Home > Silent Night(7)

Silent Night(7)
Author: Danielle Steel

“Who’s that?” he whispered to the nurse. He knew that Emma’s mother had been killed in the accident.

“Her aunt,” the nurse whispered back. “She’s a doctor.” He nodded and left the room to add a notation to the chart that there had been no change.

Whitney woke up a few minutes later and went out into the hall to talk to the doctor.

“How is she?” Whitney looked as exhausted as she felt.

“About the same. Traumatic head injury. The monitors show that the swelling may be coming down a little, but not enough. She took a direct hit in the frontal lobe of her brain, and as a physician, you know what that means. Some of her major control centers are out of whack: swallowing, eating, body heat, speech, motor skills, reason, memory, the regulation of her heartbeat. Her pulse was one ninety for most of yesterday. It’s a little like a major stroke in an adult, and we won’t know exactly what functions have been affected until she wakes up. And there’s no sign of that yet.”

“Is she going to survive this?” Whitney asked him bluntly, and he hesitated.

“She might. There are no guarantees at this point. She’s very badly shaken up. Kids are resilient, but she had a major blow to the head.”

“Are we looking at permanent damage?” Whitney asked in a hoarse voice, afraid of what she’d hear, but she wanted to know the worst.

“Possibly. We just don’t know. Even if she’s severely injured, if she regains consciousness, she can begin to get back many of the abilities she’s lost. With a lot of time and a lot of therapy, she could come out of this whole…or she might not. We just don’t know yet.” And then he thought of something. “One of the nurses said she’s a child actress. Is that true?” Whitney nodded.

“She’s on a TV show.” It seemed irrelevant to Whitney.

“We’d like to keep the press out of here,” he said firmly. “I’m sure you would too. I’ll put a warning on her chart. We don’t want photographers showing up, upsetting everyone, and also violating the HIPAA privacy rights of other patients.” Whitney knew protecting a patient’s right to privacy was vitally important in hospitals, and press showing up would violate those rights for other patients as well as Emma. And the medical staff didn’t want the disruption, nor did Whitney. She hadn’t thought of that until now.

“Neither do I,” Whitney said with a grim expression. She didn’t want anything putting pressure on Emma now, or jeopardizing her recovery when she woke up. “Will she remember what happened?” This wasn’t Whitney’s area of expertise.

“I doubt it. At least not for a while, or maybe never. She may have holes in her memory for the rest of her life. This is going to be a huge shock for her to absorb.” He looked at Whitney sympathetically then. “Try to get some rest. If she makes it, this is going to be a long haul.” Whitney also knew from her neurology studies during her residency that Emma could be in a coma for the rest of her life and never regain consciousness. There was no guarantee that she’d wake up, or what kind of condition she’d be in if she did. But the fact that there was brain activity was a good sign. The only good news they’d had so far. The doctor went to see another patient then, and said he’d be back in a few hours, and Whitney went to speak to the nurse.

“Do you think it would be okay if I go home for a couple of hours? There are some things I need to take care of.”

“Leave us your number,” the nurse said kindly, “we’ll call you if anything happens.” Whitney nodded and left a few minutes later. She wanted to go home and take a shower, and she had to call a funeral home for Paige, and the producers of Emma’s show. She wanted to take a quick look around Paige’s house and see if there were any clues there about what had happened. She didn’t know what they would be, but she wanted to go to their home. It was a way of feeling close to Paige too, almost as though she’d be there. Whitney knew she wouldn’t be, but part of her wanted this not to be true. It was too cruel.

Whitney felt crushingly exhausted when she stumbled over her suitcases in the hall as she turned off the alarm at her own house. There was a small stack of mail that had already gathered since she’d left, which the cleaning woman had put on the hall table. Paige had promised to come and look at it for her once a week, and she wouldn’t be doing that now.

Whitney made herself a cup of coffee and then went to take a shower. She stood with the hot water pelting down on her as she cried. It had been a terrible night since she’d heard the news about Paige and Emma. She put on jeans afterward and pulled her dark hair tightly back. Then she called the funeral parlor and the morgue. She assumed she would have to identify her sister and was dreading it.

The police sergeant in charge said that her face had been lacerated beyond recognition when she went through the windshield, and then slid along the pavement at sixty miles an hour. He said her dental records would suffice to identify her, and then the funeral home would pick her up.

Whitney called their dentist, who was heartbroken to hear what had happened, and said he’d take Paige’s records to the morgue himself. She told the funeral home she wanted her sister to be cremated. She would decide what to do with the ashes later, and thought she’d bury them with their parents. Paige would have wanted to be with them. They had been her refuge and her idols all her life, and hadn’t been for Whitney.

And then Whitney called the producer of the show again. He extended their condolences and then asked Whitney a battery of questions about Emma, wanting to know how bad it was.

