Arranged by the Stars (8 page)

The numbness in Kieran’s
arm returned with a vengeance. Such vengeance he had forgotten he
had an arm before then. He turned in desperation to Ash. Could she
run out and look for a real doctor? Call an ambulance. Do
something, not stand there and look at him like he had the
answers.

“
Kieran!” the
sound of her voice pierced his subconscious.

He stepped back as the
sharpness of the sound rattled him. Only when she pulled the child
out of the mother’s arms and took her into the consulting room did
he realise that it was him that was standing there. Like a marble
statue.

This time when she said
his name he rushed to her side. She must have seen Jessie or
watched it on television before because she was already two steps
ahead of him, and was placing oxygen on the baby’s face. He could
hear Jessie call for the ambulance. He looked down at the little
girl and wiped off the dripping sweat from his forehead. Was the
air-conditioning on?

“
You can turn
the oxygen up a little. Maybe up to eight,” he looked at the little
gauge. Ash’s fingers shook as her hand moved toward the oxygen
valve. “That’s good Ash. Well done on getting the oxygen
on.”

He turned to the
teenager. His thoughts were a jumble. “What happened?”

The girl was rubbing her
arms frantically, moving her weight from one foot to the other.
“She’d been sick for a few days. I thought it would be okay to wait
till next week to bring her in. She’s always had a problem with her
chest.”

Kieran took in the
undernourished state of the child and the bluish tinge of the
child’s lips as he picked up her wrist. “Ash, bring the thermal
blanket from the drawer over there.” The child’s hands were
cold.

“
Thermal
blanket?” Ash opened the drawer and looked at him
blankly.

He peered into the
drawer. “That’s the blanket there. It looks like foil. We usually
don’t need it in this heat but dad always insists on a fully
equipped clinic and now I know why.”

Ash removed the silver
blanket from the plastic and handed it to him. “That doesn’t look
like a blanket.”

“
It will warm
her up. There is a nebuliser set in the second drawer, could you
get that for me?” He was about to explain when she opened the
drawer and took out the clearly labelled pack and handed it to
him.

“
You will
need some sort of stuff to go with this. Should I call Jessie to
come get it?” she asked.

The thought of having her
leave made the numbness in his arm return. “No, open the medication
cupboard and take out some adrenaline for me. I need to nebulise
her with it.”

This time his hand shook
and Ash focused her gaze on his. “Kieran, her lips aren’t as
blue.”

He followed her gaze. The
child’s lips had lost the bluish haze. Her skin was less grey. In a
flash he saw Johnny. On the ground and in his arms. More dead than
alive and he remembered trying to save him. He remembered trying so
many things but nothing worked.

Ash lifted the child’s
blouse. Pigeon chest. The child was struggling to breathe. She was
sucking in air and he could hear the wheeze. Even as he watched
her, he knew, she was more dead than alive.

Like he was fixing an
error in one of the many programmes he worked on, he connected the
nebuliser and squirted the adrenaline into the little bowl. Then he
swapped the oxygen mask for the nebuliser and waited.

This time he watched the
clock and each time the second hand ticked along, he felt like he’d
been running the last mile of a marathon. The child’s mother
continued her restless vigil.

When Ash asked him the
question he feared most, Kieran knew that honesty was overrated in
the medical field. There was a reason he chose not to practice and
he had made peace with that decision. Ash’s hand felt soft and warm
on his shoulder and he leaned into her. “I don’t know if she will
be okay. Her mother should have brought her here sooner. She was
without oxygen for a while.”

Ash turned to the mother.
“Would you like a cup of coffee? I think the ambulance is on their
way.”

She looked from Kieran to
Ash and shook her head. “You can’t send her to hospital. They will
take her away from me.”

Ash cocked her head.
“Kieran, is what she saying true?”

He rubbed his hands over
his face. For the first time since the mother brought the child in
he took a good look at her. She was scantily dressed, much like the
exotic dancers that worked in the dance clubs that fronted for
prostitution houses. “Show me your arms?”

Ash focused on Kieran.
“Why the questions? Why are you asking to see her arms?”

The child grunted softly
and Kieran stalled. If he answered, would he shatter Ash’s view of
the world? His hand gently rubbed the child’s head as he sighed.
His gaze lifted to the teenager.

If her sunken eyes were
not a giveaway, then the edginess was a sure sign she had something
to hide. “You knew she was sick. She’s had treatment for
asthma.”

The mother rubbed her
hands up and down her arms and paced a small path in front of the
child. “Please doctor, you can’t take her away from me. I will do
anything, I swear.”

Ash came forward and took
her place between Kieran and the girl. “I don’t understand what’s
happening here, but you’re not suggesting we separate these
two?”

Kieran’s gaze focused on
the child whose breathing was getting easier. The sound of sirens
was getting closer. “What do you suggest we do? The ambulance is
here. She needs to go to hospital. If we say we don’t know who this
child is, they will treat her as abandoned. Either way, she goes
into the system.”

“
You won’t
take this child away from her mother? Why would you do that?” Heat
fell off her yet when his hand touched hers, it was ice.

Kieran dropped his chin
when she pulled her hand away from his. “She’s a drug user. Chances
are she sold her child’s medication for more drugs. I can’t be sure
she is the best choice to take care of this little one.”

The teenage girl hid in
the shadows as the ambulance screeched to a stop outside the
clinic. Kieran went back to the girl. Her eyes opened and she
looked up at him. As luck would have it, she had eyes as green as
the moss outside his window. As green as the woman’s standing next
to him, watching him with pleading eyes. “My hands are tied Ash.
There is nothing I can do.”

