The Mothers: a Novel by Genevieve Gannon

Author:Genevieve Gannon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2021-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-One

“DON’T YOU THINK IT WAS STRANGE THE WAY GRACE ARDEN didn’t want to show off her baby?” Ashley Li rubbed lotion into her hands while Roger sat propped up in bed reading from his iPad. “Roger?”

“Her baby was sleeping.” He didn’t look up.

“Since when has that ever stopped a proud mother?”

There had been something disconcerting about the evasive way her former patient had behaved at the market but Ashley couldn’t put her finger on it. It was more than new-parent fatigue. Reading people had never been her forte, but in this case, she knew something was wrong.

“She said he had been sick.”

“It was so odd.” Ashley returned the tube of cream to its spot on Roger’s dressing table, then picked up her hairbrush. She owned two of almost everything now. One set of possessions lived at Roger’s town house and the other stayed at her apartment gathering dust.

“Don’t let it worry you,” he said. “She was probably just worn out.”

Ashley nodded, wanting to accept the wisdom of her older partner, as she so often did, but in truth she was a little hurt. She and the Ardens had worked so hard for that pregnancy. When the blood test had positively confirmed the three home tests Grace had taken, they had hugged. Over the following months, as Grace had moved on to a different doctor, she had sent regular updates: a snap of the 3-D ultrasound, photos of the growing bump, and a joyous shot of a nursery, decorated and ready with a note saying, We owe everything to you. Then just as the baby was due, the communication ceased.

Ashley had not been offended or concerned. She expected that once the tyranny of the first few months receded, a photo of a six-month-old Arden baby would pop up in her phone, with a beaming face covered in mashed banana.

But when they ran into each other at the market, Grace had seemed off-kilter, withdrawn.

“I hope they’re coping okay,” Ashley said. She wanted babies for all of her patients, but Dan and Grace were one pair she had really been rooting for.

“She’s a new mother with a baby who has colic. She could probably hardly remember her own name,” Roger said. “Now, come to bed.”

“It was just so odd,” Ashley said again, biting her thumbnail. There had been something secretive about Grace. Furtive, almost guilty. It was the type of thing you’d expect to see in a case of domestic violence—the red eyes, the hidden baby. But Dan would never do that to Grace. Ashley didn’t know much about people, but she knew that for sure.

“Perhaps she has postnatal depression,” Ashley said. “She’d poured all her effort into the pregnancy, and now it has left her feeling depleted.”

“That’s not part of our job.”

“She’s my patient.”

“The maternal and child health-care service will be taking good care of her.” Ashley climbed into bed next to Roger. “I’m sure she’s fine,” he said, kissing her forehead. “She seemed like any other new mother to me. You’ve got to learn not to get so attached.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.