Free Borrowed Wife by Patrícia Wilson Page B

passage. It was a small room with only three beds and at the
moment there was only one patient there. Abigail went close to the glass and
bit down on her lip in shock.
    If there
had been others there she would not have known which one to look at because the
man in the high white bed was nothing like her father. He seemed to have grown
smaller overnight. His face was as white as his hair but even that was not the
cause of the unspeakable stock she felt.
    He seemed
almost less than human because there were tubes running from the bed and he
seemed to be attached to so much machinery that to imagine him opening his eyes
and being at all normal was impossible. At that moment she felt all hope
disappear.
    She dosed
her eyes, swaying dizzily, and the sister took her arm to steady her.
    ‘It’s not
some crud fancy of ours to restrict visitors, Mrs. Steele,’ she pointed out in
a suddenly kind voice. Sometimes visitors can’t cope with it. It’s frightening
for members of the family to see this sort of thing, and so unnecessary. By
tomorrow or the next day your father may very well be more normal and you could
have been spared the shock of this. Your husband should have prevented you from
coming.’
    ‘He—he
tried to.’ Abigail muttered. ‘He told me I wouldn’t be able to see my father.’
    But she
had distrusted him as usual, she reminded herself, and Logan could not have
foreseen that her father would be in this slate. Would he have tried to stop
her coming if he had realised? It was something that was impossible to know.
    ‘Has—has
my father asked for me?’ she enquired shakily as the sister led her away
    ‘Not to
my knowledge. He’s come round on several occasions but it was difficult to know
how much he understood when he was awake. He was agitated each time. He talked
about ‘the company’ but it was so mixed up that I couldn’t actually tell you
what he said.’
    ‘I can
guess,’ Abigail assured her dully. It would be all about the Madden
Corporation, not about her. His life was the company and even when he hung
between life and death it was the Madden Corporation that filled his mind.
    Things
had never been any different so why should she expect a change now? Even her
mother had taken second place to the Madden Corporation. Her own place was and
always had been very low on the list of priorities. If he fought to live it
would not be so that he could see her again. It would be to watch his company
sink into the dust.
    Abigail
went back to the flat and it was not until she arrived that she realised she no
longer had keys to it. All those sorts of things she had thrown out when she
had left Logan four years earlier and for a second she stood on the step at the
front door, wondering almost in a daze what exactly she should do.
    Logan opened the door as she was turning away and
without a word she went in and walked past him.
    I take it
that you’ve been to the hospital?’ He came into the sitting room and stood by
the door, a frown on his face as he saw her expression. ‘Yes. I saw him.
They—they wouldn’t let me at first but I insisted. They let me go to the window
and I could see ... I could see...’
    ‘You little fool!’ Logan strode forward and firmly put her into a chair. Before she knew it there was a glass
of brandy in her hand and Logan was standing over her as she sipped the drink.
It was very obvious that she was in no condition to argue with him and after a
second he went to stand by the window, staring out into the street.
    ‘What
have you gained by this visit, Abigail?’ he finally asked wearily.
    ‘I saw
him.’
    At the
dull sound of her voice he spun round, his grey eyes blazing.
    ‘Damn it
all, Abigail!’ he rasped. ‘Why didn’t you listen to me? Why didn’t you let me
take care of you? You’re no more capable of stepping firmly on this earth than
you ever were. God knows how you get through a day at that office. I’m not even
sure how you manage to survive from minute to