The following week, Mum took Isla and Tally over to the surgery to give blood, which they then could test to see if they were a match for Ella. I went as well just in case I was a match as I'd rather I were to give bone marrow as opposed to Isla or Tally. Meanwhile, Ella had a few more days at school, when she was feeling much better before starting chemotherapy.
Mum and Peter had spoken to her about things, telling her that there was something wrong with her blood and it meant they had to put special medicine in her body to get better. But the medicine meant that her hair might fall out and that she'd feel sick and tired sometimes.
I got all five kids into bed on the evening that Ella spent her first night in hospital before starting chemo. Mum stayed with her, Peter was working at Streetcars and Michelle was at the bistro. Amelie settled ok; she was too young to understand any of this. Tally kept asking when Ella and Mum would be home and that she missed her. Raffy wanted to share a room with someone and kept saying he could hear something in his wardrobe. Isla was quiet, quieter than usual and Rosie was teary, which was unlike her.
I went downstairs and cleaned the kitchen, stacked the dishwasher and then made the kids' lunchboxes for school tomorrow. Josh knocked on the back door as I was finishing up.
"Hello you." I said as I opened the door, and he walked in.
"Hello." He said as he lifted me into his arms and held me as he kissed my neck. "I've missed you today."
"Me too." I said as he put me down. "I'm nearly done here and then we can watch the next episode of our programme."
"Ok, do you need a hand?" he asked.
"If you could chuck all of their book bags in bottom of Amie's pram for the morning that would be amazing." I said to him. He nodded and went into the hallway.
"How's things with Ella?" Josh asked as we sat on the sofa together.
"She starts chemo in the morning, they wanted her to go in tonight for another blood test and to hopefully get a good night's sleep." I told him.
"How long will she be in for?" Josh replied, stroking the hair out of my face.
"I don't know. Depends how her body responds to the treatment and how quickly they can find a bone marrow donor. The doctors have said that it'll really help her chances." I said as we both heard a creak on the stairs and turned around to see Isla stood there, wrapped in a blanket holding onto her favourite bunny toy. "Hey, you're supposed to be in bed Islie." I said, "Come here." I put my arms out and she walked down the rest of the stairs and round the sofa, falling into my arms.
"I couldn't sleep." She said quietly as her head rested on my chest.
"I'll leave you to it. I'll see you tomorrow." Josh said as he kissed my head and got up from the sofa. "Bye Islie."
"Thank you for coming Josh. See you tomorrow." I smiled at him as I watch him put his mug in the kitchen. "Josh, I love you." I said.
"I love you too." He replied before opening the back door and walking out, shutting it quietly behind him. Isla and I sat without speaking for a few minutes after Josh left. The house was silent, everyone else was asleep but Michelle would be back from the bistro soon.
"Orla," Isla said, lifting her head from my chest, "Is Ella going to be alright?"
"We don't know yet Islie. We have to wait for the doctors to give her some medicine for a little while before we know if the bad stuff in her body will go." I told her.
"Mummy said that I might have to give her some special blood to help the bad stuff in her body go away." She said, rubbing her yes before resting her head back on my chest.
"Maybe, we don't know if your blood matches Ella's yet." I explained.
"What happens if it does match?" she asked.
"Well, then you will have a little operation where you go to sleep, and they'll take the special blood from you and put it into Ella while she's sleeping too. It won't hurt because you'll have special medicine." I told her.
"And if Tala's a match, will the same thing happen to her?" she asked.
"Yes darling."
"Do I have to do it? Give my special blood to Ella?" she questioned. I knew she had been bottling something up. She had taken after Mum in her way of dealing with things like this in that she wouldn't talk about it until everything felt like too much
"No, but it would mean that it might help Ella get better sooner." I explained.
"If I don't do it, will Ella die?" she asked.
"No, if you don't do it, then someone else will, it just might take a bit longer for Ella to get better." I told her as I heard the front door click and the jangle of keys.
"Who's that?" Isla asked.
"Just Chelle." I said as we listened to the clipping and clopping of her boots walk through the kitchen and into the living room.
"Hey, what are you two doing up still? It's late." Michelle said, walking over to behind the sofa and kissing the tops of both of our heads.
"We were just having a little chat. Islie couldn't sleep." I said. Michelle took her coat and shoes off and walked around the sofa and sat down beside me.
"Was Rosie Pose snoring again?" Michelle asked her, stroking her hair as she did.
"No, I was just thinking about Ella." She said.
"We all are Islie." Michelle said. "So, if you're ever feeling a bit sad about Ella, then you should know that everyone in this house feels the same. If you're a bit sad, we can all talk about it together, can't we?"
"Thanks Chelley." Isla said.
"Now though Islie smiles, it's bedtime. You go on up and I'll come and tuck you in when I come up in a sec." I said before kissing her head. She climbed off my lap and took her blanket and bunny and climbed up the stairs. Michelle and I watched her go, before she put her arm around me and kissed my head.
