The other woman reached up to take it, her fingers soft. “No real change. But the nurses say that’s good. He just needs to rest for a while.”

“And you? How are you doing?”

“Better now that you’re in Sydney. I just felt so alone. So scared.”

“I know.” She hugged Gloria when the older woman stood, then nudged her out the door. “You need rest, like you told me to get. Even if it’s only a few hours.”

Exhausted, Gloria finally agreed and left. Taking a seat beside Clive’s bed, Catie closed the fingers of one hand around her father’s and glanced at her phone. No message from Takuro.

Her chest squeezed.

Just as her phone lit up with a most unexpected caller.

“Mum?”

“How is Clive?” Jacqueline asked in her direct, no-nonsense way.

After Catie gave her the breakdown, Jacqueline said, “He should have little to no medical costs given the cooperation agreement with Australia, but if he has any bills that he can’t cover, let me know and I’ll handle it.”

Catie swallowed hard. “Thanks, Mum.” She knew Clive had done a number on Jacqueline, so this kindness was unexpected.

A sigh. “He was a terrible husband, but he gave me an amazing daughter.” Then Jacqueline hung up.

Eyes burning, Catie gave a soft laugh and spoke to the air. “I love you too.” That was the thing with the Dragon; she wasn’t in any way maternal and had—frankly speaking—been emotionally neglectful, but Catie knew without a doubt that Jacqueline would scorch the earth if anyone dared hurt her children.

“People are complicated, aren’t they, Dad?” she said to the man who’d shaped so much of who she was simply by being himself. Unreliable, fickle, unable to hold on to money—and unwilling to shoulder responsibility. Yet he’d been an unswerving presence by her bedside after her accident.

He loved her.

He just didn’t love her as she needed and deserved to be loved.

Throat tight, she rose to brush back his hair and press a kiss to his forehead. “I’m here, Dad,” she murmured. “And I love you for who you are.” She saw him and she knew what she could and couldn’t expect from him, just as she knew the same about Jacqueline.

Rubbing her face after she sat back down, she picked up her phone. Nothing from Takuro and nothing from Danny. Worry crawled across her skin. This was so unlike him. But surely if anything had gone seriously wrong, his team would’ve contacted the Eseras? And Sailor and Ísa would’ve contacted her in turn.