They were in the Stadstradgarden, watching the skateboarders and chasing pigeons, when the call came an hour and ten minutes later. Hanna’s voice was like porcelain: thin, fragile, but with light shining through. ‘Come now.’
She texted the address and Bell booked an Uber, running with Linus through the park together in a race, back to the street, to catch him in time. Bell pipped him to the post, just. ‘Where are we going?’ Linus panted, worn out but excited as they slid onto the back seat.
Bell hesitated, a twist of anxiety in her gut. It wasn’t her place to tell this child the full truth that was awaiting him. ‘We’re meeting up with Mamma now. There’s something she wants to show you.’
‘You’re fast,’ he sighed, dropping his head back on the seat as the driver took them across town. ‘Considering.’
‘Considering what?’ Bell asked in mock outrage. ‘That I’m a girl?’
‘That you’re a grown-up. Most grown-ups can’t race.’
‘I’ll let you into a secret,’ she said, dropping her head back against the seat too. ‘I’m not really a grown-up.’
He frowned. ‘But you’re old.’
‘I’m twenty-six!’ she laughed, tickling him by squeezing his thigh.
‘That’s old.’
‘Yeah, fair enough. I’ve still got stride length on you, though. See?’ She extended her leg and pressed it against his. ‘A good six inches, I reckon. You’ll be overtaking me soon, and then it’ll be game over.’
‘Do you think I’ll be taller than you?’
‘I know it. You’ll take after your parents and they’re both t–tall, aren’t they?’ She stumbled, realizing she had no idea how tall his biological father was. And he had no idea Max wasn’t that man.
It was still such an unbelievable shock, even to her. She put her hand on his head and ruffled his hair. The poor child. He had no idea what they were driving towards.
They sank into an easy silence as they wove through the city, past a pink castle and garden squares. Bell checked her phone for new messages again – one from Kris reminding her he was working tonight and to finish the chilli in the fridge for dinner; one from Tove asking if she wanted to meet up for a run – and she went back to Ivan as well, reluctantly having to decline meeting up tonight too. Even if she was back in time, she was going to be wiped out by the early start this morning. She finished the text with sad face emojis, hoping he’d understand but already half expecting him to give up on her. He had three nightclubs in Södermalm, but when she’d told him she was a nanny, he probably hadn’t banked on it being her job that would make it so hard for them to meet.
She was just pressing send when the taxi pulled to a stop and she looked up to see they had stopped outside a modern, glass-fronted building, with ‘Larna Klinik’ engraved in a vast granite column.
‘What are we doing here?’ Linus asked as they walked through the automatic sliding doors into a minimalist atrium, softened only by feathery potted trees.
Bell scanned the stark space, her gaze skimming over the dark-suited receptionist tapping a keyboard behind a walnut desk. She was looking for Hanna’s distinctive berry coat amidst the smartly dressed professionals standing, talking, in small groups and hushed voices, or reading on the leather chairs. It looked more like the lobby of a corporate hotel than a hospital.
‘Bell. Linus.’
They both turned at the sound of Hanna’s voice, and saw her waving to them excitedly from the mezzanine. She pointed to the staircase off to the far side, and Bell jogged after Linus as he took off to join her. Hanna had taken off her coat to reveal a camel turtleneck jumper and trousers which, from a distance and against her light hair and pale skin, gave her an impression of being indistinct and amorphous. But there had been energy in her movement, and as Bell got to the top of the stairs she saw an intensity in Hanna’s blue eyes as she hugged her son.
Bell felt her own anxiety lift a little. ‘All okay?’ she asked lightly.
‘Better than okay. Incredible,’ Hanna said breathily, taking Linus by the hand and patting Bell’s arm warmly. ‘More than we could ever have hoped. It’s a miracle.’
‘Wow,’ Bell beamed. ‘That’s so great.’ After the scene she’d been greeted with last night and again in the kitchen this morning, she’d been braced for the worst, worrying what the hell