17 Church Row by James Carol

Author:James Carol
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction

Chapter 37

The tears were still wet on Nikki’s cheeks when Laura Santos finally appeared in the kitchen. Tears of sadness, tears of grief. Tears of anger. Because of the language barrier it had taken a while to get the whole story out of Luciana. In the end, it had been a depressingly straightforward one: the hospital had screwed up and as a result Sofia was dead. Laura walked over to the island, pulled out a stool and sat down. She took Nikki’s hand in her own. The look she gave her was part concern, part professional curiosity.

‘What happened?’ she asked gently.

‘I’ve just had a call from Sofia’s sister. She’s had the post-mortem results. The hospital made a mistake and gave Sofia the wrong medication. That was what caused her heart attack.’

The concern and curiosity on Laura’s face gave way to a frown. ‘How could that happen?’

Nikki shrugged. ‘That’s the question I’ve been asking myself. Of course, at this stage nobody’s admitting liability. They need to carry out an investigation. The hospital has to be at fault, though. I mean, it wasn’t as if Sofia did this to herself.’

‘Surely there are checks in place to stop this sort of thing from happening? I mean, isn’t that all done by computer these days?’

‘Probably. But someone still needs to type the prescription in. I bet that’s what happened. The NHS is stretched to the limit. Everyone’s overworked. Mistakes are being made all the time.’ Nikki stopped talking and shook her head. ‘Luciana is talking about suing the hospital and I hope she does. I hope she takes them for every penny she can get.’

Laura waited for Nikki to meet her eye and said, ‘It’s good to be angry but be careful that it doesn’t swallow you up.’

‘I’m not just angry, I’m furious. It’s not fair.’ She snorted derisively. ‘Fair. What the hell is fair anyway?’

Laura didn’t respond. She was studying Nikki closely.

‘I’m sorry,’ Nikki said quickly. ‘I don’t know where that came from.’

‘Actually, I think you know exactly where it came from.’

Nikki said nothing. She could feel her cheeks burning hot from the shame of being read so easily.

‘Look, I know I’m here to see Bella, but if you want to talk, well, I’m a pretty good listener.’

Laura was watching her closely again, waiting for a response. Nikki almost told her she was okay, but like ‘fair’ it was another one of those words that had lost all meaning. ‘I wish we had never moved here. If we’d still been living at the old house then Sofia would still be alive.’ The words were spoken quietly, like a confession.

‘None of us knows what the future holds, Nikki. You know that better than anyone.’

Nikki opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She shut it again, then said, ‘You know, there was a part of me that didn’t want to move because I didn’t want to leave Grace behind?’ She shook her head. ‘I know, crazy, right?’

‘No, it’s perfectly understandable. Through my work

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