Chapter 15
Since Leo’s fall, the speed of progression terrified Nathan if he thought about it too much, and most of the time he tried to box it away and push it to the back of his mind, otherwise he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to function.
He had to believe that the outcome for Leo would be far better than they’d been warned it would be.
The wheelchair was helping him now that his legs no longer worked the way they should, but there wasn’t the same kind of solution for the most important muscle in the body – the heart.
When that started to weaken, or the muscles involved in the respiratory system were no longer able to help him breathe, the options were painfully limited.
Research had to find a cure before then, because the alternative didn’t bear thinking about.
When Leo was in the water, it was almost as if his condition didn’t exist and the joy it brought to his face made Nathan happier than anything else in the world.
That same smile had been on Leo’s face when Nathan and Will had first helped him into the pool at Tony and Marion’s house, and again when Nathan had taken him to their place for a second time and Tony had been the one to help him into the pool.
The third time they’d visited, Nathan had been lost for words when he’d realised Tony had bought a mobile pool hoist to help Leo get in and out of the water.
It was that kind of thing that had restored his faith in people, something which had been severely tested in the wake of his prison sentence.
There were only a very small minority of people who’d blatantly shunned him since his release, but the gossip had been far more widespread and he knew how much it had hurt his mum.
Along with losing Chester, that was his biggest regret.
Maybe he should have regretted the sentence more, or the crime itself.
But he couldn’t regret the crime because it hadn’t been motivated by greed, the way a lot of people seemed to think it was.
The crime had been committed because of a desperate desire to find a solution for a situation that didn’t have one, and he couldn’t regret that, no matter what it might have cost him.
‘Nathan.’ He’d known it was his mother coming even before she called out, the aroma of the bacon rolls she’d made reaching him before she spoke.
He hadn’t asked her to make him breakfast, but it was no surprise that she had.
Irene had always been the sort of mother who lived up to that word in every sense.
Her priority had been to make sure her boys were happy, well fed and had as much of what they wanted as it was possible for her to give them.
His parents had loved each other and they’d had a happy marriage, but he’d never once doubted that he and Will had come first for his mother.
When their father had died, they’d talked about the prospect of selling the family home, but she’d wanted to try and hold on to it.
It had been a wonderful place to grow up, a solid Georgian house with almost two acres of land and the byre which at the time had been a semi-dilapidated barn-cum-dumping-ground.
By the time they made the decision to convert the main house for Will and his family, with a self-contained annex for Irene, Nathan’s brother had already remortgaged his own place twice.
The money had been used for trips to the US to explore experimental treatments for Leo and with the prospect of private IVF looming, there was more and more pressure on Will.
They’d been pushed to their limit financially, even before they’d realised that the window for IVF was closing.
The one thing they really wanted was a cure for Leo, but that was something no one could offer them and they desperately needed hope.
Having another child might be the only thing that could give them that, and Nathan had been willing to do whatever it took to help his brother.
He wasn’t trying to excuse the VAT fraud.
It had been a stupid thing to do, to think that it would be possible to get away with submitting false accounts that inflated the cost of building materials.
It had meant receiving payments the business wasn’t entitled to.
Ignoring letters from HMRC to come clean and put the business’s affairs in order to avoid prosecution was even more idiotic, but it had gone so far by then and the end goal had seemed far more important.
Those VAT relief payments had helped towards the costs of the IVF treatment and had landed Nathan with a prison sentence.
But he defied anyone not to be tempted in those circumstances, and now Heather was just weeks away from giving birth to a daughter.
That’s why he could never regret what had happened, even if it had hurt his mother far more than he’d realised it would.
When she held her granddaughter, some of that pain would finally be lifted. He was sure of it.
‘I’m in the kitchen.’ It was a bit of an exaggeration to call it that, but the area where his kitchen would eventually be sited was finally plastered and waiting for the units to be fitted, which Nathan would be doing himself.
For now he was finalising the preparation for the heating system, which had involved hours of chipping away at part of the cobblestone floor to lay the pipework.
‘Okay, darling. I’ve brought you some breakfast to make sure you eat before you go out.
’ His mother appeared a moment later, carrying a tray which she set down on his workbench before he had a chance to take it from her.
‘This kitchen is going to be huge when it’s finished and the views are going to be amazing. ’
Irene moved towards the bifold doors on one side of the room, which overlooked the paddock and the neighbouring farmland beyond it, with fields stretching as far as the eye could see.
As hard as Nathan had worked to climb the property ladder by himself, it now felt as if this was where he was meant to be.
He lived 200 feet away from all the people who meant the most to him, and eventually a renovated and extended version of the byre would be even more of a dream home than the house he’d renovated when he’d been married to Nicole.
‘The views will be amazing and I know I’m going to be happy here.’ Nathan stood up to greet his mother and she put her hands on his shoulders, holding him at a distance as though she really wanted to look at him.
‘I hope so, darling, I really hope so, because no one deserves to be happy more than you.’ She drew him to her then, holding him so tightly that for a moment it was hard to breathe. When she pulled back, her cornflower-blue eyes were filled with tears.
‘What’s wrong? I didn’t say that to upset you. I really think I’ll be happier here than I’ve ever been before, so please don’t be sad.’
‘I’m not.’ Irene swallowed hard, shaking her head. ‘It’s just that you’ve given up so much to move here, and I’m crying out of happiness because I think you’re right and that all the sacrifices you’ve made will be worth it.’
‘Selling the house wasn’t that much of a sacrifice, I had to settle things with Nicole anyway and—’
‘I’m not talking about selling the house.
’ His mother cut him off, looking at him in a way that made him catch his breath, and in that moment he realised she knew the secret he’d been certain was his and Will’s alone.
