miles away and her other daughter was spending her days in a ward for the mentally vulnerable. Not to mention Lewis, who’d sunk into a pit of silence and despair, just sitting in his grandparents’ attic room whenever he wasn’t with his twin sister in hospital.
He’d been there when Patrick had been strong enough to visit Lilly the day before, wheeled to her bed by Melissa. Patrick had just laid his head on her bed and sobbed as Lilly looked down at him, face expressionless. Seeing him like that, so vulnerable, made Melissa realise even more that Bill was right. She had a chance to make things right and sew her family back together if she could only forgive Patrick for his infidelities . . . what else could she do? Leave Patrick when he was in such a state, have the twins endure the separation of their parents when they’d already been through so much?
After talking with Bill on the day Lilly tried to take her life, she went to Patrick and told him she forgave him, that they needed to be strong for the kids. He didn’t seem surprised. It seemed easy enough for him to fall back into his confident old ways, as though all the horror hadn’t really happened. Melissa was too exhausted not to go along with it. Like today, watching him at yet another physio session, just as she used to watch him doing his speeches at local events as he tried to raise his profile for the election. She might as well; she was practically living in the hospital, dividing her time between Patrick and Lilly.
Today was different from the past week, though. Today she would be visiting Grace . . . plus, as their house was no longer under scene guard, she’d decided it was time to move back. Truth was, she’d been avoiding it – easily done as she was spending most of her time in hospital. She wasn’t sure why she’d been avoiding it. Maybe because it would all feel so fake now, their seemingly perfect ‘family home’ that belied so many fractures. But it really was time to return, maybe even clean the place. Do something normal.
‘Melissa, look!’ Patrick said now. He’d reached the end of the bar, his handsome face alight with a bright smile.
‘Isn’t he doing well?’ one of the nurses remarked as she passed. Melissa smiled.
Patrick really was doing so well. There was just one area of his recovery he was having particular problems with: his speech. His nurse said it was probably due to how sore his throat was after having pipes in for so long. It meant Melissa had to make do with brief sentences and laminated cards to communicate properly with him.
It was frustrating for him, but even more so for Melissa, as it was impossible to get a clear picture of what had happened that Thursday afternoon. She wanted to know all the nuances of it, what led up to it, how Grace had seemed to Patrick in the weeks and days before. They had always said they were a team when it came to the kids, but she still felt like she was a member down, even though Patrick was awake now.
Patrick threw Melissa another smile as the nurses helped him into his wheelchair. When he got to Melissa, he instantly looked at his phone. The local elections had been the day before, not that Melissa had really taken any notice. But it meant a lot to Patrick, and now he was desperate to see if the votes had been counted.
‘Any news yet?’ she asked him.
He shook his head, his forehead shiny with sweat and his dark hair glistening with it too.
‘Well, you did great up there,’ Melissa said.
He beamed at her. ‘Did good, didn’t I?’
‘Wow, you are talking so much better too! That was really clear,’ she said, clutching on to his hands. ‘Did you hear yourself?’
He nodded, putting his hand to his throat and wincing. ‘Hurt, though,’ he whispered.
‘But it’s a good start. We should tell your nurse. Can you try to say something else?’
He frowned, shaking his head. ‘Hurts.’
‘Please try, Patrick,’ she said, searching his face. ‘It would be so good to talk. I still don’t feel I’ve got to grips with what happened that afternoon, if—’
He shoved her hands away. ‘Hurts!’
She looked at him in surprise.
The nurse strolled over. ‘Everything okay here?’
Melissa sat back against the bench, watching Patrick. ‘Patrick just said a few words. But it’s