‘He won’t, he knows his place, but I appreciate you looking out for me.’
Noah pulled a pair of trainers from his locker. ‘I heard Hudson’s ex is seeing him.’
‘Apparently so,’ said Nadia.
‘Does that worry Hudson?’
‘Only with regards to the kids.’
‘For all his faults,’ said Maya, ‘I’m sure he won’t make their lives bad in any way. He thinks a lot of himself, but if Lucinda is new and he wants to keep her, he’ll go out of his way to make things smooth sailing for them.’
‘Wow, sticking up for him,’ teased Noah. ‘Should I be worried?’
Maya grabbed his hand and pulled him in for a kiss. ‘Never. Now, how do I look?’
‘You look wonderful,’ said Nadia with Noah in full agreement.
‘I’m a bit nervous. Isaac just called to say he’s bringing a date to dinner this time. I want to make a good impression. He’s never brought a girl home before.’
And with another kiss for Noah, who hung back so he didn’t have to bump into his other half’s ex – never a pleasant experience – Maya left the locker room with Nadia.
After Maya went on her way, Hudson came into reception and handed Nadia a form. ‘This is the interfacility transfer request for Brian Henshaw.’
She briefly perused it. ‘Thanks, all looks good for tomorrow afternoon.’ Mr Henshaw would be transferred from one hospital to another via the air ambulance, his health needs too great for the facility he was at now and transportation being time critical enough to require the involvement of the helicopter.
‘Was that Conrad’s voice I heard earlier?’
She grinned. ‘Can’t mistake it, can you? Maya has a dinner with him as Isaac is home and has brought a date.’
Hudson groaned. ‘This is the problem with splitting up when you’ve got kids: you’re forever linked. I shouldn’t moan about it, Lucinda isn’t a bad mum, it’s just that…’
‘You’d rather move forwards than feel like you’re in limbo.’
‘Exactly. And imagine if one of the kids gets married some day – if Conrad is still with Lucinda, I’ll have to play happy families.’
‘I think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself given one of yours is only a teenager and the other isn’t even at school.’
‘You’ve got a point.’ He stopped her before she walked back to her office. ‘Nadia, I’m about to press send with an email attachment and I’m terrified what this will mean.’
‘Ok-ay… not sure where this is going. Should I worry? Oh gosh, you’re not resigning, are you?’
‘No, of course not. Although once you and the team read the email, you might well want me to.’
When Noah emerged from the locker room, Hudson went over to talk to him about something and Nadia took the form to her office, wondering what it was that Hudson had in an email that could be so terrible, he looked as though sending it was going to have major repercussions.
She’d only just started to scan in the transfer form for Mr Henshaw to all necessary parties when her phone buzzed. It was Archie.
It wasn’t anything new – he asked whether she’d heard anything from Monica, whether the police had been in touch. She typed out the beginnings of a reply, deleted it, typed some more, deleted it again.
And before she had a chance to reply, when he’d probably seen three dots appear, disappear, reappear, disappear again, another text came through from him.
What will you do if she turns up? Because I need to know.
Nadia left her phone in her office and went into the kitchen to make a coffee. How could she reply to the direct question of what she would do when she had absolutely no idea? Whatwouldshe do if her sister were to knock on the front door right now? If Monica were to be standing the other side of the glass looking at her after all these years, would she and could she turn her back?
In the office once again, her fingers hovered uncertainly over the phone keys.
Eventually, she typed:
