He meant, not because of what you did, but in spite of it. She knew he’d never understand, but it didn’t matter if he did or didn’t. She knew the truth of what had happened underneath the water, when they were switched back: Bishop and Selver had slithered away, and her arms were immediately filled with her own boys, warm and familiar. When she’d looked fleetingly into the river woman’s eyes as the exchange was made and expected to see anger, what she saw was gratitude. In the end, the river woman had wanted the best for her babies, just like Lauren. And in the end the river woman knew she’d been wrong; that the best place for Bishop and Selver was under the water, with their loving mother.

Lauren moved her head to look into Patrick’s eyes. “Do you think they’ll keep me here much longer?”

He assured her that it wouldn’t be much longer. She smiled at him.

One of the stationed orderlies stepped forward. He planted his feet and crossed his arms like a doorman. “Visiting’s over now,” he said loudly to everyone, and the three other visitors in the room started to make their way to the dining room doors.

Lauren allowed Patrick to kiss her on the cheek, but held onto his arm as he tried to straighten up. “Did you bring that book I asked for?”

He patted his pockets and pulled out a small, light brown volume. “This it?”

She reached for it, ran her thumb over the faint shadow of the old-fashioned gold lettering.

“Yes.”

“Where’s it from?”

“It was a gift,” said Lauren, inhaling the fragrance from the antique paper. Perhaps she would never know who it was that left the book in Cindy’s gift bag. In her heart, she wanted to believe it was somehow arranged by her mother, who knew that what was printed within those dusty pages provided the key to everything that followed. The frightening truth that she had to face, that she had faced, and lived through. And it had saved her babies, if not quite herself. Her mum would have known that that was the only thing that mattered to Lauren.

“I had a flick through,” said Patrick. “Some of those stories are pretty gory. You’re absolutely sure this is what you want to be reading?”

The orderly appeared, standing very close to them. “Excuse me, you need to leave now.” It wasn’t exactly threatening, but the tone he used wasn’t to be argued with. Patrick took hold of Lauren’s hand and squeezed. “I’ll see you next week.”