“My mom worked hard to drill it into me.”
“She’s done a good job,” Amelia said as they walked up the sidewalk to the entrance of the building. “You were always a gentleman.”
When they reached the door, Amelia punched in a code, then pulled it open. Ben stepped into the building with her, intending to walk her to her apartment.
She didn’t seem surprised by that, and led him through a second door, then over to the staircase that led up a flight to the second floor.
“This is my apartment,” she said, coming to a stop in front of her door.
Overall, the apartment building was clean and didn’t smell bad. It wasn’t luxury by any stretch of the imagination, but it seemed like a safe and decent place to live.
“Thanks again for everything,” Amelia said. “I appreciate it so much.”
“If we can get you some answers, it will all be worth it.”
Amelia wrapped her arms across her waist. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Oh, you will,” Ben assured her. “Have a good night.”
“You too.”
After saying goodnight, he waited until she had gone into her apartment and locked the door, then he made his way back down to the SUV. He had a lot on his mind, but he didn’t take his timegetting back to the estate. The last thing he needed was Luca coming out in search of him.
The evening had been a success, Ben thought, and he hoped the conversation with Julian would lead to something that would help Amelia. He wanted to be able to give her back everything she’d lost, but he knew that was unlikely to happen.
Instead, he hoped that they could give her a life free from the pain and exhaustion that seemed to dominate it now.
She was strong, just like she’d always been, but she just seemed so weary. Like the pain and tiredness were just too much of a burden to bear.
He hoped that she would be willing to accept the help that he, and others like Julian, wanted to offer her.
CHAPTER TWELVE
As she lay in the darkness, trying to ignore the throbbing pulses of pain in her body, Amelia replayed the evening over and over.
Though she’d been nervous about being around Ben’s family, it had gone better than she’d thought it might. Well, except for that moment when Dani had asked if she was Ben’s girlfriend.
Ben had been honest in his answer, but the question had thrown Amelia for a bit of a loop. She’d been reminded of a time when, if asked that, he would have looked at her with a wink and proudly claimed their relationship.
He’s always been so happy to let people know they were together. While she’d thought she was the lucky one to have him as a boyfriend, he’d insisted that he was the lucky one
And even now, although they were no longer together, he seemed happy to claim her as a friend.
It was that thought—along with the pain—that kept her awake for longer than she wanted to be. Also in her mishmash of nighttime thoughts was everything that had gone on with Julian.
She was so afraid to hope that not only would she finally have some answers, but perhaps she’d also get an effective treatment.
But for the first time in a long time, she didn’t feel a complete sense of discouragement when she thought of her health.
That didn’t mean that she’d replaced her discouragement with hope. She’d struggled too much over the past couple of years to be so easily swayed by possibilities.
And she hadn’t decided yet if she was going to say anything to her family or Tracy about what was going on. She didn’t want to get their hopes up either.
Depending on how things progressed, there was really no need for them to know anything about the conversation with Julian until she had some definitive answers.
The next morning, even before she got out of bed, Amelia knew it was going to be a day of intense pain. That wasn’t surprising. She usually had one day per week that was worse than all the others, and this one was going to be bad.
It was most likely because the past two days had been longer for her than usual. Usually, her most stressful time was the stretch she was at the church for work. When she got home, she could just relax and let her body wind down.
