Free Before She Was Mine by Kate Long Page A

sliding her hand into Liv’s shoulder bag to retrieve a set of
keys, and her shriek as her fingers touched cold slime. Liv hurrying in, reassuring: It’s only rotted apple. I keep it to attract the voles. Melody’s eyes wide and disbelieving
as she took the proffered towel.
    The scanning-room door opened and Liv emerged. Her face was so grim I couldn’t help but assume the worst. ‘Well?’ I said as she sat down next to me.
    ‘I’m not sure they think there’s a problem,’ she said tightly.
    ‘Oh.’ That I hadn’t been expecting. ‘Did they see it had grown?’
    ‘Only by half a millimetre, and that’s not significant. They allow a margin of error anyway.’
    She hung her head.
    ‘Let them do this second biopsy,’ I said.
    ‘I don’t know. We could just go home. Aside from the lump I feel perfectly healthy.’
    ‘You’re here, though, it’s all set up.’
    ‘I don’t want to be a bother.’
    I stood up. Several patients turned their heads in my direction. ‘ Bother? What the hell are you talking about?’
    ‘Freya.’
    ‘Well, for God’s sake, Mum. What are you trying to do to me?’
    ‘Sit down,’ she hissed. ‘All right, I’ll go. Just don’t make a fuss. It’s bad enough as it is.’
    Which made me feel like a kid being told off for having a tantrum. It’s funny, even decent mothers have a way of making you feel like crap sometimes.
    Straight after the biopsy they gave Liv a special pager. We were supposed to go for a wander round the hospital, then, when we got the bleep, come back in for the results.
    ‘Where do you want to go?’ I asked.
    ‘I’m not sure there’s anywhere to go. Walk round the grounds, maybe.’
    ‘It’s raining. Does that matter?’
    ‘I think I’d like to be outside, Frey.’
    We strolled across two giant car parks, shiny with the wet, and I thought about the opening sequence of 28 Days Later where nearly everyone in Britain has died of the Rage virus
and the hospital’s been left smashed and deserted. This place felt uncaring in its bustling efficiency, its normal busy-ness.
    Round the back of the maternity unit, where it was quieter, Liv found an interesting hedge containing an old blackbird nest, and we watched some finches and siskins fly back and forth between
two maples.
    ‘This biopsy’s only double-checking,’ I said, pushing back my hood so I could see her better. ‘Everything’s been clear so far. Just get this last hurdle out of the
way and you can put it all behind you.’
    Liv’s hand came up again to her bicep, even though I knew she wouldn’t be able to feel anything through her coat.
    ‘It hurts,’ she said. ‘A surprising amount. It hurts a bit when they scan you because they squash you so hard, but it bloody hurts when they put the needle in.’ She
studied the white sky. ‘I suppose that’s nothing.’
    She meant compared with cancer treatment.
    I said, ‘Hey, guess what, Melody’s pregnant.’
    Her mouth fell open. ‘Melody?’
    ‘Yup. It’s a secret, though. Don’t say anything.’
    ‘I can’t believe it. Melody? How many weeks?’
    ‘Not many. About eight.’
    ‘Good grief. Was it planned?’
    ‘I don’t know.’ I hadn’t thought to ask. ‘Not much in Melody’s life is, so I doubt it.’
    ‘Well!’
    ‘She’s really pleased. I mean, even if it was an accident, she’s happy, she’s going to keep it.’
    ‘And her boyfriend? There is someone around, is there?’
    ‘Some guy called Joe. He’s hot news, apparently. I’m meeting him tonight.’
    ‘It’s all go, isn’t it?’ said Liv. She walked ahead of me for a few paces, then stopped and looked back at me through the rain. ‘You know, I honestly can’t
get my head round this. How on earth does she think she’ll cope with a new baby at her age?’
    ‘She’s not that old. In some ways she’s pretty young.’
    ‘Quite.’
    ‘She’ll have to change her lifestyle—’
    ‘Won’t she just?’
    ‘Get some more practical clothes, at