STELLA
Sadly,all dreams had to end.
Our boat trip in Capri was our last full day in Italy before Christian and I returned to D.C. with two new suitcases of gifts and souvenirs and my love confession trailing behind us.
Old me would’ve felt embarrassed about saying those words and not hearing them back, but new-ish me (because there were still parts of the old me in there) was more comfortable letting things play out in their own time.
That being said, our return to the city was more jarring after Italy than after Hawaii. After a month away, Christian was immediately swept up in the chaos of work, and I spent a good week digging myself out of the emails, mail, and tasks that’d piled up while we were gone.
I visited Maura, worked on my marketing plan, had drinks with Ava and Jules, and ran a million errands.
The adjustment to my normal daily life was harder, partly because I’d been gone for longer and partly because there was so much more to do this time around.
By the time the week ended, I was tired, cranky, and in desperate need of an extra-long restorative yoga session.
I decided to take that Monday slow and was making my usual morning smoothie when my phone lit with an incoming call.
“Hello?”
“Hi Stella, this is Norma.”
My hand froze over the blender.
Norma was one of my favorite nurses at Greenfield, but she wouldn’t call out of the blue unless something was wrong.
I set the half cup of ice back on the counter and twisted my necklace around my finger.
“Is Maura okay?”
She’d seemed fine when I visited her yesterday, but anything could’ve happened since then. She could’ve had a seizure, a fall, hit her head…
Worse case scenarios ran rampant through my head.
“She’s physically okay.” Norma’s soothing voice eased some of my nerves. “But she, ah, remembered what happened to Phoebe and Harold this morning.”
Just like that, the nerves came rushing back. “Oh no.”
It didn’t happen often, but whenever Maura remembered her husband and daughter, she got extremely agitated. The last time that happened, she threw a vase at a nurse. If she’d been at full strength, the nurse would be in a coma right now.
“Like I said, she’s fine now,” Norma reassured me. “Unfortunately, we had to sedate her.”
My stomach clenched. I’d asked Greenfield to call me whenever they sedated Maura. It wasn’t something they did lightly. Sedation meant she’d had a really bad day.
“I’ll come over right now.” I was already halfway to the door when Norma stopped me.
“No need. I know you want to see her, but she’s already sleeping, and you just visited yesterday.” Her voice gentled. “I only called to give you a heads up. Don’t stress too much about it, hun. These things happen, and we have it under control. I promise.”
She was right. As much as I hated the thought of leaving Maura alone after she’d been so upset, the staff at Greenfield were professionals. They were trained to handle such situations, and they could do it far more effectively than I could.
“Right.” I forced a smile even though Norma couldn’t see me. “Thank you for calling. Please let me know if there are any updates.”
“I will.”
I hung up and went through the motions of finishing breakfast, but I was too distracted to taste anything.