Page 25 of Mending Hearts at the Cornish Country Hospital (The Cornish Country Hospital #6)

When Eden spotted Ali, one of their regular patients in A&E, just before the start of a late shift, her heart sank.

She’d been on a high at the end of her previous shift, after a visit from Mei’s mother, Xiang, who had brought in a card and a huge box of chocolates to thank Eden for the care she’d given her daughter and to let her know that Mei had been diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

Although it could be an extremely serious condition, Mei’s symptoms had been relatively mild and she was already showing positive signs of progress, with the neurologists confident that she’d eventually make a full recovery.

Seeing Xiang and hearing Mei’s news had been a lovely reminder that sometimes everything worked out okay, and that the A&E team were often able to help patients take the first steps towards completely recovering.

She’d probably never see Mei again and for the young woman’s sake, she hoped that was true, but every emergency department had patients they knew by name, because of how regularly they used the service.

Sometimes it was because of genuine medical issues that necessitated recurrent admissions to hospital, but more often than not it was because of social problems or mental health issues.

The very worst kind of patients, though, were the ones who fell into the entitled category.

The type who’d go to A&E because they couldn’t get a GP appointment for a minor complaint.

Eden had seen them all, from patients with tiny splinters, to one who was too afraid to remove a plaster because of the pain and wanted someone to do it for her.

The key to surviving the difficult days in her job was being able to talk to the people who really understood it: her colleagues.

Back before she’d met Jesse, it had been normal for her to go to the pub with them after work, to debrief on the day.

Sometimes there’d be laughter and sometimes there’d be tears, but those times at the end of a shift were where colleagues could become friends, and it was something Eden wanted to have again.

When she’d lived with Jesse, he’d done his best to isolate her from not just her friends but her family too.

He’d tell her he couldn’t cope without her if she went to visit family, and his jealousy, paranoia and almost total reliance on Eden had made it difficult to maintain friendships.

She’d lost touch with her old friends from Port Kara, and many of them had moved away in the time she’d lived in London.

The new friends she’d made down there had slowly been driven away too, Jesse had made sure of it, and there’d been no more going out to the pub at the end of a shift.

The only person Eden had remained close to was one of the paramedics, Paul.

He’d entertain Jesse with stories about some of the patients they’d picked up.

One of the most ridiculous had been a woman who’d lost her bracelet and had phoned the ambulance and told the call centre operator she couldn’t breathe.

When Paul and his crew mate arrived, it had turned out she was stressed because of the lost bracelet and wanted someone to help her find it.

Thankfully that kind of thing was the exception.

The backgrounds of most of the regular patients were quite sad, people who were so lonely and desperate that calling an ambulance felt like their only chance of human connection.

Towards the end of her relationship with Jesse, Eden could see how that might happen to people.

If he’d had his way he’d have driven everyone else away.

He’d flown into a rage when she’d mentioned one of her conversations with Paul, in the hope that sharing an anecdote might raise a smile, in the midst of yet another one of his moods. She should have known better.

‘I bet you’d rather be with Paul, wouldn’t you?

I bet you’re already shagging him every chance you get.

’ Jesse’s face had been just inches from hers, spittle flying out of his mouth as he screamed the accusation.

She should have walked out then, just as she should have done a thousand times before, but even as she told him she couldn’t take this any more and that they couldn’t carry on like this, she knew what was coming.

It had been scarily predictable, and yet it had held so much power over her.

‘I might as well kill myself. There’s no point to me being here if I’m not with you.

I just hope you can live with it. Normal girlfriends don’t behave like you do and hang out with other men.

It’s no wonder I’m so depressed. I’m going to end it this time and it’s you who’s driven me to it.

’ The gaslighting had come as naturally to Jesse as breathing in and out, and he’d started acting as if he was going to carry out his threat, the same way he aways did.

