why I think you should consider getting married sooner rather than later.’
‘But what if we set a date that’s soon and Bella gets sick again? She could be in hospital on the day of the wedding. Or what if she’s in surgery? If I wait until Bella is okay, we’ll all get a happy ending.’
‘But Bella might not get her happy ending. You know that, don’t you?’ Evie said gently. ‘If you wait, Bella might not be there anyway. She’s only asking you for one thing.’
Lexi was shaking her head. ‘But if I give in then that’s like admitting I think she’s not going to make it. I don’t want to think about her dying. I can’t.’
Evie knew Lexi hated the idea of death. She’d been through one traumatic loss already in her life, when she’d terminated a pregnancy, and that made this situation more difficult for her. But she couldn’t let her sister bury her head in the sand. Evie had to get her to face reality. ‘Please, just agree to talk to Sam about it. If you set a date and you need to change it to accommodate Bella, is that such a big deal? It’s certainly not impossible.’ Sam knew what Bella’s chances were better than anyone, Evie thought. As Bella’s specialist and Lexi’s fiancé, maybe he would have more success in persuading Lexi.
Before Lexi had a chance to agree or disagree, they were interrupted by the sound of breaking glass coming from the kitchen, followed by a loud thud as something heavy hit the floor. Then there was silence.
‘Bella?’ Evie and Lexi leapt from their chairs and ran to the kitchen. Broken glass was strewn over the marble bench tops but Bella was nowhere to be seen. Evie raced around the island bench and found Bella collapsed on the tiles surrounded by the remnants of the glass cupboard.
‘Bella!’ Evie knelt beside her sister, oblivious to the shards of glass that littered the floor. To her relief she could see that Bella was conscious and breathing. ‘What happened? Are you hurt?’
Bella’s grey eyes were enormous in her pale face. ‘Dizzy.’ Her words were laboured. ‘Cramp.’ She was obviously having difficulty with her breathing. ‘I grabbed the shelf when I fell. Sorry.’
‘Don’t worry about the glasses,’ Evie said as she brushed Bella’s auburn curls from her face. Her skin was flushed and her forehead was hot. Feverish.
Bella’s powdered drink mixture that she used for salt replacement sat on the bench. Evie picked up Bella’s wrist and took her pulse, counting the seconds. Her pulse was rapid and Bella’s skin under her fingers was dry and lacking its normal elasticity.
Evie ran through Bella’s symptoms in her head. A high temperature, dizziness, cramping, rapid pulse rate. ‘You’re dehydrated,’ she said. ‘Why didn’t you tell us you weren’t feeling well?’
Why hadn’t she noticed something? Evie accused herself. She was a doctor, for goodness’ sake.
She knew she’d been distracted by the tension between Lexi and Bella but she still should have known something was wrong. Bella’s behaviour should have alerted her. She wasn’t normally so insistent or stubborn.
But that didn’t explain why she hadn’t told them she was feeling unwell. Evie could only assume it was because she didn’t want to make a fuss. That was typical of Bella. She’d been unwell more frequently than usual over the past few months and Evie knew she would be trying to pretend everything was normal. But they all knew it wasn’t. They all knew Bella’s health was going downhill and Evie was furious with herself for not noticing the signs tonight. But there was no time to berate herself now. They needed to get Bella treated, she needed to be in hospital.
‘Lexi, ring Sam and tell him to meet us at the hospital,’ Evie instructed. ‘I’ll call an ambulance and then see if you can get a drink into Bella. She needs fluids.’
CHAPTER ONE
BELLA lay on the stretcher in the rear of the ambulance. She was vaguely aware of her surroundings but the activity felt like it was going on around her, independent of her, even though she knew it all related to her. The emergency lights were flashing, it was dark outside and the lights were reflecting back into the interior of the ambulance, bouncing off the walls. The siren was silent, the traffic a constant background noise. Evie was with her in the ambulance, she could hear her talking with the paramedic. Bella could feel the pressure of the oxygen mask on her face, the grip of the oximeter on her finger, the sting of the IV drip in her elbow. She saw Evie take out her phone and heard her leaving a message for their father.
She was hot and sweaty, flushed with a fever and tired, so tired. She wondered what it would be like just to close her eyes and drift off. To never wake again. But she wasn’t ready. There were still things she wanted to do and things she wanted to see.
She felt the ambulance come to a halt and the flashing red and blue lights were replaced by harsh fluorescent strip lighting. She knew where they were—in the emergency drop-off zone at Sydney Harbour Hospital. This was where she had spent countless days and nights over the past twenty-six years. It was the closest hospital to the Lockheart family home in the north shore suburb of Mosman and the cardiothoracic ward had become as familiar to Bella as her own bedroom.
But her connection to the hospital went beyond that of a patient. Her great-grandfather had been one of the original founders of the hospital and it was also where Evie worked. Bella couldn’t fault the medical care she received here, she just wished she hadn’t had to spend so much of her life within these walls.
The rear doors swung open and Bella felt the stretcher moving as she was pulled from the ambulance. A familiar face loomed over her. Sam Bailey, the hospital’s newest cardiothoracic surgeon and next big thing, was smiling down at her.
‘There you are,’ he said. ‘I’ve been stalking the ambulances, waiting for you.’
Sam was her new specialist, but again the connection didn’t end there. He was engaged to Lexi, which also made him her future brother-in-law.
Bella tried to smile then realised it wasn’t worth the effort as the oxygen mask was hiding her face and she was sure her smile would look more like a grimace. Sam squeezed her hand before he began talking to Evie and the paramedics, getting an update on her condition. Bella lay silently and concentrated on breathing in lungfuls of oxygen. She wasn’t required to contribute. She wasn’t required to do anything except keep breathing. ‘I’ve notified Cardiothoracics, we’ll take her straight up there,’ Sam was saying, and Bella closed her eyes against the glare of the fluorescent lights as they began to wheel her inside.
‘Evie? Is everything okay?’
Bella heard a familiar voice. She recognised it but her brain was sluggish and she was unable to put a face to the voice. If she opened her eyes she’d solve the mystery but that was too much effort.
‘Charlie!’
Evie’s reply jogged her memory and Bella was glad she’d kept her eyes closed.
Dr Charlie Maxwell was one of Evie’s closest friends and definitely one of her cutest! Bella idolised him. But she kept her eyes closed, not wanting him to see her like this. She pretended that if she couldn’t see him, he wouldn’t be able to see her.
Charlie was too gorgeous for his own good and she knew she wasn’t the only one who thought so. He had a reputation as a charmer and he’d cut a swathe through the female nurses and doctors
