Bella knew the only way to get Lexi to move quickly on the wedding was to play the only card she had. ‘I want to see you get married and the longer you wait the less chance I’ll have of being there. Please.’
They all knew the odds of Bella seeing her next birthday weren’t good but Bella had never played this card before. Not with her father, who had pretty much ignored her for her entire life, or with her mother, who couldn’t cope and had replaced her family with bottles of gin, or with her sisters, who had always been there to support and protect her. But she figured if there ever was a time to play this card, it was now.
As Bella watched Lexi, waiting for her response, she was aware that Evie had stopped flicking through the pile of bridal magazines and was watching them both. The highly polished wood surface of the antique table reflected their images. The golden highlights in Evie’s brown hair shone in the surface of the table and Lexi’s platinum-blonde hair glowed in the reflection, while the dark auburn of Bella’s curly locks was absorbed into the wood, making her seem dimmer in comparison. A sigh escaped Bella’s lips. Seeing herself as a duller reflection of her sisters was nothing new. She’d had twenty-six years to get used to the idea that she wasn’t as beautiful, intelligent or amusing as her two sisters, although she hoped that her kind heart went some way towards redeeming her character.
Not that it seemed to count for anything as far as her parents were concerned. She’d given up trying to mend those relationships, although she was blowed if she would give up on her sisters. They were the most important people in her world and she did not intend to miss out on seeing her younger sister get married. She had to convince Lexi to set a date for her wedding and make it soon. She’d missed out on an awful lot of things in her relatively short life and there was no way she was going to sit back and miss out on this. Lexi had to listen to her.
‘You only need a month and a day to register. You could be married before Christmas,’ she insisted.
‘I need time,’ Lexi replied.
Time. The one thing Bella didn’t have. She knew that. Lexi knew it too, so why wouldn’t she agree?
‘Time for what?’ Bella countered. ‘I can’t see why you’d want to wait. If I had the chance to get married, I’d grab it.’
All three of them knew what a romantic Bella was. Her favourite pastime was watching romantic movies, comedies, dramas, anything, as long as it had a happy ending. It was looking increasingly unlikely that she would get her own happy ending so she had to enjoy other people’s. She adored weddings, she’d been glued to the television for the most recent British Royal wedding and avidly followed the lives of modern-day princesses in the magazines. But her own sister’s happy ending was bound to be so much better than anything she could watch on television. Surely Lexi couldn’t deny her this?
‘I want time to find the perfect dress,’ Lexi said.
‘I’ll design you the perfect dress.’ Normally Bella would offer to make it too, but she knew she’d never have time to design and make a wedding dress, not if she wanted the wedding to take place this year. In a parallel universe her dream was to be a fashion designer and to see her sister walk down the aisle in something she’d created would be the icing on the cake for a roman tic like her. But she’d have to settle for designing the dress and have someone else make it. Their father would probably fly Lexi to Hong Kong or even Paris to get it made. Money was no object. Richard Lockheart was phenomenally wealthy and Lexi was the apple of his eye. Everybody knew that.
‘Look,’ Bella said as she opened the sketch book that was lying on the table in front of her. Her sketch book was never far from her side. She turned some pages and then spun the book to face Lexi. ‘I’ve already started.’ The large page was covered with half a dozen wedding dresses—a halterneck, a strapless version, some with full skirts, some in figure-skimming satin. ‘You just need to tell me which bits you like and I promise you’ll be the most beautiful bride but, please, don’t wait too long. You know time is running out for me, Sam told you that. If you won’t listen to me, would you at least listen to him?’ Bella paused to catch her breath. She could feel her chest tightening and could hear herself wheezing. ‘What do you think, Evie? You agree with me, don’t you?’
‘I think you have a valid point but it is Lexi and Sam’s decision. It’s their wedding.’ Bella would have argued if she’d had the breath to spare but the end of Evie’s answer was partially drowned out by a coughing fit. Bella’s slim frame shook with each spasm.
Lexi stood up. ‘I’ll get you a glass of water.’
‘It’s all right,’ Bella replied as the coughs subsided and she caught her breath, ‘I can get it.’ She pushed her chair back from the table and stood. She looked at Evie and dipped her head slightly towards Lexi, silently imploring Evie to intercede on her behalf. She knew Evie would understand the signal. Having spent so much of their life relying on each other, all three sisters could read each other instinctively.
‘Perhaps you should talk it over with Sam,’ Bella heard Evie suggest as she went to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water and mix up her salt replacement solution. She was feeling quite feverish now and she knew she was in danger of dehydrating more rapidly than usual if she was running a temperature.
Evie waited until Bella had time to reach the kitchen and be out of earshot. As so often happened, her younger sisters deferred to her to solve any difference of opinion between them. At five years older than Bella and seven years older than Lexi she had taken over mothering duties at the tender age of nine when the girls’ mother had walked out and left them with their father, to return only sporadically over the ensuing years. There had been a succession of nannies, with varying degrees of success, and Evie had adopted the role of mother and still maintained it twenty-two years later. Evie never minded the responsibility but she did wonder why she needed to act as referee in this case. Why was Lexi so resistant to Bella’s request?
‘What’s the problem, Lex? You know Bella’s right. She might not be around in six months. Why do you want to wait?’
Lexi’s deep blue eyes shimmered with unshed tears. She fidgeted with Bella’s sketch book, which lay on the table in front of her, absentmindedly doodling on the clean pages. ‘I can’t think like that. I can’t stand the thought of Bella not being here.’
‘That’s why I think you should consider getting married sooner rather than later.’
‘But what if we set a date that’s soon and Bella gets sick again? She could be in hospital on the day of the wedding. Or what if she’s in surgery? If I wait until Bella is okay, we’ll all get a happy ending.’
‘But Bella might not get her happy ending. You know that, don’t you?’ Evie said gently. ‘If you wait, Bella might not be there anyway. She’s only asking you for one thing.’
Lexi was shaking her head. ‘But if I give in then that’s like admitting I think she’s not going to make it. I don’t want to think about her dying. I can’t.’
Evie knew Lexi hated the idea of death. She’d been through one traumatic loss already in her life, when she’d terminated a pregnancy, and that made this situation more difficult for her. But she couldn’t let her sister bury her head in the sand. Evie had to get her to face reality. ‘Please, just agree to talk to Sam about it. If you set a date and you need to change it to accommodate Bella, is that such a big deal? It’s certainly not impossible.’ Sam knew what Bella’s chances were better than anyone, Evie thought. As Bella’s specialist and Lexi’s fiancé, maybe he would have more success in persuading Lexi.
Before Lexi had a chance to agree or disagree, they were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass coming from the kitchen, followed by a loud thud as something heavy hit the floor. Then there was silence.
‘Bella?’ Evie and Lexi leapt from their chairs and ran to the kitchen. Broken