Page 138 of Dose

Isla reads it twice.

“She asked,” she says.

“Yes.”

“And the doctor answered her.”

“Yes.”

Her hand begins to shake around the tablet. I take the instrument before she drops it, set it safely on the bench and wait.

“I need to update her record.”

“The clinic already entered the blood results. You can add the correspondence after lunch.”

“I want to do it now.”

“I know.” I hold out my hand. “Come upstairs anyway.”

She looks at the open message, then at me.

“Forty minutes,” she says.

“Agreed.”

She takes my hand.

Henrietta occupies the same place in the common room she did the first day Isla met the family. Six months of councils, meals and arguments have not improved the couch’s appearance.

It remains Henrietta.

“Darius suggested reupholstering her,” Isla says as she curls into my side.

“She needs it.”

“That is not the point.”

“What is the point?”

“Loyalty.”

“To damaged furniture.”

“You’ve built a life around that principle.”

I look at her.

She smiles for the first time since opening Mia’s message.

Upstairs, Jenna’s baby begins to cry. The sound comes faintly through the monitor on the table. Nikolai appears in the doorway less than five seconds later, already moving toward the stairs. Darius shouts from the kitchen that running will not make the bottle warm faster. Damon tells him to stop shouting near the monitor.

The house has changed shape around one very small person.

Isla rests her head against my chest.

“Mia made a friend,” she says.

“Priya. Horses.”