Morning came with a sharp ringtone and Kane startled awake, pulled from my arms and leaving me cold. Naked, he searched his pile of clothes for his phone, his expression strange when he answered.
I didn’t know the ringtone. It wasn’t his typical one.
“What? No. That isn’t right. We need more time.” He listened, his free hand bracing his neck. That odd expression twisted darker. “I’ll be there.”
He ended the call. I sat up in bed, my heart squeezing, because whatever he’d just heard was hurting him.
“I need to drive north. My mother’s care home.”
I could let him go. Get a taxi home to Deadwater. I chose different. “I’ll be ready in five.”
If it wasn’t for the pit of worry in my stomach, I could’ve thought this another step on. Meeting the family and supporting him through the coming crisis. But that sense of dread only grew on our early morning journey where he took the corners fast and didn’t reach for me once.
It told me that one more day wouldn’t come, and every one of my fears was about to be realised.
Chapter 37
Lovelyn
“Kane. It’s been a while since we last saw your face. Your mother will be thrilled.” A beaming woman in a smart, blue healthcare uniform ushered us into a bright reception.
The care facility had to have been a stately home in a previous life, converted from a beautiful old building, with Scots pine trees bracketing mossy lawns and benches near pretty nooks. A resident was being wheeled along a hedgerow, a thick blanket over their lap and their carer chatting merrily. When my mother had been in her final weeks, our GP had found her a place in a palliative care facility. The staff had been wonderful, but it was run on a shoestring.
Kane’s mother’s care home was the other end of the scale.
It had taken us a couple of hours to get here, to the outskirts of a mid-sized Scottish town, and my stomach had twisted with worry. Kane had practically turned to stone during the drive. If I’d been more confident, I would have taken his hand. Tried to comfort him. But although he’d made no comment about me coming along for the ride, I sensed how he’d reverted to being an island. Walled in and alone in whatever torment that phone call had thrown him into.
In our hotel room, we’d been so close, but without any words spoken, I had no clue of his heart. Mine ached for that lack.
The staff member signed us in. “I’ll take you down.”
Kane watched a corridor. “I need to see the manager.”
“Of course. I’ll let her know you’re around. Pop along to the office when you’re ready.”
Either side of the hallway we walked were patients’ rooms, doors open to give a glimpse of individual yet inviting spaces with the medical side softened by pretty blankets and personal possessions. Every one of the patients appeared profoundly disabled.
The staff member talked chirpily about Kane’s mother. “She’s responding well to the dietary changes we trialled, but I should warn you before you go in, she has reduced mobility and communication. Even more than before.”
He didn’t reply.
At the end, she knocked on the closed door.
“Enter,” a woman called back.
I didn’t think it possible for Kane to appear any more freaked out, but whoever that was made him brittle.
We entered a spacious room with a hospital bed to one side and French doors letting in the morning light. Two women occupied the space. The first, in the bed, had dark hair and olive skin, her resemblance to Kane immediate. Tubes ran under her light blanket, one to her stomach, the other lower. A feeding tube and a catheter, I guessed from where it connected to a night bag hanging from the frame. Mum had the latter in her end stages.
Kane’s mother’s hands curled inwards, and her feet were in some kind of soft boots. The air mattress under her whirred softly, and a laminated letter board sat at the end of her bed, maybe for communication.
Her eyes brightened as she took in her son.
A snort of derision came from the other woman. At a guess, and from the family resemblance, she had to be Kane’s aunt, but the look she levelled on him chilled me.
“At last, the prodigal son returns,” she intoned. Her attention jumped to me. “With a girlfriend, Bethan. Now we know how he’s spending his time.”
Not one word came from Kane. His lips parted over quicker breaths.
