Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 61 - Chapitre 65

LaylaMom was awake when I saw her the next morning.Only barely.Her eyes opened when I came closer to the bed, and it took a few seconds before they focused on me. She looked exhausted, her voice rough when she tried to speak.“Hi.”I took her hand carefully. “Hi.”“How long?”“Since the surgery? Not even a full day.”She closed her eyes again, and for a second my heart jumped before her fingers tightened weakly around mine.“Bellamy said everything went well,” I told her. “He’s happy with how you’re doing.”Mom nodded slightly.I stayed beside her while she drifted in and out of sleep. There wasn’t much conversation. She was sore, tired and still being monitored closely, but every time she opened her eyes and recognized me, something inside my chest loosened a little more.Dr. Bellamy came by later and confirmed that her recovery was progressing as expected. There was still a long way to go. They would monitor her closely before deciding when she could leave the hospital, and recov

LaylaMom went home two weeks later.She still needed help getting around, and Dr. Bellamy had given her enough instructions to fill several pages, but she was out of Saint Catherine. The first time I walked into her room and saw the hospital bed empty, I stood there longer than I needed to.There had been a point when I couldn’t imagine reaching this side of it. Now Mom was home, my visits were no longer made beneath fluorescent hospital lights, and every follow-up with Bellamy had been encouraging.Life had settled enough that I had stopped waiting for something to disturb it.Harvey and I had settled too.I still spent some nights at Marissa’s, although she had begun referring to my room as my storage unit. Most nights, I ended up at Harvey’s. Some mornings we drove to work separately. Some evenings one of us worked too late. There were dinners with Sophie, evenings alone, hospital visits, and ordinary nights when we did nothing worth remembering.I liked those more than I expected