CAPTURE THIS (Updating regularly)

Chapter 10

"Let's go," Mr Riley told her abruptly, walking straight past her to the front door. 

Amber steadily followed behind him, unable to meet his gaze.

The drive to the hospital was not a long one, but on this particular day, it seemed to take twice as long as it usually did.

"We need to talk about Ann." 

Mr Riley said the words calmly, with his eyes fixed ahead on the road outstretched in front of them. 

Amber sighed quietly. It was inevitable that they would speak again at some point and that first conversation was never going to be a pleasant one. 

"I was being too stubborn. Your mother always hated that about me," he said quietly, as though he was talking to himself. "I love you and your sister. I am just trying to do what is best."

Amber opened her mouth to speak but he got there before she could say anything. 

"Just hear me out, Amber. I know that you don't think this is best for her but there are just some things that I know better than you do. I'm not trying to be condescending or patronising. I'm just being honest." 

Amber took a moment to digest what he had said. She could hear the defeated honesty in his voice. She felt the guilt sink through her stomach like an anchor. 

"I guess I overreacted a little," she confessed, choosing her words carefully. She didn't want to sound too defensive. "I shouldn't have said what I did about Mum." 

Mr Riley sighed as they stopped at a traffic light. He ran a hand through his thinning hair. "You were right, she wouldn't have agreed with me. We would have argued about this and she'd make me sleep on the couch..." 

Amber felt her heart begin to swell painfully in her chest at the sound of her father's wistful tone. 

He cleared his throat and apparently his voice of all emotion. "But your mother isn't here any more. And you're not your mother. I have to make this decision alone and this is my decision." 

Amber leant back against the headrest of her seat and exhaled a breath she didn't know she had been holding. 

"I don't want this to come between us, Amber. I lost your mother, I don't want to lose you and Ann."

Amber glanced down at her hands in her lap. "You're not going to lose us, Dad." 

"It feels like I already have." 

He sounded so brutally honest and pained that Amber felt a lump rising in her throat but before she could feel her emotions, her father got out of the car and walked around to the back to help her out. 

They made their way to the ward in silence. By the time they had gotten into the doctor's office, their conversation in the car had been forgotten. Mr Riley was his usual self, insistent on asking as many questions as possible to ensure nothing would go wrong after they got home. 

"Oh, the wound is looking great," the doctor announced as Amber lifted her skirt enough for him to examine it. "I don't think you needed to use the crutches as long as you did, if I'm honest." 

Amber rolled her eyes in slight annoyance. "I wish I had known that earlier." 

Mr Riley places a calming hand on her shoulder. "Will she have any problems walking after you take the stitches out?" 

The doctor frowned as he examined the stitches more closely. "Not at all. In fact, she probably would have been walking fine for a few days now." 

Amber felt her face burn as the doctor continued to make her feel stupid. "I just didn't want to make things worse." 

The doctor nodded, not quite listening to what she was saying. "I'm just going to clip the sutures and pull them out. You might feel me tugging but it shouldn't hurt."