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‘Evie?’
She’d been staring off into the distance. With a start, Evie dragged herself back to the present.
‘Sorry. What were we saying?’
‘Did you discover your illness this past year?’
‘No,’ she admitted, her eyes meeting his. ‘I was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease when I was a kid, but I only started entering the first stages of renal failure one year ago.’
That had been the same week she’d allowed herself to break her rules and sleep with Max.
‘What happened?’
‘I’d been working with a particularly troubled young boy when I got kicked.’
‘That must have been some kick,’ he growled.
‘I guess.’
She wasn’t about to tell him it had been so forceful it had propelled her several metres backwards across the office. The kick hadn’t caused the problem, it had merely been a catalyst. She tried to lighten the tone.
‘But it was right over the site of my weakest kidney. Murphy’s law, I guess.’
‘I see.’ Max nodded grimly. ‘No wonder you left your job. I would imagine that would have been a hard decision for you. I know how passionate you were about your work there.’
Evie frowned.
‘I haven’t left for good, I just took leave when I became too exhausted to work there.’
She wasn’t prepared for his reaction.
‘Evie, you can’t possibly go back to work there.’
‘Of course I can.’ She bristled at his authoritative tone. ‘As soon as I’m well again.’
If all was well again.
‘Don’t be stupid.’ He snorted with derision. ‘If this is what can happen to you before the transplant, think of the damage it could cause right over the site of a graft.’
Evie suppressed a shudder and folded her arms defiantly across her chest.
‘Who do you think you are, ordering me around?’
‘I’m not ordering you around.’ He gritted his teeth at her, clearly trying to control his frustration.
They stared at each other in silence. Evie wondered whether, like her, Max was questioning how such an argument had come out of nowhere.
‘I’m sorry.’ Max held up his hands at last. ‘You were telling me how you came to find out about your kidney disorder.’
‘Right,’ she acknowledged half-heartedly. ‘We knew from tests back then that my brother wasn’t a match, but my mother had been, so...’
She tailed off, unable to finish the sentence. They’d always assumed her mother would be her donor when the time came. As if losing her mother hadn’t been bad enough to start with.
‘Your mother is no longer around?’ Max surmised, the previous heat now gone from his voice.
‘She died just before I moved to Silvertrees. Well, to the centre, you know?’
‘I see,’ he said again.
