The Family Next Door(77)

He crossed his arms and waited for her to finish.

“So you know what I was thinking on the way home? You and I aren’t Sydney people! I mean, right? We don’t care about sunshine or surfing. Our skin burns in the shade.”

“Sooo?”

“Sooo…” She pushed Jules’s chair back and sat in his lap. “Sydney is wasted on us. We’re Melbourne people, don’t you think? I think we should move here.”

“Uh … I have a job, remember?” he said in a you’ve lost your mind voice.

“There are schools in Melbourne. Needy schools. Students that need a teacher like you.”

She felt a whisper of worry. On the way home from the hospital, during a brief moment of insanity, it had all fit together so perfectly. She and Jules would move to Melbourne, live near her sister and nieces, and live happily ever after. But she’d already asked so much of Jules. She’d abandoned him to go in search of her sister. He’d traveled out here to make sure she was all right, and he’d supported her through the past few weeks. The man had to draw the line somewhere.

“You don’t want to live in Melbourne,” she said.

It wasn’t the end of the world, Isabelle told herself. They’d be able to make it work. She had her sister back, that was the important thing. She couldn’t expect every puzzle piece of her life to click together just because she wanted it to. All her life she’d lived with a piece of her puzzle missing, and maybe that was just the way life was. Maybe, instead of focusing on the piece she didn’t have, she should focus on the pieces she did have.

Jules rearranged her on his lap. He cocked his head and let out a long, slow sigh. “I didn’t say I didn’t want to live in Melbourne.”

Isabelle zeroed in on his face, holding her breath.

“I just think that maybe we should go for a deconstructed latte and talk about it.”





65


BARBARA


Barbara was feeling a little better. She’d had a visit from Lois, which had lifted her spirits. Lois was utterly convinced that Barbara was the victim in all this, finding out that her daughter wasn’t hers after all these years. Everyone needed a friend like Lois. The doctors had told her that she’d stay in the hospital until her physical injuries were under control and then she’d be transferred to Summit Oaks’ psychiatric program, the place Essie had been staying.

I didn’t know anything. That’s what she’d said to Isabelle. But it wasn’t entirely true, was it? There had been things, little things she’d tried to justify over the years—things that didn’t quite add up. Things like … why didn’t she remember those first moments after Essie was born? Why was Essie so big and healthy when she was born premature? Why did she have auburn hair? And perhaps, now that she thought of it, there were other things too. Like the fact that the name Sophie Heatherington rang a bell. That she’d decided to leave Sydney the day she’d been released from the hospital, and never went back, even to visit friends or family. The fact that from the moment Isabelle had arrived in Pleasant Court, she’d had a bad feeling.

Was it true that she didn’t know? Or was it that she didn’t want to know?

“Mum?”

Barbara glanced toward the door and her heart leapt. It was Essie. She stepped inside uncertainly. “Were you sleeping?”

“No. I was wide awake.”

Essie put her purse on the chair in the corner, then came to Barbara’s bedside. There was a look of wary affection in her face. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh, you know,” Barbara said, sitting up. “Like I’ve been hit by a tram.”

Essie didn’t smile.

“I’m glad you’re here, honey.” Barbara put out a hand and squeezed her forearm. “I worried you wouldn’t come.”

Essie kept her eyes down and forward. “Of course. You’re my…”

Essie’s gaze bounced up. You’re my mum. That’s what she was going to say. Instead she said: “How did this happen?”

“Well,” Barbara said, “they think it was postpartum psychosis, and post-traumatic stress from losing my … my other baby and—”

“I know what the doctors said.” Essie’s voice wobbled with restrained emotion. “But I’m asking you. How did this happen?”

Barbara lifted her hands, and then let them fall back against the bed. “I can’t answer that. Really, honey, I don’t know.”

“But how can that be true? How? There must have been a part of you that knew. I feel like … if Mia or Polly weren’t mine … I’d know.”

“I did know.” Barbara’s voice broke. “I knew! I knew you were mine. I knew with every ounce of my body. And then I found out you weren’t.”

Barbara burst into loud, desperate tears. She curved over onto herself. After a moment, she felt Essie’s hand on her back. “All right. All right. I’m sorry.”

“You … you are my whole life, Essie.” Tears racked her body.

“I know. It’s okay, Mum. I know.”

Barbara cried until she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, and the nicest part was, after she finally succumbed and drifted off, Essie’s hand remained on her back.