She took the child’s limp
hand in hers and looked at him. “Really Kieran?
Nothing?”

*****

Ash had been in closets
the size of this room, but none had stunk like sickness and
clinical disinfectant. She went to the little window in the stuffy
room and looked out. Why have a window that could never open? The
monitor beside the bed beeped and her gaze went instantly to the
child on the bed. Little Sara was sound asleep. She was lucky that
she hadn’t made a fuss when she picked her up earlier and claimed
her as her own.

“
I didn’t
think children was part of the deal?” Kieran surprised her as he
entered the room.

She’d been waiting for
this visit the entire day. When she’d claimed to be the mother at
the clinic, he’d let her. The teenager who she later found out was
Shelley was happy to let her pretend to be the mother, until Sara
was better and came home.

“
I’m sorry I
put you through that. I couldn’t let them be separated.” She
watched Sara sleep and wondered if he could understand that life
was not always easy.

Kieran stood by the
monitor and looked at the numbers go up and down in silence. “I
don’t mind you helping her out. I worry that you’re not doing her
any favours.”

A billionaire could never
understand life from the other side. “You think it’s okay for
family to be apart? The two of them are all they have. I would have
thought you would understand that.”

She saw him flinch at her
words. “Shelley is a drug user and an exotic dancer. Do you really
think this child will be better off with her? She needs medical
treatment. Did you ask her why Sara got to this stage?”

Ash placed her finger on
her lips. “Ssh. I wouldn’t want to wake her. What are you talking
about? Sara had an asthma attack. Do you have a magic ball that
tells you this could be prevented?”

Kieran ran his fingers
through his hair. He was frustrated with her. She was beginning to
figure out his signs. His little tell tale signs. Did he have a
magic ball? He looked down at his shoes and she followed his
gaze.

“
Shelley
could have prevented this. At the very least she could have
prevented this from getting to this point. I checked the clinic
records. She was given medication to give Sara. Medication I
suspect she sold for drugs.” Kieran lifted his chin.

A mother wouldn’t really
harm her child like that. Would she?

Ash blew out a slow
breath. “What is the alternative Kieran? I leave her to go to a
group home?” The thought took her back to a time she’d stowed away
into the dark recesses of her mind. The traumatic time that she
didn’t often visit unless she wanted to remind herself of how harsh
life could be.

His gaze swept along the
room and landed on her. “It’s not as bad as you think. She might
end up with a good family, someone who would love and take care of
her.”

Somehow she doubted that.
She clutched Sara’s hand. “Or she could end up with someone who
wants to use her. Ten years from now you would see her in one of
those exotic dance places her mother works in.”

The vein at Kieran’s
temple was beating at a rapid rate. A rate that frightened her.
There had to be a way to make him see reason. Make him see that
this child’s fate lay in his hands.

She went to him and took
his face in her hands so he could see she was serious. In his eyes
she saw surprise more than anything else. “Kieran, please listen to
me. I know what the future can hold for an innocent child like her.
Don’t do this.”

His gaze narrowed and she
had to drop her hands and look away. How could she explain her life
to him? The last twenty years of what she had to endure was
something she had never said to anyone.

He lifted her chin. His
finger grazed her chin and she felt little beads of energy run
across her skin. “Tell me.”

“
I was six
when my parents died in a car accident. I was in the car with
them.” She hadn’t remembered much except it being dark. She
remembered blood and her mother’s screams.

Kieran pulled her into
his arms. “I’m so sorry Ash. Do you remember what
happened?”

It was so easy to tell
him things she wasn’t willing to say to anyone else. “Blood. A huge
truck had hit us and both mama and papa were gone.”

“
No one
claimed me.” She sniffed. “Makes me sound like I belonged in
baggage claims.” The laugh sounded false even to her. “We were on
holiday at the time and it was harder for anyone to find out who to
call so I had to go to a group home.”

She pulled away as she
relayed the last part so she could look into his eyes. As the
pieces fell into place he nodded. “You can’t fix this Ash. At some
point she needs to be taken care of. If you had a bad experience in
the group home it doesn’t mean she would go down the same
path.”

She shook her head. “I
was lucky. My aunt came for me. She took care of me. I got out. It
could have been a different future for me if she
hadn’t.”

Kieran could never
understand what the other side lived with. He was a billionaire who
could do what he wanted. People like her were forced to do things
to survive. It was only when Kieran’s arms wrapped around her that
she realised that her sobbing could be the sound that woke
Sara.

“
Sshh, Ash,
you’ll wake her.” He held on tighter and she sobbed
harder.

Did defeat have a taste?
Her body went limp as she went boneless. This was meant to be
simple. This farce engagement was meant to help Kieran and maybe
find who she really was.

“
Ash, it’s
okay. We will make it work. We can find a rehab place for Shelley
and find someone to take of Sara. There is always a solution.” His
fingers felt good as they massaged her scalp.

And did he have to smell
good too? For the last week, they spent so much time apart, that
now she craved him. A complication she could do without.

He was always sure of
things. So sure of what the possibility could be. If only she could
have the same faith about her life then maybe she’d feel better
about the path she’d chosen.

The pounding in his head
was so bad, the room shook. The table toppled and the sound of
crashing glass pierced his consciousness. With sluggish uneven
movements that hurt, Kieran lifted his head. The darkened room had
a sliver of light beaming out from the room and he turned to the
source. Big mistake.

A sharp pain sliced
through the back of his skull and before he could lift himself off
the chair, he was pushed back down. He counted two people in the
office with him.