‘Yes.’
‘And if it’s confirmed, what’s the procedure?’
‘What?’
‘Annie,’ Max snapped, his voice cracking over the line, ‘if they determine that it is rejection, what will they opt for? Additional plasmapheresis and IVIG sessions?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Annie glanced desperately at her.
Evie clenched her hands around the covers, trying to calm the lurch of her heart that Max should sound so frantic and un-surgeon-like. Almost like any other relative of a patient, concerned for their loved one.
She shook her head. Now she was just being foolish.
‘No,’ Annie said as Evie realised her sister-in-law had mistaken her headshake for rebuttal.
‘Sorry, sorry,’ Evie cried. ‘Yes, they’ll probably look at additional plasmapheresis and IVIG as a first port of call.’
‘Evie?’ Max’s voice reverberated around the room. ‘Can you hear me? Just hold on, I’m going to end this call so I can phone your Transfer team down there and get some more information. Okay?’
Evie couldn’t meet Annie’s gaze as she tried not to let her emotions show, but she was sure the whole hospital could hear her heart hammering a military drum tattoo inside her chest.
Was that professional concern? Concern for the mother of his daughter? Or, could it be possible, genuine concern for the woman he’d realised he loved? And this time, when she tried to reprimand herself that she was being unrealistic, the spark of hope refused to be stamped out.
‘All right,’ Annie was saying. ‘Shall I...? Do you want me to call you with updates?’
‘Sorry?’
So she’d got it all wrong.
His surprise at why he should need to be kept informed was a kick in the teeth. Evie tried but she couldn’t stop the tears of regret from welling in her eyes. Even Annie’s tone changed as she turned her back to speak quickly and quietly into the phone.
‘To let you know how Evie is doing? She told me not to bother you, after your conversation the other day. But then we agreed it was better to tell you so that you could decide whether you wanted to come down for your daughter or whether you were happy for my husband and me to look after Imogen.’
‘Ah, right.’ He sounded genuinely sorry he’d misunderstood, at least. ‘Actually, Annie, I think it’s probably better for Imogen to stay in a constant environment with your family rather than be pulled from pillar to post coming back up to me whilst Evie is down there.’
A fresh wave of nausea rolled over Evie. It was enough that he couldn’t forgive her, but she didn’t want to be the cause of a rift in his new relationship with his daughter.
‘Fine,’ she heard Annie respond flatly, but her irritation with Max was audible. ‘Then the baby will stay with us. We’d love to have her longer. Just thought you might, too.’
‘Okay. Tell Evie it’s going to be fine.’
Evie stared across the room in shock. Max never said that. He never promised anyone everything would be fine. Never.
‘And tell her I’ll be with her in...’
The line crackled as he faded out but it sounded as if he’d said half an hour. That couldn’t be right.
‘What?’ Annie’s shock was nothing compared to the way Evie’s heart leaped. ‘I can’t hear you clearly.’
Still, that couldn’t be right—it was a much longer drive than that.
‘Sorry, heading into a tunnel so I’ll probably get cut off any minute. I said I should be there in half an hour.’
‘How?’ Annie voiced Evie’s thoughts, but the line cracked again and went dead.
Evie stared at her sister-in-law in disbelief before a heavy tear trickled down one cheek. Hope, confusion, anticipation, expectation—it was all in that one salty droplet.
‘Did he mean the Meadowall Tunnel between my house and here?’ Annie asked slowly.