“Is she disfigured?” Melvin Levy, the executive producer, asked her bluntly.

“No, she’s not,” Whitney said with a lump in her throat. “She has a head injury and she’s in a coma, and we don’t know how bad it is yet. We probably won’t know until she wakes up.”

“Kids are resilient,” he said, sounding hopeful. “I’ve heard of cases where they’ve been in comas for months, and snap back when they wake up.” Emma was neither waking up nor snapping back for the moment, although Whitney appreciated the optimism. “We want to keep her on the show.”

“We have no idea what kind of shape she’s going to be in, Mr. Levy,” Whitney said.

“There will be a lot of sympathy for her after this. Especially after losing her mom. Will you be taking over for Paige?” he asked her directly, which shocked Whitney to the core. She didn’t even know what that meant at the moment. Taking over what?

“I’m responsible for her now, if that’s what you mean. I’m her only relative. But I have no idea what Emma will be capable of after this, or what she’ll want.”

“I hope she wants to come back to the show,” he said with quiet determination as it became clear to Whitney how single-focused these people were. Paige would have been happy to hear it. Whitney wasn’t. All Whitney wanted was for Emma to survive and come out of the coma as undamaged as possible. Her TV career was the least of their worries. But the producer had a hit show to protect. “We’d like to give a statement to the press today. Entertainment Tonight, People, Us Weekly, the major fan magazines, the network affiliates.”

“What are you planning to tell them?” Whitney asked, feeling anxious about what he was saying.

“That Emma Watts was in an accident three days ago, in which her mother was tragically killed, and Emma is resting comfortably at Cedars-Sinai and will come back as soon as she can. Hopefully, right after the hiatus this summer. We’re covered until then and for several episodes in the fall season. We’ve got some margin here before it becomes crucial for us to have her taping.” He had thought of everything since the first call from the police.

“And if she’s still in a coma when you run out of episodes she’s already taped?” Whitney was shaken by the heartlessness of the business, and what mattered to them.

“Hopefully, she won’t be in a coma by then,” he said, as though wishing would make it true. “We could write the accident into the new season and even tape her in bed if we have to. We’re willing to work around it, just not have her disappear off the air. Do you suppose we could get a shot of her today? It could look like she’s just sleeping. It might reassure the fans to see her.” He was thinking out loud, trying to work with what they had.

“She has a bandage on her head with EEG pads sticking out, her face is bruised, she has two black eyes and a breathing tube taped across her face. Is that the shot you had in mind?” Whitney was getting angry. She didn’t want Emma exploited, or seen in the condition she was in. She was determined to protect her, no matter what Paige would have done. She didn’t want to think about that now.

“Not really,” he said, sounding embarrassed. “I guess she’s not ready for a photo op.” He tried to make light of it, but Whitney didn’t laugh. She had just lost her sister, and might still lose her niece. “Well, let’s stay in touch. We’ll get the statement out to the press today about the accident and minimize the damage to her. We’ll focus on her mother’s death. Do you have a funeral planned?”

“Not yet,” Whitney said softly.

“I’m sure there will be a tremendous amount of sympathy for Emma and her mom. This is really a tough break, for all of you.” Whitney nodded as tears sprang to her eyes again. She couldn’t answer. “Let us know if there’s anything we can do.”

“Pray,” Whitney said in a choked voice.

“Of course…I’m sorry for your loss, Miss…er…Dr. Watts. We’re going to miss your sister too. She was a trouper and a real pro.” The truth was that Paige hadn’t been a pro at anything except being a stage mother. She was a pro at that, but nothing else.

She drove over to Paige’s house after the call and let herself in with the key Paige had given her. The house was slightly messy, as always, and there was a note under the door, signed Marty, saying he had waited half an hour for them, they were late, and to give him a call when they got home. She wondered if that was what they had been rushing home for when the truck hit them. Whitney wandered into Emma’s bedroom and saw on her bed the teddy bear that she slept with every night. Whitney had given it to her when she was born. It was well-worn, and looked well-loved. Whitney picked it up and took it with her, to put next to Emma in her hospital bed. She wandered around the house feeling lost, missing her sister. The silence was oppressive, and she couldn’t stand it after a few minutes. It was just too sad, and would be even more so if Emma died too. She didn’t want to think about it.

   
Most Popular
» Nothing But Trouble (Malibu University #1)
» Kill Switch (Devil's Night #3)
» Hold Me Today (Put A Ring On It #1)
» Spinning Silver
» Birthday Girl
» A Nordic King (Royal Romance #3)
» The Wild Heir (Royal Romance #2)
» The Swedish Prince (Royal Romance #1)
» Nothing Personal (Karina Halle)
» My Life in Shambles
» The Warrior Queen (The Hundredth Queen #4)
» The Rogue Queen (The Hundredth Queen #3)
romance.readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024