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don’t want you here, you and your lies—you make me
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sick! You’re just
you’re just …” My eyes fill with tears.
“You’re just like her!”
“Rosie—” She reaches for my arm.
“Get off me!” wrench away. “How could you? How
could you?!” glare at her, rage pumping through me. “For eighteen months
watched my mum suffering, watched
her slipping away, watched her dying …” My eyes flood.
“Always fearing that could have it too, that someday that
could happen to me But it couldn’t, could it? It was never going to happen to me— because she wasn’t my mother!
“Rosie—”
“And all the time she knew! Eighteen months, and
she never thought to mention it, to let me off the hook? Oh, by the way, Rosie, you can’t have Huntington’s That’s all it would’ve taken—one simple sentence to erase
life
sentence. Eighteen months! And if she hadn’t got
pneumonia it could have been longer, couldn’t it? It could
have been years and years—and would she ever have told me?”
“Rosie,” Sarah begins, flustered now. “Rosie, she
didn’t know—”
“Oh,
know she didn’t know! I didn’t know. You
didn’t even know she had Huntington’s, and you’re
nurse, for God’s sake! But once she was diagnosed she
should have told me—how could she not? How could she
sit there in that hideous chair knowing I’d never inherit the disease and not tell me? What did she think I’d do? Leave her? How could she be so selfish?!
“Rosie, stop it! Rosie—she didn’t know!”
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“She did! She knew there was no chance of me ever
getting the disease, and yet—”
“No, Rosie, she didn’t!” Sarah grabs my wrists, her
eyes intense. “She didn’t know you weren’t her daughter!”
stare at her, the anger frozen in my limbs.
What?
She holds my gaze, her breath coming in gulps.
“Rosie, sit down.”
open my mouth to speak but can’t, and my legs
crumble as sink onto the sofa, my head spi
to figure out what I’ve missed, what she means—hitting
brick walls every time.
She didn’t know …?
Sarah sits down next to me, takes my hands.
“Rosie,” she says carefully, searching for the right
words. “I want you to listen to me, to let me explain—
without interrupting.” She swallows. “Okay?”
nod, not sure can speak anyway. My throat’s like
sandpaper.
“Okay,” she sighs. “Okay.” She takes deep breath.
“You know that Trudie always wanted
child so, so
desperately. But she—I don’t know if you know—she
suffered number of miscarriages …”
nod again, my chest tight.
“She and David tried to adopt, but they were too
old, too many stupid rules and red tape.” She sighs. “Then
finally she got pregnant again. David was so angry with
her, we all were, so worried she was putting herself at
risk. But she kept saying how she knew that this time it
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was going to be okay—she just knew And for ages it
seemed she was right. Everything was going so well, she’d
got to her third trimester and they were over the moon.
“But then one horrible stormy night, just as was
finishing my shift at the hospital, your nana rushed Trudie
in with stomach pains, weeks before she was due. David
wasn’t there, he was out somewhere in his cab, but they’d
called his dispatcher—he was on his way. Trudie was
frantic, terrified of losing her baby, anxious about the
storm, desperately needing David beside her, so stayed
on, determined to do everything could for her and the
child.
“But there were
complications. The baby was
born, but she wasn’t breathing properly. She was rushed
off to the Special Care Baby Unit and put on
ventilator
while they organized an urgent transfer to the Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit at Westhampton Hospital.
felt so
helpless. All
could do was watch as she struggled to
survive. She was so tiny, so frail.
“Then my friend Jamila who works in the SCBU
started sympathizing, saying how life isn’t fair—how
some babies die while others aren’t even wanted. wasn’t
really listening, but she kept on about this other
premature newborn, how her seventeen-year-old mother
was going to give her up for adoption. She was doing my
head in. wanted to tell her to shut up, as if silence would
save Trudie’s baby—with every breath she seemed to be
slipping away
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“Then Jamila asked me to cover for her. Her shift
was meant to be over, but her replacement hadn’t arrived
yet. Please Jamila begged—she was going on holiday, had to catch her flight—and as was staying anyway, told her
to go. Anything for some peace and quiet.”
Sarah swallows, takes deep breath.
“The next thing knew, an auxiliary nurse ran in,
shouting that Jamila’s teenager had done
ru
hurried back to the labor ward and nearly ran straight
into your nana, who’d come to find me. Trudie was
desperate to see me, she said, so together we rushed back
to the delivery rooms, and sure enough, the teenage girl’s
bed was empty. Security confirmed she’d left—they’d had
no idea she was abandoning her baby. Then we heard
Trudie. She was in hysterics, I’d never seen her so
distraught. The police had arrived—there’d been
crash—David had been …” She glances at me, her face
deathly pale. “He’d been so unlucky. There was nothing
they could do …”
swallow hard.
“It was awful. Your nana tried to comfort her, but
Trudie was beside herself. Then, when she saw me, she
just wanted her baby, was desperate to know if she was all
right. She was so frightened, so upset, couldn’t tell her the truth. said I’d go and check, and hurried back to the
Unit. But her baby looked worse than ever and the
ambulance still hadn’t arrived. was desperate. The baby was going to die, just knew it. She wasn’t even crying—
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she didn’t have the strength.
couldn’t face Trudie,
couldn’t go back and tell her—not after David
“And then the other baby started to cry. The
teenager’s baby. Big, hearty sobs. looked across at her—
she was so much stronger, healthier, and about the same
size …”
Sarah’s breathing quickens.
“I didn’t think about it,” she says. “Not even for
second. There was no one else around, so
took my
chance.
switched the identity bracelets and incubator
tags. Just like that. Then the ambulance team arrived
asking for baby Ke
told them there’d been
mistake about the child’s name—it was Woods, not
Ke
child was sick, and they took her away.” She swallows. “It
was done. couldn’t have undone it if I’d wanted to. But
didn’t want to—it was the right thing, knew it was for
everyone.” She looks at me and drop my gaze, my head
reeling.
The teenager
two babies
switched?
“Then Jamila’s replacement arrived, and
rushed
straight back to Trudie.” Sarah smiles, her eyes watery.
“You should’ve seen her face when told her her baby was
okay. She couldn’t believe it, not till she finally saw her—
saw you.” She squeezes my knee, her lips trembling. “Oh, Rosie, it was love at first sight.”