Mitchell noticed the serious look on Jack’s face.
‘Who was it?’ he asked with concern in his voice.
‘Your mother …’ he began.
‘Is everything all right?’ Mitchell could hear the man’s voice was sombre. ‘Did she say what it was about? Has there been an accident?’
‘Not an accident but apparently your niece had a turn of sorts. She’s in hospital, something about her kidney failing.’
‘I mean, she has another one so I’m sure she’ll be all right,’ the man said with an inflection that made the statement become closer to a question.
‘No, she won’t, my niece only has one functioning kidney.’
Mitchell and Jade were driven back to the makeshift airstrip by one of the men from the camp. The plane would arrive half an hour earlier than originally planned to get them to Adelaide. Jade was back in her nursing uniform. Mitchell was had also changed back into his hospital clothes, and they stood under the shade of a giant eucalypt.
‘I should never have come.’ She scowled at herself. ‘I should have insisted that you take another nurse. It just was another bad choice I’ve made in life. I can’t believe what I’ve done, what we’ve done. I left Amber alone so far away from me. I was stupid and thinking about myself. Last night while we were …’ She fumbled over her words, not wanting to admit to what had happened between them. ‘Last night Amber needed me and I wasn’t there.’
‘You mean when I was making love to you.’
‘While we were thinking about ourselves and forgetting the real world and our responsibilities,’ she corrected him without referring to their lovemaking. ‘I let Amber down, and I let Ruby down. It was wrong of me.’
‘You didn’t let anyone down. We spent the night together, and there was nothing wrong about it.’
‘It shouldn’t have happened. I came to Adelaide to let Amber meet her grandparents, not to hook up with her uncle.’ She bit her lip angrily. Her breathing was laboured as she paced the dusty track and looked up at the sky impatiently.
‘Call it whatever you want, but I’m not sorry it happened. I have feelings for you. I’m not sure where it will lead us but last night was not just a hook-up. It wasn’t planned and it isn’t why Amber is facing health issues right now. The two aren’t related any more than the accident three years ago that you still carry around as if you personally caused it to happen.’
Jade shot him a look of contempt. ‘You don’t know anything about it. I booked the holiday for them. I told them to go and get away to Palm Springs. It’s my fault they are both dead and now look what has happened to Amber because of me being away from her. She was probably fretting, I could have stopped it happening …’
‘Don’t do this,’ he said firmly as he walked to where she was still pacing and pulled her to him. ‘You couldn’t change what happened. You’re a nurse and you know that Amber’s condition was present at birth and there was every chance this could happen without warning. The nephrologist would have explained that to you before you left Los Angeles to come here. You can’t keep Amber in a glass room inside bubble wrap so she can’t hurt herself and you can’t watch over her twenty-four seven.’
Jade angrily pulled herself free from his embrace. ‘I should have refused to come here.’
‘You had no choice, you had to travel with me. You were the best nurse for the job. And if it wasn’t for you, those two babies might not be alive today.’
‘The plane is here,’ she said, ignoring his remark about the birth and the positive outcome. It was still not enough to balance out what she had done wrong in her eyes.
There was an uncomfortable silence for the hour’s flight. Mitchell did not want to add to Jade’s stress or create a scene in front of the pilot. He was grateful that no bad weather was predicted and there was little chance of turbulence as he knew that Jade would never let him help her and he would hate to watch her suffer that anxiety along with the worry of Amber.
With clear skies, Mitchell’s focus was on getting back to Adelaide to speak to the nephrologist at the Eastern Memorial. He knew that Adelaide had world-class renal facilities and he would turn every stone and make every call to ensure Amber had the best care.
Amber and Jade now meant so much more to him than he had ever thought possible. Even if Jade didn’t want to pursue their relationship, he would always be there for the two of them, however that played out. He was certain it would be from a distance, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was Amber.
Jade had caught a cab with Mitchell directly to the hospital as he had insisted on being present to discuss his niece’s medical condition with the specialist.
‘I can handle it,’ she told him tersely when they arrived at the Eastern Memorial.
‘I am fully aware that you can and do prefer to do things on your own. But I am here and I want to help if I can. I’m her uncle. I have a right to be there.’
‘Just as you have been for the last three years?’
Mitchell ignored the remark. He knew it was deserved and he also knew that Jade was lashing out from fear. He refused to walk away and demanded to meet the renal specialist in his office before they saw Amber.
‘What’s the prognosis for Amber?’ Jade asked as she tried to pretend that Mitchell was not in the room.
‘Well, when the kidneys aren’t working well, symptoms are varied and may be the same as many other conditions, but when her grandfather, Dr Forrester, Senior, accompanied Amber here last night, he quickly alerted the staff and A and E about her situation. After the initial examination, the senior consultant contacted me immediately and Amber was transferred to the renal unit.
‘Amber, I note, has been feeling tired since arriving from the US, but I believe everyone put that down to jet-lag, which is understandable. She has also lost her appetite but, again, in a three-year-old that can be pickiness about food. But it was the swelling in the hands and the associated numbness that concerned Arthur so fortunately he drove her straight in to be seen and we immediately noted high blood pressure. We have tested her urine and it’s positive for protein and the bloodwork shows creatinine. As you know, healthy kidneys usually filter both. Her only working kidney is failing. We have her on dialysis now.’
Jade gasped, and Mitchell instinctively moved towards her but she shot him a look that told him everything. His arm dropped away, and Jade moved away to stand alone and receive the remaining news.
‘So are we looking at a transplant?’ Mitchell asked.
‘Yes, I’m checking the donor register now—’ the doctor began.
‘I want to be tested as soon as possible,’ Jade announced. ‘Family should prove a better match.’
The doctor nodded his head. ‘Sometimes but not always.’
Mitchell found Jade pacing the corridor outside Amber’s room a few hours later. She was back to the drab clothing again, which he suspected his mother had brought in for her.
‘How’s Amber?’
Jade looked in silence at Mitchell. She hated him for the choices she made when she was with him. First the motor bike ride and then … then making love in the tent when she should have been home with Amber. For the way he made her feel and the way she forgot her responsibilities in life. She couldn’t be around him. Not now and not in the future. People she loved got hurt when she didn’t think things through properly and that could never happen again.
‘What is it? Are you still angry for what happened between us? Because I’m not. Together we can help Amber.’
‘Amber