the case with my heroine, Isla—she is outwardly strong, with a demanding job and an exciting social life, but there is a side to her that she lets no one see. I knew it would take a very special hero to discover the real Isla, behind the rather glamorous façade. Alessi is all that and more.
I hope you enjoy Isla and Alessi’s story.
Happy reading!
Carol x
CAROL MARINELLI recently filled in a form where she was asked for her job title and was thrilled, after all these years, to be able to put down her answer as ‘writer’. Then it asked what Carol did for relaxation. After chewing her pen for a moment Carol put down the truth—‘writing’. The third question asked: ‘What are your hobbies?’ Well, not wanting to look obsessed or, worse still, boring, she crossed the fingers on her free hand and answered ‘swimming and tennis’. But, given that the chlorine in the pool does terrible things to her highlights, and the closest she’s got to a tennis racket in the last couple of years is watching the Australian Open, I’m sure you can guess the real answer!
‘ISLA …’ THE PANIC and fear was evident in Cathy’s voice. ‘What are all those alarms?’
‘They’re truly nothing to worry about,’ Isla said, glancing over to the anaesthetist and pleased to see that he was changing the alarm settings so as to cause minimal distress to Cathy.
‘Was it about the baby?’
Isla shook her head. ‘It was just letting the anaesthetist know that your blood pressure is a little bit low but we expect that when you’ve been given an epidural.’ Isla sat on a stool at the head of the theatre table and did her best to reassure a very anxious Cathy as her husband, Dan, got changed to come into Theatre and be there for his wife.
‘It’s not the baby that’s making all the alarms go off?’ Cathy checked again.
‘No, everything looks fine with the baby.’
‘I’m so scared, Isla.’
‘I know that you are,’ Isla said as she stroked Cathy’s cheek. ‘But everything is going perfectly.’
This Caesarean section had to go perfectly.
Isla, head nurse at the Melbourne Maternity Unit at the Victoria Hospital, or MMU, as it was more regularly known, had been there for Dan and Cathy during some particularly difficult times. There was little more emotional or more difficult in Isla’s work than delivering a stillborn baby and she had been there twice for Cathy and Dan at such a time. As hard as it was, there was a certain privilege to being there, too—making a gut-wrenching time somehow beautiful, making the birth and the limited time with their baby poignant in a way that the family might only appreciate later.
Cathy and Dan’s journey to parenthood had been hellish. They had undergone several rounds of IVF, had suffered through four miscarriages and there had been two stillbirths which Isla had delivered.
Now, late afternoon on Valentine’s Day, their desperately wanted baby was about to be born.
Cathy had initially been booked in next Thursday for a planned Caesarean section at thirty-seven weeks gestation. However, she had rung the MMU two hours ago to say that she thought she was going into labour and had been told to come straight in.
Cathy had delivered her other babies naturally. Even though the labours had often been long and difficult with a stillborn, it was considered better for the mother to deliver that way.
As head of midwifery, Isla’s job was supposedly nine to five, only she had long since found out that babies ran to their own schedules.
This evening she’d had a budget meeting scheduled which, on the news of Cathy’s arrival, Isla had excused herself from. As well as that, she’d had drinks scheduled at the Rooftop Garden Bar to welcome Alessandro Manos, a neonatologist who was due to start at the Victoria on Monday.
For now it could all simply wait.
There was no way that Isla would miss this birth.
At twenty-eight years of age Isla was young for such a senior position and a lot of people had at first assumed that Isla had got the job simply because her father, Charles Delamere, was the CEO of the Victoria.
They’d soon found out otherwise.
Yes, outside the hospital Isla and her sister Isabel, the obstetrician who was operating on Cathy this evening, were very well known thanks to their prominent family. Glamorous, gorgeous and blonde, the press followed the sisters’ busy lives with interest. There were many functions they were expected to attend and the two women shared a luxurious penthouse and dressed in the latest designer clothes and regularly stepped onto the red carpet.
That was all work to Isla.
The MMU was her passion, though—here she was herself.
She sat now dressed in scrubs, her long blonde hair tucked beneath a pink theatre cap, her full lips hidden behind a mask, and no one cared in the theatre that she was Isla Delamere, Melbourne socialite, apparently dating Rupert, whom she had gone to school with and who was now a famous Hollywood actor.
To everyone here she was simply Isla—strict, fair and loyal. She expected the same focus and attention from her staff that she gave to the patients, and she generally got it. Some thought her cool and aloof but the mothers generally seemed to appreciate her calm professionalism.
‘Here’s Dan.’ Isla smiled as Dan nervously made his way over. He really was an amazing man and had been an incredible support to his wife through the dark times. His tears had been shed in private, he had told Isla, well away from his shocked wife. Many had said he should share the depths of his grief with Cathy but Isla understood why he chose not to.
Sometimes staying strong meant holding back.
‘Dan, I’m sure that something is wrong …’ Cathy said.
Dan glanced over at Isla, who gave him a small, reassuring shake of the head as her eyes told him that everything was fine.
‘Everything is going well, Cathy,’ Dan said. ‘You’re doing an amazing job, so just try and relax …’
‘I can feel something,’ Cathy said in a panicked voice, and Isla stepped in.
‘Do you remember that I said you would feel some tugging?’ Isla reminded her.
‘Cathy!’ Isabel’s voice alerted Isla. ‘Your baby is nearly out—look up at the screen …’
Isla looked up to the green sheets that had been placed so that Cathy could not see the surgery going on on the other side. ‘Your baby is out,’ Isabel said, ‘and looks amazing …’
‘There’s no crying,’ Cathy said.
‘Just wait, Cathy,’ Dan said, his voice reassuring his wife, though the poor man must be terrified.
Even
