A Perfect Paris Christmas - Mandy Baggot Page 0,131
to meet her. Hadn’t wanted to share dinner with the person who had the kidney of someone he was close to. What did that mean for them now?
‘Keeley,’ Silvie said softly. ‘Ethan and Ferne, they were the very best of friends. At times, inseparable. And, at the beginning, I did have my concerns about the relationship. Ethan, he was always an unknown entity. I think he will forever be a little like that. But what I have discovered, from getting to know him, is that the core of a person does not come from the people that made them, it comes very much from the nurturing.’ She took a breath. ‘Has he told you the kind of life he was leading when he was young?’
Keeley nodded. ‘A little. But I… didn’t push.’
‘Well, you should know that someone who has had the kind of treatment I imagine Ethan has had goes one of two ways. There is the tragic way, where they can never find the exit from the vicious circle they have grown up with, or there is the way where they take everything that has been dealt to them and they turn it on its head and rise above it.’ Silvie adjusted herself in her seat. ‘It takes the strongest of characters to do that. Can you think how it might be? To not let the scars of your past taint your future? I am not saying that his upbringing has not affected who Ethan is today, only that he has somehow successfully used it as a weapon to drive him to better things. Yet still, all the time, Ethan believes he is not good enough, when the truth is, actually he is better than all of us.’
Keeley took in everything Silvie had said. It was a brief story of the man she already knew had a good heart. And she knew that because he had shown it to her. But that was before. How were things going to change if he found out who she was? How did she feel now she knew he had been like a brother to her donor?
‘Tell me,’ Silvie said gently. ‘What is it you really want to know about Ethan?’
What did she say now? The absolute truth? That he had captured her heart like no other, but now there was this undeniable bond between him and the woman who had saved her life it felt unsurmountable, almost incestuous.
She shook her head, tears escaping again. ‘I met Ethan… when I first arrived in Paris. He was carrying a penguin. And somehow, through every twist and turn of my visit here, he’s been there.’ She took a breath. ‘And, after the shortest time, I found myself wanting him to be there.’ She swallowed before starting again. ‘And then it was as if we were meant to find each other. And I don’t understand that at all but… somehow it happened.’
‘Oh, Keeley,’ Silvie gasped.
‘I had no idea who he was. I had no idea he knew Ferne. He told me about his hotels eventually, but still I never connected the two things until…’
‘Until?’ Silvie asked, still holding Keeley’s hand.
‘Until when I was here for dinner,’ she admitted. ‘And we were in Ferne’s room and a book fell on the floor.’ She closed her eyes, remembering. ‘A photo fell out and… I don’t know… I wish I hadn’t looked. I wished I’d left it on the floor.’ She sighed in frustration and gazed at the flames. ‘I told myself it wasn’t Ethan. As if anyone else could have those eyes?! And then… tonight… he took me to one of his hotels and… it was one of your hotels.’ She paused. ‘Perfect Paris Opera.’
‘Keeley, what has actually happened to make you so sad? Has Ethan done something? Said something?’
She shook her head, trying not to fall apart again. ‘No,’ she said. ‘No, he hasn’t done anything. Except… get to know me like no one’s ever done before.’ She wiped tears from her face with the back of her hand. ‘And now… it’s ruined.’
‘What is ruined?’ Silvie asked gently.
‘Everything,’ Keeley sobbed. ‘Because I wasn’t being Kidney Girl. I promised Rach. And it was really refreshing to just be the person I was before I had the accident and before I lost Bea. I hadn’t been that person for so long I had forgotten who she was. And I was starting to get to know her properly again and I like her. And now…’