‘And I told you that we don’t need your money.’
‘Look around you, Evie. You’re living in your brother’s home, which is barely big enough for his family, and you’ve got a baby of your own. My baby. You need money. My daughter needs money.’
‘The only thing my baby needs right now is love. And I have plenty of that. Clearly, you don’t.’
And just like that, Evie hit on his darkest fear.
She was right, he thought, about providing for his daughter materially, but beyond that he didn’t know how to love anyone. How could he?
He’d been given everything that a child could materially need, but he’d never learned what it was like to be loved.
* * *
Evie watched her knuckles turn white as she clung on to the door for all she was worth. He’d talked about obligations and arrangements. All the same things his parents had so calmly and logically presented to her. It seemed they were right after all: they knew their son better than Evie did. Of course they did. And they had been right that he didn’t want a child in his life.
And she knew how damaging it would be for him to stay only to resent her and Imogen every day that he was in their lives. Better for him to go now. But Max didn’t look as though he had any intention of leaving. Instead he started pacing the floor as he raked his hands through his hair.
‘If you and Annie are due at Silvertrees for the transplant within the next few days, what’s happening with Imogen?’ Max demanded abruptly.
What did that have to do with it?
‘My brother will look after Imogen.’ She couldn’t keep the shake out of her voice. ‘Although I’ll be at Silvertrees, Annie will undergo her operation at her local hospital. She should be able to be discharged within a matter of days, so it’ll be easier for her to be nearer home.’
‘Whereas you’ll be kept in for longer, and the transplant team at Silvertrees will want to do as many of your follow-ups as possible themselves, before transferring you back to a local unit.’
‘Right.’
‘So I’m guessing they’ll complete the nephrectomy on Annie in the morning, prepare the kidney for transport to Silvertrees and operate on you by the afternoon?’ he guessed.
What was his point?
‘Yes, I think that’s the plan,’ she replied stiffly. ‘Obviously the Silvertrees team need to monitor me closely but with any luck it will go smoothly, the kidney will start working straight away, I won’t need dialysis and I’ll be out and back home with Imogen within a week.’
‘And your check-ups?’ He frowned, unconvinced. ‘Even if you are discharged that quickly, and frankly I think you’re being unrealistic, you’ll need to go in every couple of days for the first week or so, then at least twice a week for several weeks after that. To ensure your body isn’t rejecting the new kidney and to balance your immuno-suppressants.’
‘I’ll make the journey.’ She jutted her chin out mutinously. She wasn’t going to stay in hospital, away from her daughter, any longer than she had to.
‘You won’t be able to drive, so you’re going to ask your brother to drive a three-hour round trip every couple of days? Taking a five-month-old baby with you? Unless you’re planning on leaving her with Annie, of course, who’ll still be recovering herself? Or are you intending that all four of you make the journey?’
He was angry, and he had every right to be, but every cruelly thrown word felt like a physical blow. She knew it was asking a lot of Annie, of her brother, but what choice was there? This conversation was painful, and she didn’t see it getting them anywhere other than the mess they had now.
‘You’ve already made your position pretty clear, Max. And that’s fine. You didn’t ask for this, and I gave you no say in the matter. But I’m releasing you now, from any obligations relating to our baby. You have my word I will never come to you again.’
‘I’m not walking away from the baby,’ Max snarled at her.
The fire in his eyes could have burned the house down around her.
‘I am this baby’s father, and I will not allow you to push me out of her life now. I won’t allow you to let her grow up thinking her father didn’t want her. I will be there, whenever she needs me.’
It could have just been grand rhetoric but there was an unshakeable resolve behind the words, which made Evie take stock. And Max looked just as stunned as she felt.
Maybe she needed to remember what a shock this must all be to him, learning about his daughter, and her own kidney transplant, all at once. It had been a big enough shock to her and she’d had the advantage that it had all been staggered over the last year, at least.
And hadn’t shock also made her act in a way she’d almost instantly regretted, when she’d taken the money from his parents the day after Imogen’s birth?
Yet as a low cry began from the room down the hallway Evie was spare
d the need to respond to his declaration.