"She alright?" Michelle whispered.
"Yeah, she just likes to have time for a quiet chat that one, doesn't like to shout about things like the others." I said.
"Like Rosie, you mean?" she said, and we both giggled. "And you, are you alright?"
"Yeah, just trying to stay busy." I told her.
"That's hard sometimes though." She said. "Don't forget to leave a bit of time for yourself, won't you?"
"I won't. Josh and I finished our series this evening. It was lovely to see him and talk about something that wasn't the kids or chemotherapy or cancer." I told her.
"We'll be alright, no matter what happens, we're a strong family, we'll be ok." She said, kissing my head again. "You better go up to Isla. I'll see you in the morning." I nodded and got up from the sofa and went upstairs to tuck Isla in, who was already fast asleep.
It was a few days later when I went up the hospital to see Mum and Ella. The kids were all at school and Josh was having Amie for the morning. The two of them had built up quite the friendship over the last few months and I wanted to give them some time to develop it more.
Ella was fast asleep in the hospital bed when I got there and Mum was sat in the chair beside her bed on her laptop, probably working.
"Hello, how are you?" I asked quietly as I walked into her room. Mum shut her laptop and put it on the table in front of her.
"So much better for seeing your face." Mum said, standing up and hugging me. "You alright? Did you see my email?"
"Yes, I did. I haven't had the chance to email Hamlin about the order, sorry. I'll do it this afternoon." I told her. "How is she?" I asked, sitting down on the end of Ella's bed and softly stroking her foot as she slept.
"Exhausted. She was being sick all night, so I'm glad she's finally sleeping now." Mum said, sitting back down on the chair and holding onto my hand. She was about to say something else when there was a knock on the door.
"Hello, Mrs Barlow, how are things this morning?" the man asked as he walked into the room, hushing his tone as he saw Ella sleeping in bed.
"Good thank you Doctor James, this is my oldest daughter, Orabella." Mum said. He shook my hand before leaning on the table opposite us both.
"Lucky that you're here actually Orabella. We've had the blood tests back from you and your sisters." Dr James said. Mum nodded. "I'm afraid Orabella, you aren't a direct match to Ella, which we expected as you aren't her full sister. But we weren't aware that Isabella and Taliabella weren't her full sisters either." He continued.
"What? What do you mean? They are her full sisters. The three of them have the same Dad and as far as I know, they're all my girls." Mum said, looking concerned.
"I'm afraid our blood tests prove otherwise Mrs Barlow. Ella doesn't have the same genetic makeup as either of her sisters and they're blood tests weren't a match." He said.
"So, what happens now? If none of us are match?" I asked him.
"Well, we continue with Ella's course of chemotherapy and carry on searching the database for a full match. In the meantime, Orabella as the closest genetic match to Ella, we can carry out the bone marrow transplant from you and modify the tissue as close as we can to match Ella's and carry out the transplant that way." He said. I nodded. "Do you have any more questions?" he asked and both of us shook our heads, before he left the room saying he'd come back later to see Ella when she was awake.
"What am I gonna do Orla?" Mum said. "That doctor has just as good as said that Peter isn't Ella's Dad." We both looked at her sleeping in bed.
"Mum that isn't possible though, you had a DNA test done when Ella was born." I said.
"I know, I remember it and the DNA test came back and said that Ella wasn't Nick's." she told me.
"Was there anyone else? That Christmas? Was there anyone else it could have been?" I asked.
"No, no, it was just Peter, just Peter and Nick, no one else. I promise you Orla. Isla is definitely Peter's. Unlike him, I did not partake in any extra martial affairs when I fell pregnant with Isla, and Tally, I was virtually a nun around the time that I fell pregnant with her apart from that one night with Peter. There's no doubt in my mind that the two of them are Peter's so if Ella isn't their full sister, then than can only mean one thing."
"She's Nick's." I said quietly.
"Peter's gonna be heartbroken Orla. What am I going to tell him?" she asked rubbing her face with her hands.
"You're gonna tell him?" I asked.
"I have to Orla. Either that or he finds out when he walks in here and Nick's having the blood test to see if he's a match. And I'll have to tell him, tell Nick, if there's any chance of this saving Ella's life then we need to do it." Mum said frantically.
"Hey, hey calm down. It's gonna be alright. Let's just think about this. Peter will understand. The people who did the DNA test when Ella was baby must have got it wrong. They're the ones to blame. It wasn't like you and Peter were together either, you cheated on Nick with him." I said.
"Yeah, you're right. He'll understand, but he will be heartbroken. Would you mind asking him to come in this evening?" I nodded. "And I'll order a DNA test and speak to Nick, and we can do it properly this time. They all deserve the truth."
"Of course. What about Ella? What are you gonna tell her?" I asked.
"I don't know. We need a definite answer first. We need to know who her Dad really is."