Page 34 of Insidious

***

It is the third day. They said they are going to try to take the tube out.

“We have been weaning her off, and she has been doing well,” Dr Gupta says.

I am sitting in one of those plastic chairs that somehow manages to be both hard and unstable at the same time.

My back aches and my head throbs. I haven’t slept properly in I didn’t even know how long.

Mum is beside me. Lily stands a little further away, Amelie in her arms, swaying gently, her eyes flicking between me and the doors.

Waiting.

We are all just …

Waiting.

***

Mum stands up, and there is Chloe, walking towards us. She is in a bright blue dress, her hair gleaming, not a strand out of place. I don’t see her coming until she is almost upon us.

Mum starts towards her, and my hand automatically closes around her arm, holding her back.

She looks up at me, confused.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

I don’t answer because Chloe sees it. She slows and hesitates. Her eyes are wide now, uncertainty creeping in.

Good.

Let her feel it.

“Who asked her to come here?” I say, my voice betraying none of the rage, most of it directed at myself.

My voice sounds calm.

Chloe blinks. “No one … I just—I thought I’d come and help. You know, with what happened. And with the baby—”

“No.”

I turn to my mother.

“You should not have told her anything. It is none of her business. This is a private family matter. I don’t want her here.”

Mum’s mouth hangs open in shock “Isaac—”

“I don’t want her touching my daughter.”

Lily doesn’t move, just watching the drama unfold.

Mum looks conflicted. “She is family, Isaac. She’s only trying to—”

“That is where you are wrong, Mum. We are divorced,” I say, the words sharp enough to slice through bone. “We are not family. And my wife would not want her here. I don’t want her here.”

“I don’t want her around,” I continue, not stopping, not giving anyone space to interrupt. “Stop telling her it is alright to reach out to me if she needs anything. It is not alright. If you want to see her, that’s fine. Do it in your space, in your home. Don’t keep pushing her into my life.” I hold my mother’s gaze. “She is nothing to me.”

Then, finally, I look at Chloe.