Chapter 3

But Sophie had never been close to Claire. Asking her what had happened at home would be pointless.

At the far end of the hallway, Lily appeared beside the hospital director. They were talking as they walked.

In a white coat, Lily looked sharp and capable, her attention fixed on their conversation. The director watched her with obvious admiration.

Sophie pushed past Nathan and rose onto her toes to wave. “Lily!”

Lily glanced their way. She kept her expression neutral until the director excused her, then smiled and walked over.

There was something proud and untamed about Lily. Rather than putting people off, it drew them in.

As far as Sophie was concerned, Lily had everything: the family, the looks, and the talent. She was the only woman worthy of being her sister-in-law.

Sophie looped an arm through Lily’s. “You’re finally back! Everyone at my school is talking about it. You have no idea how much Nathan’s missed you this past year.”

“Sophie,” Nathan said. “We’re at the hospital.”

“What? Am I wrong?” She shot him a look. “You spend all your time here instead of going home. You barely pay attention to that woman. Everyone knows it’s Lily you still love.”

Lily slipped her hands into the pockets of her white coat. Her gaze rested on Nathan for a few seconds before she came to his rescue.

“That’s enough, Sophie. Your brother’s been easily embarrassed since we were kids. Stop teasing him. I’ll take you out for something good to eat tonight.”

Sophie grinned. “Already defending him? You two are impossible.”

Nathan’s face gave nothing away. He took his patient charts and went into the department.

Lily watched his straight-backed figure disappear, then turned to Sophie.

“What your brother and I had is in the past. He’s married now, and people talk. Don’t say things like that at the hospital.”

“Married?” Sophie shrugged. “Didn’t he tell you? He and that woman are getting divorced.”

Lily went still. “Divorced?”

“He flew all the way out to bring you home, didn’t he? Besides, she can’t have children. Why would he stay with her? Nathan only married her because he was upset about you.”

“She can’t have children?” Lily narrowed her eyes.

“That’s right. She’s an ordinary woman with something wrong with her, and Nathan got stuck with her. Lily? Are you listening?”

Lily blinked and smiled. “I brought you a present.”

“You did? That's so nice of you!” Sophie squeezed her arm. “So when do I get to call you my sister-in-law?”

Lily arched a brow, her smile turning playful.

“You really want to know? Ask your brother.”

—

After a department dinner that evening, Nathan went home. Claire still wasn’t there.

The drinks he’d had left him irritable. He took out the second phone he used to contact her, wiped the dust from it, and plugged it in.

As soon as it turned on, calls and messages began flooding in.

Nathan didn’t look at them. He found Claire’s number and called.

The connection was poor, but her voice came through soft and clear.

“Hello?”

Nathan loosened his collar. He could hear singing and laughter behind her.

“Where are you? It’s loud.”

Claire knew he liked quiet. She walked away from the bonfire and the crowd.

“You’re back?”

“Yes. I had to rush off for a work trip. I didn’t have time to tell you.”

“It’s fine,” she said, sounding as though she meant it.

Nathan pressed his lips together. “Where are you?”

“Linden Valley. I brought Mom here for a trip.”

“Why did you go there? The apartment was filthy when I got back. I had to call a cleaner. You and your mother must have been gone for days.”

Claire stared at her phone.

Of everything he could have said, he was upset about the dust. It reminded her why there was nothing left in this marriage for her to miss.

Her father used to beat her mother badly enough to leave her bleeding. Her mother had finally divorced him, only to develop a brain tumor.

Back then, Claire had thought having Nathan as a son-in-law meant the surgery would go smoothly.

Nathan had promised to operate. But just before her mother was taken into the operating room, Lily sent him a text. He handed the surgery over to Cameron.

If Claire hadn’t needed to stay outside the operating room, she would have confronted him then and there.

She’d done everything she could to make sure her mother was in good hands. Even so, Nathan and Cameron failed to hand over the case properly. A nurse made a serious mistake, and her mother developed an infection after surgery. The damage had never fully healed.

Claire had trusted Nathan with the person she loved most. That was what she couldn’t forgive.

The line went quiet. She asked, mostly to fill the silence, “Have you been drinking?”

“Yes.” His voice was gentler than usual. “We had something to celebrate today.”

Claire smiled without making a sound.

She was leaving. Lily had come back. Of course he was happy.

“I’ll be back in a week. We can take care of the paperwork then.”

“Paperwork?”

Nathan seemed to think of something. “There’s no rush.”

“Okay.”

—

After the call, the weight Claire had been carrying seemed to lift. She felt strangely empty without it.

The trip hadn’t been easy for her.

She’d only been married once. She’d wanted it to work, just like anyone would.

Part of her had wondered how Nathan would react to the divorce. Surely he’d have something to say. Maybe even an apology.

He might admit he hadn’t taken good care of her or paid enough attention to her mother. He might tell her the infertility wasn’t her fault, or offer to help if she ever needed anything.

The Brooks family was good at saying the right things, even when they didn’t mean them.

Instead, Nathan had said, ‘There’s no rush.’

It was exactly like him. Claire had expected too much.

“Claire?”

She looked up. “What is it, Mom?”

“Take a picture of me.”

“Okay. Stand over here. Move your foot like this. There.”

Her mother smiled in front of a wall covered in flowers, the scar from her surgery plainly visible. Claire felt a sting behind her eyes as she took the photo.

She’d married the wrong man and trusted the wrong person. Her mother had suffered for it.

That afternoon, they watched ‘Homecoming’, a large dance performance staged against a backdrop of snowy mountains.

Diane sat in the audience wearing a little red hat, clapping with childlike excitement.

Two tourists behind them whispered to each other.

“What’s wrong with that lady up front? Is she mentally disabled?”

Claire turned and glared at them. Both startled and looked away.

She reached over to touch her mother’s cheek. Then she took a picture of her smiling face and posted it to her feed.

That night, Diane fell asleep at the hotel.

Claire had nothing to do, so she scrolled through her feed. Nathan had liked two of Professor Zimmerman’s posts, one about tea and one about flowers.

Cameron had liked them too.

Claire’s thumb paused on the screen.

The photo of her mother sat between those two posts. Both men had scrolled right past it.

Farther down, she found a group photo Cameron had posted the previous morning.

‘Our neurosurgery star is back! Let’s celebrate!’

Everyone from the department was there, along with the hospital director and several other senior staff. Sophie had even joined them. They’d made quite an occasion of it.

They were all smiling as they lifted Lily into the air. Beautiful and coolly composed, she lay across their arms.

Nathan stood in the middle, one hand firmly clasped around Lily’s as if he were making sure she wouldn’t fall.

He had liked that post too.