No one had called her on her cell during dinner, so she assumed it was a guest, and as she flew into the lobby, she saw her father going past her on a gurney, surrounded by paramedics with a defibrillator on his chest. She was totally shocked and ran after them and followed them outside. The front desk manager, Bruce, and two security men were following them with a terrified expression, and guests were watching around the lobby. “What happened?” she asked the manager, as the paramedics slid the gurney into the truck.
“I don’t know. He clutched his chest and fell down at the front desk. They just got here. I think he had a heart attack.”
“Why didn’t you call me?” she said with a look of panic as the paramedics talked to her father, and Brad stood next to her.
“We didn’t have time. I was just about to.”
“Does Natalie know?” she asked quickly. He shook his head. “Don’t tell her,” Heloise said firmly, and then jumped into the rescue truck with a last look at Brad before they closed the doors. An instant later, the siren was on and they were speeding to the hospital. Two paramedics were next to Hugues and watching him closely. He was conscious by then and looking at Heloise with a dazed expression.
“What happened?” he asked in a hoarse voice. “I have a terrible pain in my chest.” There were IVs in his arms, and the paramedics told him not to talk. It looked like too much effort, and he was holding Heloise’s hand while she fought back tears and prayed he would be all right.
They rushed him to Coronary ICU and made her wait outside while they examined him, and then they let her come in. They said he had had a mild heart attack. They had done an EKG and were talking about doing an angiogram that night. Heloise gave them his history, and her father looked at her with frightened eyes.
“Don’t tell Natalie,” he whispered. “She’ll lose the babies.”
“I didn’t, and you’re going to be fine,” she said, holding his hand and willing it to be true. She couldn’t imagine her life without him. She needed him too much. She stayed with him until they took him to do the angiogram. And then she called Brad and told him where she was. He had waited in her apartment, and he came immediately, and they sat in the waiting room together for hours.
It was two in the morning when they brought her father back. They had done an angioplasty, and they put him back in ICU so he could be monitored, while she and Brad sat in the waiting room, and she called the front desk at the hotel.
“What did you tell Natalie?” She was worried about that, if he didn’t come up to bed.
“We told her that one of the guests had an accident, and your father went to the hospital with him, and he told her not to wait up,” the assistant manager said.
“Perfect.” Heloise was relieved.
“How is he?” Everyone was worried about him. He had gone down like a rock behind the desk.
“They did an angioplasty, and they said he should be fine. I don’t know how long he’ll be here. He’s still sedated now.”
“Keep us posted.”
“I will.” She turned back to Brad then and nestled into his arms, as they spent the night in the drafty waiting room. She could go in and see her father for ten minutes every hour, but he was sleeping from the sedation and didn’t see her all night. It was morning before he woke up, and Heloise and Brad were there. Bruce had brought them sandwiches at six A.M. and a Thermos of hot coffee that room service had prepared. Heloise couldn’t eat, but Brad was starving and devoured two sandwiches with a sheepish expression by the time Bruce left again.
When Heloise saw her father early that morning, he was groggy and looked like he had aged a decade overnight. There were still monitors all over him, beeping loudly in the frenzied activity of the ICU. They were waiting for the doctor to come, and she went back to wait with Brad, after she kissed her father and told him she’d be back. He was asleep again before she left. And he didn’t look good.
The doctor came to talk to her finally at eight o’clock. He was smiling when he came out of the ICU, which relieved Heloise’s mind enormously as she squeezed Brad’s hand.
“You can go home and get some rest. He’s doing fine. We’re going to keep him for a few days just to keep an eye on him, and then he can go home. I’d like him to rest for a few weeks before he goes back to work, maybe a month. Exercise, diet, he needs to monitor all that. This was a warning shot across his bow, but I think we patched him up pretty well last night. With a few weeks’ rest, he’ll be as good as new.” Heloise smiled at the thought. That would have been hard to believe a few hours ago.
“His wife is having triplets, and she’s on bedrest. I guess we’ll have to keep them in bed together.” She smiled at the doctor, and he laughed.
“As long as he doesn’t get frisky with her, that would be fine. But if she’s on bedrest with triplets, I guess there’s no risk of that.” All three of them laughed at what he said.
“Can I see him again?” she asked.
“He was asleep a few minutes ago,” the doctor said, “but you can check.”
She went in to see her father again then, and he stirred and looked at her and apologized for the trouble he had caused.
“You didn’t cause any trouble, Papa,” she said softly, holding his hand. “But you have to be careful now. You and Natalie are both on bedrest. You have to take it easy, but you can keep her company until the triplets come, and the doctor said you can go for a walk every day. We’ll take care of the hotel.”
“This is so stupid,” he complained. “I don’t know what happened. I’m fine. I must have just been tired or something.”
He looked more awake but still very beaten up, and Heloise didn’t look great either. It had been a long night for both of them. “I can’t let you do all the work,” her father said, looking agitated.
“You’re not coming back to work until the doctor says you can,” Heloise said sternly. “The rest of us can handle whatever comes up. We need you, Papa,” she said softly. “I need you. I’d be lost without you. You’re all I have.” There were tears in her eyes as she said it, and he gently stroked her hair with his hand.
“I’m not going anywhere. Tell Natalie I’m fine, and not to have the babies till I get back.” He smiled at her.
“You’ll be home in a few days. I’ll come back later. Brad is here with me, and he sends his love.”
“I’m glad he’s here with you. Tell Natalie I love her, and I love you too,” he said, smiling weakly at his daughter, and then he turned his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. He drifted off to sleep then, and she quietly left the ICU and went back to Brad in the waiting room, and they walked out in the morning sunshine. She felt like they’d been in the waiting room for a week as Brad hailed a cab and they went back to the hotel. They talked quietly in the back of the cab about what had happened. It had been the most frightening night of her life.
Everyone had a thousand questions when they saw her walk into the lobby. She looked exhausted, but not devastated, and everyone was relieved to hear that her father was doing well and would be home in a few days.
Brad went to her room to shower and change. He had class that morning, and Heloise went straight upstairs to see Natalie in her father’s apartment. She walked into the bedroom, and Natalie was wide awake, watching the morning news on TV. She had the TV on constantly now. She had nothing else to do except eat, watch TV, call her office, and watch her belly grow. And she was huge now with three babies inside her.
“Where’s your father?” she asked immediately with a worried expression. Heloise hadn’t planned to tell her, but there was no way she was going to be able to hide it from her for several days. And Natalie’s radar was telling her that something had happened to her husband.
Heloise sat down on the edge of the bed and smiled at her. “He’s fine. He’s really fine, and he’ll be home in a few days. He gave us a scare last night. He’s at New York Hospital, he had a mild heart attack, they did an angioplasty, and they said he’s going to be good as new. And I’m making him take four weeks off. He can keep you company till the babies are born.” She had told her everything in one fell swoop, and strangely, Natalie looked relieved. She knew something had happened, and she’d been panicked about what it was all night.
“Thank you for telling me the truth,” she said, clinging to Heloise’s hands. “Is he really okay?”
“Yes, he is. I promise.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“He just went back to sleep. He had a long night. You can call him in a couple of hours when he wakes up.” She jotted down the number for her and put it on the pad next to her bed. “I’ll stay here with you while he’s gone,”
