once, she let me hang onto her good and long. But then she pushed me gently back.
“What?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
Then I saw she was waving Sean forward. He glanced at me to check whether it was okay, and I nodded. Then all three of us were hugging, that huge strong body of his like a warm rock face that both of us could hang from.