Read Chapter 19: — OLIVIA’S CHOICE

Olivia Grant’s husband remained ventilated.

She had spent maternity leave in a small town with her mother and five-month-old son, believing distance from hospitals would keep the baby safer.

Then Daniel became infected at St Joseph’s.

Olivia packed a bag.

Her mother unpacked it.

“You are not leaving your baby to run into the place that put his father in intensive care.”

“I am a respiratory nurse.”

“You are a mother.”

“I am both.”

“And if you die?”

Olivia sat on the floor and sobbed.

That question had no noble answer.

For two days she stayed.

Then Peter called and told her Daniel’s oxygenation had improved slightly.

Not well. Not safe. But improved.

Olivia closed her eyes.

“Does the hospital need nurses?”

“Yes.”

“Do you need me?”

Peter hesitated.

“As your department head? Yes.”

“As my friend?”

“No.”

She laughed through tears.

“I hate you.”

“Get in line.”

Olivia did not return immediately.

Instead she waited until her son was safely settled with her mother and until a formal medical transport brought essential staff into the city.

She arrived one week later.

Her first destination was not her old ward.

It was a glass door outside intensive care.

Daniel lay beyond it, sedated, smaller than she remembered.

She pressed her palm to the glass.

A nurse inside saw her and gently placed Daniel’s hand against the other side.

There was no way he could know.

Olivia believed he did anyway.