The Perfect Husband (2 page)

For all the praise and attention he received
from his colleagues at the hospital, it didn’t stop him from
lashing out at her and accusing her of spending too much time with
their son. She was shocked when she realized he was jealous of
their baby.

“What’s for dessert?” Nigel asked and pushed
away his empty plate.

Isobel stared at it. She wasn’t surprised
he’d retained his appetite. If anything, their confrontations
seemed to fuel his hunger, including his need for her. Later, there
would be no escaping his attentions, no matter how disinterested
she was.

Pushing that depressing thought aside, she
stood up from the table and gathered up the dirty plates. “I made a
pie.”

Nigel merely grunted. Isobel turned to her
son and forced a smile. “Ben, would you bring Sophie’s plate to the
sink, please?”

Her son obediently did as she asked and
followed her silently into the kitchen. She set the dirty crockery
down on the counter and then relieved him of his.

“Thank you, honey. Now, would you like to
have some apple pie and ice cream?”

He nodded somberly, looking so much older
than his five-and-a-half years. “Are you sure you’re all right,
Mom? Your eye looks kind of weird.”

Reflexively, Isobel reached up and touched
the tender spot. She could feel the swelling beneath her fingers.
Great, just what she needed.
She was rostered back on at
work the next evening.

“I’m fine, honey. I already told you. Now,
go and get everyone a bowl.” She gave him a gentle push in the
direction of the cupboard. He turned back to face her.

“Why does Dad hurt you like that?”

Her breath caught in her throat and she
closed her eyes briefly against the pain. When she opened them
again, Ben was still regarding her with a solemn expression. Not
knowing how to answer him, she bent down on one knee and drew him
close. She held his gaze, silently imploring him to understand.

“Daddy and I love you and Sophie so much.
You know that, don’t you?”

His eyes glittered with tears. His tiny
shrug sent shards of pain stabbing through her heart. “I guess,” he
whispered in a voice so soft she had to strain to hear him.

“Sometimes Daddy gets upset, that’s all. He
doesn’t mean to hurt me. He works very hard as a doctor. He has a
very difficult job. Sometimes he comes home after a long day at
work and he needs to let off steam.”

Ben frowned. “What does that mean?”

Isobel fished around for an answer. “It
means, instead of getting angry at his work colleagues, he yells
and shouts at me. We all treat our family worse than our friends.
It’s just the way it is.”

“Well, I don’t like it. I don’t like it one
bit.”

She breathed through the tightness in her
chest and hugged him. “I don’t like it either, honey, but right
now, we just have to let Daddy have his space. Now, where’s the ice
cream?”

She stood and moved away from him, wishing
she could wipe the bleakness from his eyes. A moment later, he
turned and opened the cupboard and retrieved the ice cream bowls.
With a deep breath, she strode to the freezer and tugged out the
tub of double-chocolate ripple.

“Let’s have two scoops tonight, shall we?”
She winked and was rewarded with the tiniest of smiles.

“Can we have some chocolate topping and
cream and cherries on the top?” he asked quietly.

“Of course! Let’s do it! I’ll even let you
go first.”

His smile widened and chased the shadows
from his eyes. Isobel breathed a sigh of relief and wondered how
long his happiness would last.

Dear Diary,

My name is Isobel Donnelly and I am married
to a monster. I keep this diary as a record of the nightmare that
is my life.

If I disappear without a word of good-bye or
explanation, never to be heard of again, let these words be my
witness and my salvation.

My name is Isobel Donnelly and I am married
to a monster…

* * *

Doctor Mason Alexander rounded the corner at
the end of the corridor and swallowed a lump of nerves. It wasn’t
that he was fearful about entering the pediatric ward of the Sydney
Harbour Hospital, but the first day of a new job was always a
little daunting. There were staff members to meet, politics to
absorb and egos to stroke. The patients were the least of his
worries. In fact, he found the patients were the easy part.

From the time he finished medical school and
stepped onto a ward wearing a white coat that identified him as a
doctor, he’d wanted to work in pediatrics. There was something
about the hopefulness in sick kids when they had no right to feel
that way that pulled at his heartstrings. It made him so much more
determined to heal them.

