Page 5 of Stanton Unconditional

I smile and turn to Adrian as he wraps his arms around me. “Thank you for looking after him for me. I appreciate you guys being such good friends to Joshua. God, if anything happened to him.” I shiver in horror I can’t even bear to think of the consequences. My tears start again. “I’m such an idiot. How could I have treated him so terribly? I just left him and told him I never wanted to see him again, after all we had been through to be together.” Guilt fills me, I don’t deserve him, but to be fair I could never have predicted what the future was going to hold. I was totally blinded by grief. A nurse re-enters the room and injects something into his drip. “What are you giving him?” I ask.

“Diazepam, this will keep him sedated to keep his body temperature down and even.”

“Tash, our mum and dad are on their way with our brothers.

Prepare yourself, she’s going to be fuming mad and I’m pretty sure it will be aimed at you” Cameron sighs.

“She came to Sydney to see me and asked me to come to Joshua. She was worried about him and it seems she had a good reason to be,” I whisper. “This is all my fault.”

Cameron and Adrian exchange glances. “She asked you to come to Joshua?” Cameron frowns.

“Ripley’s believe it or not.” I do wide eyes at him. “What’s Amelie’s problem?” I ask Adrian.

Adrian’s eyes drop to Joshua and he hunches his shoulders. “You, I expect. It’s no secret she’s in love with Joshua.”

”Adrian.” Cameron snaps. “Stay out of it.”

I narrow my eyes. “It’s ok. I already know, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that. He loves her as well.”

Cameron and Adrian frown. “No, he doesn’t. He loves you, Tash,” Cameron stammers. My eyes drop to my beautiful unconscious man before me. “I know he loves me, it’s ok, boys. I’m ok, I can’t blame her for loving him … loving him is easy. It’s the walking away from him that’s hard.”

They both give me a sad smile and nod. “We will give you some privacy.” And with that they disappear out of the room.