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“You will stay for lunch?”
Teddy stood in the doorway. He was wearing a yellow sweater stretched tightly over his paunch, giving him the look of an elderly Winnie-the-Pooh. It occurred to Summer for the first time that he looked absolutely nothing like Michael. Not one grain of De Vere genes seemed to have been passed down from father to son.
“You scared me! I thought you were downstairs with Roxie.”
“I was, but she told me you were leaving, so I came up straightaway. Surely you don’t have to disappear so soon?”
“I’m afraid so. You’ve been incredibly kind and hospitable, but I have to go and see Michael.”
“Yes, but that won’t take all day.”
“I also have things to do back at the flat.”
“What things?”
“Just paperwork. But there’s a lot of it, believe me.” She yawned loudly. Teddy enveloped Summer in a big, paternal bear hug.
“If I may say so, my dear, I think you’re overdoing it. Your parents are right, you know. You should go back home to America.”
“I couldn’t possibly leave Michael.” Summer sounded shocked.
Fighting back his emotion, Teddy said, “Michael’s gone, Summer.”
“He isn’t gone.”
“Not in body, perhaps. But in every way that really matters. His mother’s right.”
“His mother is not right!” Hot tears stung Summer’s cheeks. “I’m sorry, Teddy. I know you love Alexia. But she’s not right about this. She wants to turn off those machines because it would be easier for her. Because it would put an end to a situation she doesn’t want to deal with.”
“That’s not true, my dear.”
“It is true. She’s too busy trying to hang on to her glittering career to be concerned with a little thing like her son.”
Teddy shook his head. “Alexia may not be demonstrative. But she loves Michael dearly. The doctors have told all of us that there is almost no chance of Michael ever regaining consciousness.”
“Almost. Almost no chance. That means there is a chance, right? Who’s going to fight for him, Teddy, if not us?”
Teddy stroked Summer’s hair tenderly. She was a sweet girl. Misguided but terribly sweet. “When you reach my age, Summer, you learn that there are some fights you simply cannot win.”
“If you really believed that, you’d do what Alexia wants and turn off Michael’s life support. But you haven’t.”
“I do believe it,” Teddy said soberly. “I’m just too weak, too sentimental, I suppose, to act on what I know is the truth.”
“I guess no one could accuse Alexia of being weak and sentimental,” Summer said bitterly.
“Alexia prefers to remember Michael the way he was. You mustn’t hate her for that, just because you want someone to blame.”
They were the same exact words her mother had said to her yesterday. It baffled Summer that Alexia De Vere seemed to inspire such deep loyalty in those closest to her. Teddy. Michael. Even Summer’s own mother, Lucy. What had Alexia ever done to deserve such devotion? Of her inner circle, only Roxie appeared to be able to view her mother as she really was.
Teddy was still talking, his eyes misting over with love as he spoke of his wife.
“Through all the tragedies of her life, Alexia has found solace in her work. It gives her a sense of meaning, a purpose and a function that transcend the pain. You could do worse than follow her example.”
“Go back to work, you mean?” said Summer.
“Yes. Go home to America. Go back to college, back to your job in New York. Don’t sacrifice yourself for my son, my dear. It won’t help Michael, and it will most certainly harm you. Why blight two lives, instead of one?”
Because I can’t not. Because I can no more leave Michael and go back to New York as if nothing’s happened than I can fly to the moon.