“Good-morning, you must be Doctor Alexander.
We’ve been expecting you.” The woman who greeted him stuck out her
hand and he shook it firmly. Her navy-blue uniform and the badge
pinned to her lapel identified her as Georgina Whitely, the Nursing
Unit Manger.

“Please, call me Mason. It’s great to be
here.”

The nurse smiled and touched her hair. A
faint blush stole up her cheeks. She looked close to his age and a
glance at her left hand showed that she didn’t wear a ring. She was
far from unattractive, but he wasn’t in the right headspace for a
flirtation, even an innocent one.

The woman offered him another smile.
“Welcome to the Sydney Harbour Hospital, Mason. I’m Georgie.”

“Thanks, Georgie, it’s nice to be here. I’ve
moved from up north, in the country. The last hospital I worked in
was tiny compared to this one,” he told her.

She waved away his comment. “Seen inside one
hospital, you’ve seen inside them all. They’re all the same. Don’t
worry, I have everything covered. I’ve worked on this very ward for
half a decade. If there’s anything you need, just let me know.”

She winked and Mason blushed. It wasn’t
exactly a come on, but there was an obvious interest in her warm
brown eyes. He hurried to move the conversation to a less personal
footing.

“I have eight children on my patient list.
Do you mind joining me on ward rounds? The sooner I get acquainted
with them and their parents, the better. I try to get kids in and
out of hospital as soon as possible. Everyone’s happier that
way.”

“You won’t get any argument from me. I’m all
for a quick turnover. They generally do better at home, surrounded
by their family and their own things.”

“Good. Shall we?” He indicated with his head
toward the corridor that stretched out before them with rooms
coming off on either side. Georgie glanced at her watch.

“I’ll introduce you to the staff along the
way. It won’t be long before there’s a change of shift. If you’re
lucky, you might be able to meet the evening staff, too.”

Mason nodded. Familiarizing himself with the
nursing staff so quickly was ideal. As far as he was concerned,
nurses were the front line of healers. The doctors depended upon
them and their ability to relate accurate observations of a
patient’s condition over the phone. If the nurse’s observations
could be relied upon, it made the doctor’s job a lot easier,
particularly if the doctor couldn’t be in attendance on the ward at
the time.

His outstretched hand indicated Georgie
could precede him. “Lead the way.”

Forty-five minutes later, Mason made the
last notation on his patient list and smiled farewell to the young
boy in the bed in front of him who’d been admitted to the hospital
two days earlier suffering with pneumonia. The IV antibiotics were
doing the trick and the boy’s chest sounded almost clear. His fever
had subsided and his cough had improved. In another day or so, he’d
be right to go home.

“That’s all for now, Mason,” Georgie said as
they walked back toward the nurses’ station. She smiled. “We’ll see
what the evening brings.”

“You run a tight ship, Georgie. I’m
impressed. And I can see how the staff look up to you. You’re a
good nurse.”

She blushed at his words and looked away,
but he’d meant every word. It wasn’t always the case that staff
held their boss in such high esteem. Of the five nurses he’d
already met, they each appeared devoted to their patients and to
their job. It was refreshing to see and all of a sudden, he knew he
was going to enjoy working at the Sydney Harbour Hospital.

“The staff rostered on the evening shift
have just arrived. If you have time, and you’re not all peopled
out, I’d like to introduce you to a few more of our nurses.”

He nodded at Georgie. “Of course. It might
take me a few days to get all the names straight, but I’d like to
meet as many of them as I can. I want to make sure they know how
important they are to my team.”

Georgie looked at him sideways. “You’re a
rare breed of doctor, Mason. It’s not often one of your kind
recognizes the contribution the nursing staff make. I like it.”

He smiled. “I can’t speak for my colleagues,
but the way I see it, without competent nursing staff, there’s
chaos. There’s no way we’d be able to provide the quality
day-to-day care you guys do. I admire and respect you for your
ability to do what needs to done. It isn’t always pretty.”