Grabbing packets of painkillers from the bathroom cabinet and even holding a knife against his skin on the inside of his wrist. He never went through with it, but she had no way of knowing if that was because she always stayed.

If she left him and he ended his life it would be her fault, he made sure she was in no doubt of that.

The only person at work she’d confided in was Paul, but she’d been careful never to mention his name to Jesse again.

Ironically Paul had been the only person, apart from Felix, who’d been able to help her see that she needed to put herself first in the end.

‘I lived a lie for years, Eden. Tried to make my marriage work with Jane, even though all I was doing was making us both miserable. I felt terrible leaving and coming out, and I’m not going to say it wasn’t painful for both of us, but she’s remarried now too we’re all much happier now.

You only get one life and you can’t live it for anyone else.

’ Paul’s words had hit home. Eden giving up her life for Jesse wasn’t making him happy, he seemed incapable of even feeling that emotion, and it certainly wasn’t making her happy.

She desperately wanted to leave, but even after Paul’s sage advice, she couldn’t seem to take the final step.

It was only when Jesse began losing patience with Teddie that something in Eden snapped.

‘The little shit bit me.’ Jesse had taken their son by the shoulders and shaken him.

It wasn’t the first time Jesse had shown a flash of anger towards Teddie, but it was the first – and last – time he’d ever been physical.

Eden had called Felix in floods of tears and he’d told her that he was getting on the earliest flight back home and that she needed to do whatever it took to get herself and Teddie to safety in the meantime.

She’d left the same day, heading straight to Paul’s house, not caring in that moment what happened to Jesse, as long as Teddie was safe.

Her love for her son eclipsed the guilt she felt about leaving his father, and she didn’t look back.

Paul and his husband, Alastair, would have let them stay indefinitely, but Eden knew she needed to get far away from Jesse, and go home to Cornwall.

She’d called her parents and her father had driven straight to get her.

Felix had tried to insist that he would still fly over, but she’d told him that everything was okay and she was going back to Port Kara for good.

In the end it had been that simple and, looking back, it seemed like the woman who’d stayed with Jesse for all those years had been someone else.

She’d thought she could save him, but the only person capable of doing that had been Jesse.

She still worried about what he might be doing, and who else he might be drawing into his twisted world, but he wasn’t her problem any more.

He couldn’t be, because Teddie needed her more than he ever had.

It had been more than nine months since she’d come home and Jesse hadn’t come to find her or even attempted to contact her parents.

In the beginning, she’d been sure it was just a matter of time before he turned up and, when he didn’t, guilt and doubt had started to creep in.

What if he’d followed through on his threat and it hadn’t all just been a way of guilt tripping her into staying?

She didn’t want to initiate contact with either Jesse or Sadie, so she’d emailed her old landlord, who’d confirmed that Jesse was still living at the flat.

He was alive, she knew that much, and that was enough to know she’d made the right decision.

Teddie had been the one to save her and he was still showing her the way even now.

Eden knew how lucky she was to have the support of her family, especially given the distance that had grown between them during her time with Jesse. Not everyone was that lucky.

Seeing Ali now, waiting in A&E, she was reminded of some of the conversations she’d had with Paul about how sad and lonely some people’s lives were.

Ali deliberately neglected his injuries to get treatment and medication, because that seemed like a better option than being ignored, or fully aware of the world around him, without the edge somehow being taken off.

It broke Eden’s heart that he felt that way.

‘Hi Ali, are you okay?’ Her shift wasn’t due to start for another twenty minutes, so she had time to chat to him. Maybe she could brief whoever was triaging patients and give them a bit of background. She really liked Ali, he wasn’t a bad person, just a very damaged one.

‘Hi Eden.’ A smile lit up his face as he spoke, and he looked different somehow.

His hygiene was undoubtedly better than it had often been in the past, and his clothes were cleaner too, but there was something else she couldn’t put her finger on, a look in his eyes she couldn’t quite define. ‘Actually, I’m doing okay.’