Page 10 of The Happy Family

They expertly and efficiently wrap a bandage around the wound on my arm, covering the blood in a matter of seconds, although I see the crimson start to seep through my dressing quickly, despite their skill and due care. Although it’s what I see next that worries me more.

I see two police officers entering our home.

This is it. These are the people I really need to convince. These are the ones who will decide my fate.

It helps that I’m still being fussed over by the paramedics, because their first impression of me will be that I am a victim, and that’s fine by me. As for Sadie, she is still being examined by the first two paramedics, but she hasn’t moved yet and there doesn’t seem much positivity in that section of the hallway.

I hear Reid telling the police what happened, and he gives them the exact version of the story that I gave him, which only helps further. I decide to speak up then to really emphasise that this was a home invasion that went wrong.

‘I need you to check on my baby! I need you to find out if she has hurt my child!’ I cry to the paramedics in front of me but also for the police who stand beyond them. ‘Please! Just tell me my baby is going to be okay!’

Reid rushes towards me while his children stand and stare, and I’m satisfied that I just did a very good job of playing the victim card even more. But I really am terrified that my baby might have been hurt tonight, and I do want to be checked as soon as possible. I also need to make sure Sadie is seen as the criminal because it would be easy for her to be viewed as a victim too, especially when the paramedics who are working on her suddenly let out a desperate cry.

‘She’s going into cardiac arrest!’ one of them calls before the other rushes to grab a defibrillator.

‘What’s happening?’ Arthur cries, and I see the colour drain from Reid’s face as he is tasked with trying to explain to his son what the current situation is with his mother. It’s a task that is too much for him at this moment because he cannot respond, though he can wrap his arms around the crying Ruby and hold her back from getting in the way of the skilled staff currently working on Sadie.

‘Get those children out of here!’ a paramedic calls, clearly overstimulated enough with trying to save a life without two poor children standing by watching on and potentially making it harder. But nobody other than the paramedics moves, everybody stunned into silence and standing as still as statues, trying to figure out if this is the moment when Sadie leaves this life.

As the paramedics work frantically to save her, and the police stand by to see the latest development at this rapidly escalating crime scene, the only thing that could make the situation more tense would be having more people arrive. That’s when I see Sadie’s mother and father appear in the open doorway, the pair of them out of breath and ashen-faced as they see their daughter fighting for her life right in front of them.

There’s too much going on here. I feel like I could faint. But all I can do is the same thing that everybody else is doing.

We’re watching the paramedics as they try to resuscitate Sadie.

But there is one difference.

I’m the only one here who wants her to die.

Then I hear the words I prayed I would not hear.

‘We have a pulse!’

SEVEN

REID

I keep a tight grip on my two crying children, my arms enveloping the pair of them as I hold them close and tell them that Mummy is going to be okay. I still don’t know if that is true, but I do know that I need to stop them rushing towards their hurt mum and potentially disrupting the paramedics, so I tighten my arms around them.

The fact that Sadie has a heartbeat is something, certainly more of a positive sign than a few seconds ago. While I hate my ex-wife for what she has done tonight, I do still want her to live. If only for the sake of our children. The trauma they will have to endure for the rest of their lives if they see their mummy die right in front of them will be too much to bear, but if she survives, they might move past it one day. That’s why I am silently urging Sadie to keep fighting, to keep living, to keep on being here so she can be a parent to Arthur and Ruby, even if she is going to spend several years behind bars after making a full recovery.

I’m praying silently for Sadie’s survival because Luna is standing behind me and I don’t want her to know that I want my ex to live. I have to consider my current partner in all of this too. How she was attacked by my ex, slashed across the arm with a knife and is now terrified for the health of our unborn child. I expect that Luna wants Sadie to die and I couldn’t really blame her for having that viewpoint. I’d probably want Sadie to die too if our roles were reversed. That’s why I have to walk a very thin tightrope here in which I must navigate the future happiness of my children with the future happiness of my girlfriend, who is due to give me another child in the near future too.

‘What’s happening? Is she going to be okay?’ Sadie’s mother asks one of the paramedics who rushes past her with a gurney, but he ignores the question and focuses on assisting his colleagues.

Together, the four of them tentatively transition Sadie from the hard hallway floor to the gurney before transporting her from the house to the back of one of the waiting ambulances.

‘You go with her. I’ll see you at the hospital,’ I tell Sadie’s parents. They don’t need telling twice, rushing away to join their daughter, who is still unconscious but apparently breathing, for now at least.

‘I want to go with Mummy!’ Ruby whines.

‘Me too!’ Arthur agrees, and they wriggle free from me and make a bid to reach the ambulance with Sadie in it.

I have to chase the pair of them down the driveway and stop them delaying the ambulance any further, telling my children that we will be right behind them and will see Mummy at the hospital when we get there.

I realise that I have left Luna behind in the house and look up to see her watching me, the blood-soaked bandage on her arm and a concerned look on her face that tells me she is still stressing about our baby. I know I need to be with her now as it will not look good if I spend more time concerned over my previous partner rather than my current one, but I also have my children to think about. This is too much for me to handle, which is why it’s a relief when one of the police officers provides some support, offering to help transport Arthur and Ruby to the hospital, so that I can go with Luna. That sounds okay in theory until I suggest it to my kids.

‘No, we want to stay with you,’ Ruby cries, which is understandable. After seeing her mother shockingly speed away in an ambulance, she now doesn’t want to see her father leave in the same way.