They should have realised they couldn’t fool their mum, she knew them far too well.
Even so, he couldn’t say the words out loud, because once they were out there they couldn’t be taken back.
He had to keep denying it, otherwise there was no way of knowing what the consequences might be.
‘I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about then.’
‘Yes, you do.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘But we don’t have to discuss it, because I understand why you don’t want to. I just needed you to know that I know the truth and I’m prouder of you than you’ll ever begin to understand.’
‘Despite the fact that I’m Port Agnes’s most famous ex-con?’ He grinned and she put one hand on the side of his face.
‘No, because of that.’ His mother planted a kiss on his cheek, pulling away and gesturing towards the plate she’d left on his workbench.
‘Just make sure you eat something before you head out. And remember, if this girl is the right one, what’s happened in the past won’t matter to her.
And I think Rowan might be the right one, I really do. ’
His mother headed out of the door before he could answer, but when he replied to the empty room it was no less heartfelt.
‘Me too, Mum. Me too.’
* * *
If anyone had told Rowan when she was sixteen that her father would one day allow himself to be pelted with water bombs by his grandson and his best friend, who would be laughing uproariously in the process, she’d never have believed them.
Even more unbelievable would have been the idea that her father’s former best friend and business partner would go from being his arch enemy back to being his friend again.
Much less that they’d be standing side by side in the pool, ready to be pelted with water bombs by the boys.
Her mother and Marion were far more sensible, sitting together on the side of the pool, laughing.
Their excuse for not getting wet was that they were going out together soon, taking Bella and her best friend Tiffany to get their nails painted for the very first time at a beauty salon in Port Tremellien.
Rowan hadn’t been sure about the idea at first, Bella wasn’t even eleven yet, but the salon had a special package for children, with pretty nail art, but easily removable polish.
It wasn’t something that would damage the girls’ nails or need another visit to the salon to remove it, and Tiffany’s mother had already been planning to take her there for her next birthday anyway.
Tonight the girls would be having a sleepover together at Katrina and Dean’s house, and the boys would be staying with Tony and Marion, mostly so that Leo could maximise his swimming time.
Tomorrow her parents and stepparents would be taking all four children out to lunch and then to the cinema in Truro.
None of these were things Rowan could ever have imagined, and it gave her hope for a future where she and James might be able to have a similar kind of co-parenting relationship and, who knows, maybe they could even be friends.
His stay in the Airbnb was fast approaching, but he’d been conspicuous by his silence for over a week, missing his regular FaceTime with the children and sending just a four-word text in explanation.
Sorry, something came up
Rowan had a feeling that something was Euan Samuels.
As hard as it might have been for James to supress who he really was for so long, none of that excused sidelining the children.
James had already broken several promises to them since they’d left Membory Grange and Rowan had every intention of telling him in no uncertain terms that all of that had to stop now.
‘Here we go, boys, bombs away.’ Nathan was on the other side of the pool to her, loading up water bombs for Theo and Leo to drop on her father and Dean.
He was laughing conspiratorially and, if anyone had looked in on the scene, they would have sworn all of them were family and that Nathan was the kind of father who knew exactly how to have fun with his children.
He would be a great dad and it made Rowan’s chest ache that a stupid mistake might have robbed him of that chance.
Maybe it wasn’t too late, but at her age…
Rowan shook the thought from her head. It was ridiculous to think like that.
In just a few minutes, she and Nathan would be going out on their first real date.
For all she knew it might also be their last, so all the stupid thoughts that were racing through her mind needed to stop right now.
It was just sixteen-year-old Rowan making an appearance, that was all.
The same girl who’d practised pairing her name with his: Rowan and Nathan, even Rowan Lark.
But that girl had to stay firmly in the past, where she belonged.
Rowan wasn’t a carefree sixteen-year-old any more and life wasn’t make believe. She knew that better than anyone.
‘Right, we need to make a move, girls, if we’re going to get to our appointment.’ Katrina stood up, and Marion and the two girls quickly followed suit. All of them bidding farewell in a flurry of excited goodbyes.
‘If you boys have had enough of water bombs, we can get you in for a swim.’ Tony’s suggestion was greeted with an enthusiastic response from both boys, and he turned towards Rowan. ‘You and Nathan can get off now; Dean and I can get the boys sorted.’
‘Are you sure?’ She glanced over to where her stepfather was already setting up the mobile hoist, wondering if he or any of the others realised that she and Nathan weren’t just heading off at the same time, they were going on a date.
They’d done their best to be discreet, acting like the friends that until very recently she’d been determined they should remain.
If the others did know, they were clearly deciding to be discreet too; Rowan’s father smiling as he responded to her question.
‘Absolutely, we’re old hands at this. Nathan knows we can handle it, don’t you?’ Her father looked towards him and he nodded, before turning in Rowan’s direction.
‘Your dad has been great letting Leo come here and swim whenever he wants.’
‘It’s been an absolute pleasure.’ The sentiment in her father’s voice was so sincere she caught her breath, but it wasn’t just because of what he’d said.
It was what it signified, and how much her father had changed from the bitter, hate-filled person he’d been when her parents had first split up.
If she’d ever doubted that people were capable of change if they were given a second chance, she had to believe it now.
‘Are you ready to go?’ She smiled at Nathan, and the same butterflies she’d felt at sixteen seemed to be out in full force when he smiled back, and she knew that no matter how much she wanted to pretend, this wasn’t just a casual first date.
‘I am if you are?’ He smiled, giving her one final chance to step back and protect herself in the only way that could be guaranteed, by not getting involved. Instead she found herself nodding and followed his lead, stepping straight into the unknown.