She chuckled. “You certainly have that
right.” She led him around the corner and came to a stop outside a
door that had a handwritten sign reading: Staff Only. With a gentle
push, she opened the door and he followed her inside.

The room was on the small side and was
painted a nondescript gray. A large table filled most of the
available space. Nurses in uniform sat around it, talking and
drinking coffee. Upon Georgie’s entry, the chatter subsided.

“People, I’d like you to meet Doctor Mason
Alexander. He’s started with us today and will no doubt get to know
all of you over the coming weeks. I’d like you to make him feel
welcome.”

A chorus of friendly greetings followed
Georgie’s announcement and Mason nodded in response. His gaze
wandered over the women gathered around the table. One of them
remained still, with her back to him. When his gaze fell upon her,
his heart skipped a beat. Even from the back, she looked so much
like…
No, it couldn’t be. It was some other woman with the same
shade of red hair. It was just wishful thinking…

The nurse turned to face him and he
swallowed a gasp. Looking as stunned as he felt, she stared at him,
her eyes wide with shock.

“Isobel West? Is that you? I don’t believe
it!” Forgetting for a moment where he was, he stepped forward and
reached out to her. She shrunk back against her seat and his
movements came to an abrupt halt. Confused and embarrassed, he
turned away.

“I’m sorry, I must be mistaken. I… I thought
you were someone else.”

“There’s no mistake,” came a soft reply from
a voice he hadn’t heard for a decade. “But I’m Isobel Donnelly,
now. It’s good to see you, Mason.”

Georgie looked bemused. “Do you two know
each other?”

“Yes,” he replied. “That is, we knew each
other in high school. We haven’t seen each other since the night of
our graduation.”

“Wow, what a small world,” one of the other
nurses said and pushed away from the table.

“Yes,” Isobel murmured and offered him a
tentative smile.

“We’ll leave you to catch up,” Georgie
offered and the rest of the nurses followed her out the door.

Too soon, the room had emptied. Mason’s
heart thumped and all of a sudden, he was right back in high school
again, yearning for the love of the girl he could never have. “So,
you and Nigel got married.”

Isobel nodded and her smile looked a little
forced. “Yes, we married straight out of high school and then
headed to college. I studied nursing at the University of Western
Sydney. Nigel studied medicine.”

Mason was filled with surprise. “Nigel’s a
doctor? I’d never have believed he had it in him. He didn’t seem to
have time to remain focused on anything other than sports.”

“Yes, being a doctor’s a long way from a
football jock, but that’s what he wanted to do. He’s now an
orthopedic surgeon.”

“Good on him,” Mason forced himself to say.
“Where does he work?”

“Here, at the Sydney Harbour Hospital.”

“That must make things easier?”

“You’d think it would, having us both
working at the same place, but it hasn’t worked out that way.” She
sighed and dropped her gaze.

“Oh?” he asked, stepping closer, but once
again, she moved to put distance between them. He was caught
between wanting to know more, yet not wanting to listen to another
word about her life with another man.

“We have two young children,” she explained
in a lighter tone, staring at the bright plastic sheet that passed
for a tablecloth.

Kids.
She and Nigel had kids. Mason’s
heart squeezed with pain and an old, familiar longing tightened his
chest. He struggled to breathe. All these years he’d thought he was
over her. Had convinced himself of that and moved on.
He’d even
married Sue Ann, hadn’t he?
And he’d cared for his wife. Just
not enough.

Suppressing a weary sigh, Mason forced
himself to respond. “Two kids. That’s great. How old are they?”

“Ben’s nearly six and Sophie’s just turned
three.”

“Wow, they must keep you busy.”

She nodded and turned her head toward him
for a brief moment. This time, her smile seemed genuine. “Yes, they
do. It’s why I only work part time. I didn’t want them spending
every day in care. Nigel looks after them on the evenings I
work.”

“So this is one of your regular shifts?”

“No, actually, I’m rostered to work the
night shift, but I received a call from staffing a little earlier.
They’re down on numbers. There’s a flu going around. We’re not the
only ward short-staffed. I agreed to come in and work a
double.”