Page 19 of The Happy Family

‘Hey!’ I call after her, but she doesn’t turn back and I have no choice but to give chase, aware that it would be very easy to lose her in this myriad of corridors inside this huge hospital.

‘Ruby! Slow down!’ I shout as I keep chasing my daughter, but she has the advantage of surprise and speed on her side, her boundless youth and energy making her a tricky target to catch up to. But I am able to keep her in sight, and after a few twists and turns down various corridors, I realise where she is going. I probably should have guessed sooner. Now that I know, I can’t really be mad at her for running.

When I catch up to her, she has already reached her destination. It’s a new ward, the opposite kind to the one we have just left. On the ward where Arthur is visiting Luna and Jude, it is a place where newborn people come into the world. But here, on this ward, it is a place where long-term injured people are treated. There are no balloons, teddy bears and new names here. Just weary nurses and doctors trudging through another day.

This is the ward where patients with a poor prognosis are treated.

A ward for people in a coma.

A ward for people like my ex-wife.

‘I want to talk to Mummy,’ Ruby says as she goes for the door beyond which lies Sadie, hooked up to all her machines that are the only things keeping her alive.

‘It’s not visiting time. We’re not allowed in here yet,’ I say before I see a nurse I recognise from my many trips here over the past nine months.

‘Be quick. Five minutes. I won’t tell anybody,’ the nurse says before miming the ‘my lips are sealed’ sign that confirms we are okay to go and see Sadie, briefly, if we want to. Ruby doesn’t need offering twice and pushes through the door, so I quickly follow her. As I do, I see the same sad sight that always greets me when I come in here. I see the items that my children have left here, on the recommendation of the doctors, because they might provide the sensory stimulation that could help with the patient’s recovery. There are a couple of Sadie’s favourite clothes, a hoody and a T-shirt, as well as some books she used to read to the children at bedtime. There are family photos too, or at least ones of just her and the kids, but I was hardly going to nit-pick and demand that I feature in any of them after recent events. And there are the headphones plugged in, though not being used now, the ones the nurses put over Sadie’s ears at some point each day to play the songs that we selected, songs that we hope will speak a memory or reactivate something in her dormant brain.

None of it has worked so far. But none of us are giving up.

My ex looks like a shadow of her former self. She is unconscious, skinnier than before her accident, paler and with less hair after it was shaved during an operation and kept trimmed short ever since. But she is still Sadie and, to Ruby, she is still Mummy.

‘Are you going to wake up today?’ my daughter asks Sadie as she leans in and gently places her head on the patient’s stomach.

My heart breaks every time I am in here with one of my children, although these days, it’s mainly Ruby. Arthur used to come in here and cry a lot in the early months, but now he prefers to stay away, only visiting once a week at most. He says it makes him sad, and I can’t argue with that because I have to be very mindful of his mental health. But Ruby would spend all day in here if she could, although that could be just as detrimental to her mental health as her brother’s preference for avoidance. So it’s a fine balancing act, and that’s just this part of my life. There’s the fact that I am a new dad again and will very soon be taking home a little baby who needs around-the-clock attention as he navigates his first few days and weeks of life. Oh, and I have to go to work too once my paternity leave is up. Can’t forget about that. Then, last but certainly not least, there’s the small matter of the new house we have bought. The one that Luna decided was the perfect place for the next chapter of our family. It’s a house that is thirty miles further away from here, a distance that my current partner deemed satisfactory in terms of its proximity to my previous partner. Although Luna chose to keep her maternity care via our old hospital, because it has such a good reputation.

Luna pushed for the house move and I couldn’t argue. Not after she was attacked in our previous home. The truth is, I was ready for a fresh start too. The only tricky thing is that I’ll still have to come back here to visit Sadie, along with Ruby, and possibly Arthur if he still wants to keep coming. But Luna won’t be making the trip. I don’t expect her to because why visit the woman who assaulted you and put you through hell?

All Luna wants to do now is get home to our brand-new house and get comfortable with our brand-new baby.

These past few months might have been awful in a lot of ways, but they have culminated in a precious little life being born.

Luna was right in what she said to me before we departed for the hospital yesterday as her contractions grew stronger.

‘It’s time to forget about the past and truly focus on the future,’ she said as I helped her into the car.

I agreed.

Focusing on the future sounds good.

Because surely it can’t be worse than what’s happened in my past?

TWELVE

LUNA

They say things come in threes and I have to agree.

I have a new house.

I have my baby.

And now, thanks to the gift that Reid just presented me with, I have a sparkling ring on my finger.

‘They call it a push ring,’ he told me after I opened the box and saw the shiny item of jewellery inside. ‘You know, because you pushed the baby out.’

‘I get it,’ I replied with a laugh. ‘No need to go into details.’

I tried the ring on and found it to be a perfect fit.