"How is your wife doing, Dr. Wilton? How's the baby?" one of the nurses asked Edward when he stopped at the nurses' station to fill out some paperwork.
"Great. They're both doing wonderfully," Edward said with a smile.
"You seem excited to be a father."
"I'm very excited. I've waited for this for a long time. I can't wait to be a father. I don't even care if we have a boy or a girl. As long as he or she is healthy and Alma does well, I will be so happy."
"Oh hello, Veronica."
"Hi, Ed. I heard you're going to be a father soon. Congratulations."
"Thank you," he said simply and paused before changing the subject. "I heard you're going to be leaving us soon."
"Yes, for awhile anyway. Arthur and I are finally taking that trip we always talked about taking when he retired. I'm glad he's finally taking an interest in things again."
"That's good. It sounds like you're looking forward to it."
"I am. I hate to leave my patients, even though I know they'll be in good hands with Dr. Pons, and I'll miss my stepdaughter, Eileen, but I am looking forward to it. I think this will be good for us."
"Well . . . I wish you well."
"Eileen? Is everything alright?" Arthur asked.
Eileen turned from the envelope she had been staring at and looked at her father. "Hector sent me something." She furrowed her brows as she turned it over in her hands. Finally she dropped it unopened into the trash and turned away.
"Shouldn't you see what it is, at least?"
"I don't even want to know. I don't want to hear anything from him. I don't want to be reminded of him. I don't want to think about him or any of it."
While her back was turned, Arthur took the letter out of the trash and put it in the pocket of his sweater. "I understand, dear. The truth has been hard on all of us."
"I keep thinking about the trial," Eileen said quietly. "I'm still trying to convince myself that I did the right thing."
"Of course you did. You did the only right thing there was to do. Don't tell me you're wishing you had lied to the police or lied on the stand."
"No, I'm not thinking that at all. I know what I did was the right thing to do. That's what I keep telling myself, but . . . I don't understand why I feel so bad about it anyway. Do you think they would have found Hector guilty if I hadn't testified that he confessed?"
"I'm not sure," Arthur said thoughtfully. "But I have no doubt your testimony played a big part in the jury's decision and I'm very proud of you for telling what you knew and staying so collected throughout the whole ordeal. You handled it very well."
Eileen shrugged. "I don't feel like I'm handling it very well . . . I know nothing that happened is my fault and I know I would have felt even worse than I do now if the jury hadn't believed me, but I just wish I didn't feel so guilty."
"I wish I knew what to say to make you feel better, but I've been struggling with it myself," Arthur admitted. "I always thought myself a good judge of character and now I find out just how much has been going on right under my nose. It's not easy to accept."
"No, it isn't."
"Anyway I am glad this business is over with and Hector is in jail." Arthur paused when Eileen looked at him with surprise. "I thought I knew Hector, but after this I wouldn't know what to put past him. At least I can rest a little easier about leaving you on your own knowing that he's behind bars instead of living right next door . . . Maybe Veronica and I should postpone our trip," Arthur said thoughtfully. "Maybe we should wait until this isn't so recent to go."
"No, there's no reason for you to stay. You should go, just like you planned. I'll be fine."
"Even so, why don't you ask your friend Chloe to stay with you? Or maybe you could stay with her while we're away."
Eileen rolled her eyes. "Chloe is busy with her own life. Besides, I'll be fine on my own. I am an adult, you know, and I'm sure I can take care of myself. Other people my age do."
"Yes, I know you can, but I still worry about you, no matter how old you are. And you'll find it's different when you're actually on your own."
"I won't be completely alone. I still have friends around . . ." Eileen frowned momentarily. She wanted to list Lucy among those friends, but wasn't sure if she could. "And I know plenty of people in town. I'll be fine. You and Veronica deserve this vacation and I want you both to have a good time. Don't worry about me."
"I'm sorry I'm late."
Lucy jumped at the sound of Justin's voice. She had been staring out the window, so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't heard him come in.
"I had to wait for Mrs. Burgess to return from visiting her son before I could leave."
"Oh," Lucy simply said.
"I've sorted the applications for the position of the new events coordinator. You'll have to look over them of course, but I place the ones I found most promising at the top."
Lucy sat down and picked up the stack of applications. The one on top had a familiar name.
"Eileen?" she said in disbelief. She couldn't believe that her former friend had applied for this job. "Oh, no way, this one is going to the bottom of the stack."
"But she seems to be qualified. I was very impressed with her resume and I thought being a friend of yours would make her the perfect candidate."
"She's no friend of mine."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed."
"It's alright," Lucy said, moving on to the next application, but she barely looked at it. "Maybe I shouldn't be so harsh towards her. She did speak up about Hector eventually, but when I think about how long she knew about what had happened and never said one word or gave one hint, I get so angry. I wonder how many other things she could be keeping from me."
Not sure what to say, Justin nodded sympathetically, but didn't interrupt her.
"I wonder if our friendship is even worth it. It seems like there's always something that comes along and tears our friendship apart just when it seems the strongest. It's not easy to deal with that over and over again. If it's not her lying about my father's death, it's her throwing doubt on my marriage when I had just gotten engaged . . . I guess she might have been right about Craig though. Maybe I shouldn't have married him.
At the mention of Craig's name, Justin straightened. He wanted to know more, but asking about the personal details of her marriage seemed completely inappropriate.
Lucy seemed to snap out of her thoughts and become suddenly aware of where she was and why they were there. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be dumping all of my problems and baggage on you." She picked up the stack of applications. "I should be reviewing these applications instead of wasting your time."
"Yes," he agreed, but after a moment's hesitation, he added boldly, "But I really don't mind being here for you, as an ear to listen. Sometimes it seems there are so few people to share your problems with."
Lucy looked up at him and nodded. "It especially seems that way now, when I keep thinking about everyone who isn't here for me in one way or another. There's so few people you can really count on in life."
"You can count on me."
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