Page 46 of The Happy Family

I walk around with Jude in my arms but glance at my partner, curious as to who might be calling him. It’s probably one of his friends seeing if he wants to go to the pub for a pint later. As long as he helps me get the children into bed beforehand, I have no problem with him going. An evening to myself with a box of chocolates and some television sounds good to me. But then I realise the phone call is more than a simple invite from a friend.

‘Sadie’s coming out of hospital?’ Reid says, repeating what he has just been told because he seems surprised by it, but also to clue me in as to what is being talked about.

I instantly stop walking around with Jude and stand still, my mind processing this information. Of course, I knew that Sadie had to leave the hospital eventually. She was never going to stay in there forever. But hearing that the doctors have cleared her to go home must mean her recovery is going very well now.

Well enough for her memory to return?

I pray not.

‘Okay, thanks for letting me know,’ Reid says. ‘That is good news. I’ll tell the kids and see you shortly.’

Reid hangs up then.

‘See you shortly?’ I say, repeating what I just heard him say.

‘That was Sadie’s mum. She was letting me know that Sadie is coming out of hospital this morning and wondered if we wanted to visit her this afternoon.’

‘Is it safe for her to come out? I thought she still had memory loss?’

‘She does,’ Reid confirms – and that’s a relief to hear. ‘The doctors say she has reached the point where she can continue her rehab from home, and it might even be good for her to have a change of scene.’

‘Be good for her how? As in start to jog her memory?’

‘I don’t know. All I know is that Sadie is coming out of hospital and I’m going to take the kids to see her this afternoon. But you don’t have to come. You can relax here.’

Reid goes back to trying to clear up the coffee, which has definitely left a stain that will require some stronger cleaning materials than just a damp cloth. As he does, I think about my next move. I could stay here like Reid presumes I will want to. That’s one way of avoiding the problem. But it won’t help me get a sense of how Sadie is doing and, more specifically, if there has been any change in her memory coming back to her. I’ve avoided seeing her while she has been in hospital, at least since that fateful day when I tried to kill her but ultimately had to settle for killing Gemma instead. But now she is coming out of hospital, maybe it’s time I was around that woman again.

‘I’ll come with you,’ I say to Reid, wishing I didn’t feel the need to do this, but it has to be better than sitting here stewing by myself, wondering what if until they all get back.

‘You want to come?’ Reid asks me, surprised.

‘Sadie has been through a lot and she still has a long way to go,’ I say. ‘Maybe this will help her and, if it does, it’s good for all our sakes. Mine, yours, the children’s. Everyone’s.’

Reid puts down his damp cloth and walks over to me then, smiling at what I just said, as if he admires my compassion and thoughtfulness.

‘I love you,’ he says to me before leaning in for a kiss.

‘I love you too,’ I reply and watch my man kiss our baby on the head.

It’s a stark reminder of how much I have gained ever since I first met Sadie when I was delivering parcels to her front door. I’m going to need all my confidence and strength for the next time I meet her.

It’s time to put myself in the same room as that woman again.

What will happen this time?

THIRTY-TWO

SADIE

The doctors told me that the best thing for my recovery now would be to return to familiar surroundings, which meant leaving the hospital and going home. What they don’t realise is that for me, there are no familiar surroundings. I lost my family home when Reid and I divorced and Luna replaced me, and I lost my childhood home when it burnt down in an arson attack that I strongly believe Luna was behind too. Before my accident, I was living in a rented flat with my mum and dad while they rebuilt their home, but it was hardly a place that provided any of us much comfort, considering we were only there due to bad circumstances. But having been in hospital for the best part of a year, things have progressed in the outside world and my parents’ home has been restored, meaning there is no need to rent because they have their house back.

At least I think it is their house.

‘Wow,’ was all I could say when I first saw the property where I had spent my childhood. Mum and Dad had just driven me home from the hospital and it had been my first glimpse at all the renovation and rebuilding work that had been completed while I was in my coma. The last time I had been here, the place had literally been a building site, and it had been almost impossible to hold a conversation with my parents amidst all the hammering and drilling that had been going on around us. We’d actually had to go out into the back garden just to talk, such were the noise levels in the house. But now the house is finished, the builders have packed up their tools and left, and peace has been restored.

From a family-friendly home to a burnt-out shell to a building site to this – a beautifully designed and expensively rebuilt house with all the latest fittings and furnishings, guaranteed to turn the neighbours on this street from sympathetic of my parents to envious of them.

I’d been helped out of the backseat of the car and led to the front door by Dad while Mum unlocked the door and now, as it opens, I am about to get my first look at this place that is my latest ‘home’.