There was something in the older woman’s eyes that told me this wasn’t the first she’d heard about the alleged missing items.
‘Your sister wasn’t wearing any jewellery when they brought her in. I personally checked with the other ward.’
I opened my mouth to speak but was distracted when I noticed my mother appear in the doorway of Amelia’s room. Her eyes were urgently searching for someone. Me.
I was already hurrying towards her, with a hasty ‘Excuse me’ thrown over my shoulder. It had been a long time since I’d seen my mother look that scared. She grasped me by the elbow and steered me back into my sister’s room.
There was an entirely fake smile on Mum’s face as she turned towards her older child. ‘Amelia, can you describe the rings to Lexi, like you just did to me.’
Amelia shook her head as though she’d only just realised she’d been born into a family of simpletons.
‘You both know what they look like. You’ve seen them a thousand times. A plain white gold band and a diamond solitaire. How can you not remember what my wedding rings look like?’
*
‘Here you go,’ I said, setting down two vending machine cups of dark-brown liquid.
‘Is that tea or coffee?’ Mum asked, reaching for the closest cup. Her hand was still trembling.
‘Possibly a hybrid of the two,’ I said, grimacing as I took a sip. ‘But it’s hot and sweet.’ I wasn’t lying. There were enough sugar sachets in Mum’s cup to cause spontaneous tooth decay, but I was fairly sure that’s what you were supposed to give to someone in shock. Mum definitely ticked that box – her face was a sickly grey colour and her cheeks had taken on a dough-like appearance that really worried me. She looked almost as unwell as Amelia.
The hospital cafeteria had been a good shout. It was far emptier than the cheery coffee shop down in the foyer. Here, the lunch rush was long over and the early evening one had yet to begin. It gave us the privacy we needed to talk.
‘I didn’t know what to say to her,’ Mum said, dabbing an already damp tissue to her eyes. ‘My own daughter, and I had no idea what to say for the best.’
‘Whatever we said was always going to be wrong,’ I said, biting my lower lip as the scene that had shaken our world replayed once again in my head.
‘What do you mean, Mimi, yourweddingrings?’ I asked.
‘The rings that Sam gave me two years ago, on the day we got married,’ Amelia said with a long-suffering sigh, as though my idiocy had just plumbed new depths.
My hand was shaking as I reached for hers.
‘Amelia, honey. You’re not married,’ I said gently.
She snatched her hand free of my grasp as though I’d scalded her.
‘Of courseI’m married. Why would you say that I’m not? You were our bridesmaid, for God’s sake. How can you have forgotten that?’
‘Because it never happened,’ I said, turning to Mum, whose hand had gone to her throat as though witnessing an accident taking place in front of her.
Amelia also turned to Mum. ‘Why’s Lexi saying these things? Tell her she’s wrong, Mum.’
‘I… I…’ Mum broke off helplessly, her eyes going from one distraught daughter to the other.
‘Fuck this,’ muttered Amelia, reaching up and grabbing the handful of wires that connected her to the monitors. She ripped them free of the electrodes. ‘I have to get out of here.’
Everything seemed to happen at once after that. There were alarms sounding, and I was shouting at Amelia, trying to stop her from pulling the intravenous needles from her arms.
Strong hands settled on my shoulders, moving me away from the bed. A burly, no-nonsense-looking male nurse was talking gently to Amelia. She stopped struggling and began to cry. I think that was the most heartbreaking moment, when she looked over at Mum and me with reproachful tear-filled eyes. ‘Where’s Sam? Why isn’t he here?’
Brisk footsteps sounded in the corridor and the senior charge nurse strode in, her gaze sweeping the room in a swift assessment.
‘I think Miss Edwards needs a little time for us to get her settled again,’ the older woman said.
Amelia was shaking her head from side to side, as she protested with a plaintive cry: ‘It’sMrs Wilson. My name is Amelia Wilson.’
*
