“He's dead, Brad …there were four of them in the car. One had a minor concussion. Chloe is very badly injured too, but she's going to be all right …and Allie …she may not make it, Brad … or if she does …you have to come home, sweetheart … we need you.”
“I'll be there in an hour.” That was impossible, they both knew, but he could be there in six, if he got a plane immediately. She was sure he'd be able to pull strings and get a seat on the first plane out, for special circumstances, and she was glad he had finally called. She needed him desperately. Trygve had been a godsend, but Brad was her husband.
“I'll be there as soon as I can,” Brad said worriedly.
“I love you,” she said sadly. “I'm glad you're coming home.”
“Me too,” he said, and hung up. And much to her amazement, he walked in at six o'clock, an hour after they spoke, moments after they had told her that so far so good, Allyson had survived the operation. But the true test would be in the next forty-eight hours, or even the next several days after that. Her condition was so severe that she would not be out of danger for quite some time, and there was no way of predicting how complete her recovery would be. All they knew was that she was alive, at that precise moment, and on the scale they were forced to be satisfied with for the present, that was something.
At least she had good news for Brad, but she couldn't understand how he had arrived at the hospital an hour after he had spoken to her from Cleveland.
He spoke to the surgeons, and questioned everyone, but they would not allow him to see Allyson. She was going to be in the recovery room until the next morning.
“How did you do that?” Page asked him quietly, as they drank coffee in the waiting room. She hadn't eaten all day, she just couldn't bring herself to. All she had managed was coffee, and some crackers that Trygve had forced on her that morning. “How did you get here so quickly?” He shrugged and sipped another mouthful of the bad coffee. His eyes never met hers, and so far he had spoken only of Allyson. But suddenly, Page had a very odd feeling. “Where were you?” It would have been physically impossible for him to get from Cleveland to San Francisco, hotel to hospital, in an hour. And they both knew it.
“It's not important,” he said quietly. “Allie is all that matters.”
“Not really,” Page said, searching his eyes, but not seeing anything in them. “We're important too. Where were you?” There was a sudden stridency in her voice, born of fresh terror. She had had enough fear for one night, and now suddenly here was another. “I asked you a question, Brad.”
There was a look in his eyes she had never seen before when he answered her. “And I chose not to answer it. Isn't that enough? I got here as fast as I could, Page … as soon as I knew …that was the best I could do.”
She felt an icy hand clutch her heart and squeeze. It wasn't fair. She couldn't lose both of them in one day, or could she? “You weren't in Cleveland, were you?” she said in a whisper, and he looked away from her, and didn't answer.
Chapter 5
Brad went home before Page, having determined that there was nothing more he could do at the hospital for Allie. They wouldn't allow him to see her in the recovery room, and he had already spoken to the chief neurosurgeon. He told Page he would see her at home, and quietly left to go home to Andy.
Page saw Trygve again briefly before she left. He had brought both of the boys with him, and she explained that Brad had come home from Cleveland. She didn't mention the rest of the conversation to him, and she seemed distracted as she said hello to the boys, and thanked him for all his help. She told him she was going home for a few hours, as long as Allyson was in the recovery room, and she was planning to come back again sometime before morning.
“Why don't you try and get some rest? You look as though you really need it.”
“I'll see.” She smiled at him, but agony was written all over her face, and there was greater sadness in her eyes than he had seen in an entire lifetime.
“Take care of yourself,” he said kindly before she left, and then she drove home to find Brad explaining to Andy what had happened to his sister. He explained that she had a severe head injury, but that she'd be okay once the doctors fixed her all up and she recovered from her operation. Jane Gilson was gone by then, Brad was alone with him, and Page didn't like what he was saying.
She told him as much once Andy went out to play. He looked worried, but not overly so as she watched him from the picture window. He was playing with Lizzie on their front lawn, and she knew the neighborhood was safe, they knew all their neighbors.
“You shouldn't have told him that, Brad,” she said, without turning around. She still had a lot of questions for him, but she was saving them till after Andy's bedtime.
“Told him what?” Brad said tensely. There was plenty on his mind too. Aside from the disaster with Allyson, he knew as well as Page did that the accident had sparked off a serious crisis in their marriage.