Brooke shook her head. ‘Johnny would hate that. It’d rile him up even more. He’s got money and lawyers and he’d fight it. The thing is, sometimes Johnny says he doesn’t want the baby, but other times he makes a lot of fuss about how we all have to be together and he won’t—I mean, I think he’ll settle down in the end and I’m hoping it’ll be okay. Hopefully he’ll love her when he sees her. I hope so.’

So much hoping. Paula wasn’t convinced hoping was going to be enough to keep this young woman safe. But there was no point pushing her or bombarding her with information about John Santino. Brooke was essentially open-eyed about the man with whom she was entangled. Her survival tactic, for now, was to yield power, to endure and to hope. She couldn’t envisage any other safe path.

‘Hey, look,’ said Paula. ‘Ava is fast asleep, sucking her thumb. Very happy.’

‘Oh yeah,’ said Brooke, managing a wan smile. ‘That’s how she got her little milk blister.’

‘You need a nap too. First bit of advice I give all my patients when they’re new mothers: you sleep when the baby sleeps.

Forget all the jobs around the house, forget all your worries and have a snooze.’

Brooke laughed and did a little mock salute. ‘Whatever you say, doctor.’ Then she flopped back against the pillows, looking so vulnerable and too young to have this many burdens.

‘Second bit of advice: call your mum and dad,’ Paula added softly. ‘Ask them to help you. Anyway, I’ll disappear now and let you sleep.’

‘Thank you, um … I’ve forgotten your name, sorry. Thank you.’

Brooke’s eyelids were already fluttering closed, so Paula was able to slip out of the room without any fuss.

SEVENTEEN

THE FOLLOWING DAY, PAULA RETRIEVED JUDY’S BOTTLE OF unused Dilaudid from the locked cupboard in the consulting room, cocooned it in bubble wrap, wedged it in her handbag and took it home. She wasn’t sure she would use it. She wasn’t sure she would do anything at all.

Her thinking was vacillating constantly. After Ian Ferguson, she had vowed she would never do anything like that again. But she couldn’t ignore the fact that Brooke Lester was in real danger from a man who had assaulted women and murdered his previous girlfriend when she tried to leave him. That man had almost killed Brooke and their unborn child, and he would almost certainly not allow the young mother and baby to slide out of his control. There was no guarantee the authorities could protect her, especially if fear kept her silent.

Two ideas were suspended in Paula’s head simultaneously:

It would be wrong to use her knowledge of the situation and her skills to intervene.