Chapter 5

At St. Anne's Children's Hospital, the doctors treated Lily's wound again. She kept crying from the pain, and I leaned down so she could see me.

"Mom's here, sweetheart. Hang on just a little longer. I'm staying right here."

Only after she fell asleep with my sleeve in her fist did I let myself sit down. The doctor scheduled a follow-up and told me to watch for fever and worsening pain. Her admission to the rehab center would have to wait.

I had to get her out of that house. Ethan was covering the hospital bills, but renting an accessible apartment, moving, and hiring help all meant immediate expenses. The property hadn't been divided yet, and I didn't have much in savings that I could access right away.

For years, I had lent part of what I earned to my mother for repairs on her house, and the rest went to my sister's mortgage and Owen's expenses. Every time I thought about stopping, my mother asked how I could abandon my own widowed sister.

Ethan messaged to say he would pay, and that I should come home so the family could sit down and talk it through.

I looked at the words on the screen, typed "Lily's been badly hurt again," waited a few seconds, and deleted all of it.

He'd been standing right there the whole time.

I called Noah Collins. He heard something in my voice and asked at once what had happened.

"I need to borrow money from you." I gave him the figure. "And I need a short-term accessible apartment. I'll write you an IOU and pay it back on schedule."

He agreed to the loan and found the apartment as well. We set the repayment date, and then he arranged a car and took Lily and me there.

Once we'd brought our things inside, he set out the food he had brought and told me to eat something. I was about to shake my head, but then I smelled the hot soup and remembered that I hadn't eaten all day.

"Thank you." I picked up a fork and hesitated. "Noah, I can't feel the same way about you right now."

"I know." He glanced toward the bedroom and lowered his voice. "I'm glad you felt you could ask me for help. But helping you doesn't mean I expect you to feel the same way about me. I won't hold this over you."

I lowered my head and took a couple of bites, finally accepting his help.

He pushed a tablet across to me. On the screen were the medical illustrations I had drawn before I married. His company was putting together materials on children's rehabilitation and needed someone to turn written instructions into drawings people could follow.

"I've sent you the brief and the rate. If the timing works, try one."

After he left I answered a message from my lawyer, Rachel Morgan, and opened the envelope I had brought from the old house. A photograph slid out onto my knee.

In it I am wrapped in Ethan's coat outside a temporary relief station. That night, after he finished operating, he insisted on taking me back. He zipped the coat up for me, worried I'd be cold on the way.

Ethan lost his parents when he was little. When we married I truly wanted to give him a home, somewhere he could come back to whenever he was worn out.

David is on the other side of the photograph, his arm still wrapped in the bandage I'd put on him. Noah was injured in the same disaster. We'd met while I was helping transfer and care for him. Later, David went back into the danger zone to rescue Ethan and never returned.

After the funeral both of us wanted to take care of Vivian and Owen. I always bought extra when I shopped and helped with whatever Owen needed. It never occurred to me that Lily would end up paying that debt.

In the photograph, Ethan's hand is on my shoulder. I stared at the picture for a long time. When a tear landed on it, I pulled out a tissue and hurried to wipe it away.