Page 27 of The Un-Apparent Heir

“She will figure it out. That’s not your problem,” Sanne said. “You want to take care of everyone, but sometimes you must take care of Lucy because she's important to many people.”

“Lucy is… she doesn’t even know. She’s probably always making things worse, to be honest.”

“Impossible!” Sanne shook her head. “Luce, you keep us all running. We could do a lot more for you, sweetheart. And that little boy? You’re his whole world. Your husband? You’re Winston’s everything, Lucy.”

“Am I? Every time I come back here… it’s eerie. I begin to doubt if I belong here. I don’t. And if I don’t belong here… do I belong there?”

“Lucy, you’re one of the most powerful people in London. So, yes.”

“You think?”

“Yes,” Sanne was confused as to why her friend was on this spiral.

“Lucy, darling,” Rita, the Duchess of Lauderdale, approached her daughter-in-law. “Bruno and I are going to cut and run before this storm comes in. Sanne, are you and Paul still staying on?”

Sanne nodded. “Thanks for offering to bring us back, but we want to help.”

“Understood. Well, stay safe in the storm, alright? Lucy, darling, if you need anything, just ring me. Anything at all. And if you want to dump Malcolm on us for a couple of days when you return, the door is always open. He’s our favourite person.”

Lucy smiled, “Thanks.”

Rita left.

Lucy kicked the ground with the toe of her boot. “I want to go home so badly, but I must help. Francine is flagging and she’s trying to finish law school.”

“I get it,” Sanne said.

She realised that when Lucy said home, she meant London. Sanne wondered if she would ever call it home. For Sanne, being within fifteen miles of Lake Michigan meant home. Home meant this little stretch of the upper Midwest. It meant this skyline and the dunes. She didn’t know if London would ever feel like home. She hoped someday it might. But, for now, this was home. And the minute she got back on a plane, leaving her sister, mothers, and niece, Sanne would be homesick.

“Dr Yang, hi,” Natalie answered the phone excitedly.

She and Ed waited to hear when their transfer would be scheduled the next day. Natalie fought through the bloating and pain, praying they would get this over with and she’d soon be having a baby, as planned.

“Hello, Natalie,” the consultant said. “Is your husband there?”

“I’m putting you on speaker,” Natalie said.

“Okay.”

The consultant’s voice was stable, but not excited. Natalie worried something was wrong.

“So, we had three embryos make it through day three,” the doctor said. “But, unfortunately, I have bad news.”

“We only have one?” Natalie asked.

“No. You have none. You had no viable embryos remaining this morning. I am so sorry, you two. I know how hard we tried. You had so many good prospects, but I think the issue is just sperm quality at the end of the day.”

Ed looked upset. He paced.

“So now what?” Natalie asked.

“Well, normally, I would suggest two things. One, that we try IUI?—”

“Well, let’s do that, then,” Ed said.

“That would require donor sperm. So, in this case, I cannot recommend that, sir.”

Natalie hung on. Doctors always fixed things. They always had solutions, right?

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