Christmas Secrets Collection. Laura Iding

‘the scan showed us something we weren’t expecting to see—that Sara’s carrying twins.’

      The momentary silence had a completely different feel this time, but even as they began exclaiming in delight he despised himself for his cowardice. He should be telling them about the much more urgent situation confronting their younger daughter.

      His reprieve was all too brief.

      ‘What did Zara say when you told her?’ his father-in-law demanded with a beam. ‘I bet she was delighted.’

      ‘Well, I was very late getting home, after making sure that Sara and the babies were going to be all right,’ he began, even as a voice inside his head jeered at him for trying to assuage his guilt for arriving home so much later than he’d intended. The outcome would have been very different. ‘I thought she was asleep, but when I went to tell her the news, I couldn’t wake her and had to call an ambulance to take her to hospital.’

      ‘Hospital?’ his mother-in law shrieked in disbelief. ‘Zara’s in hospital, too? Why? What’s the matter with her?’ She began to struggle to her feet, slapping viciously at her husband’s hand when he tried to stop her. ‘I’ve got to go to her straight away. You’ll have to take me,’ she declared with a glare at Dan.

      ‘Why wouldn’t she wake up? What’s the matter with her? Do you know?’ Frank demanded, clearly dumbfounded by the news.

      ‘It looks as if she’s taken an overdose of drugs … barbiturates,’ he said, and was nearly deafened by the howl of denial.

      ‘Drugs! That’s a lie! My Zara wouldn’t touch the filthy things.’ Audrey was sobbing with rage now. ‘Why would you say such a dreadful thing about your own wife? You should know she’s the most beautiful, most perfect—’

      He ignored the start of the familiar litany, interrupting bluntly. ‘The bottle was found beside her, and some of the drugs were found still in her stomach when we got her to the hospital and pumped her out.’

      ‘But—’ Frank began, but as ever his wife’s voice overrode his tentative attempt.

      ‘Then you got them all out and she’s going to be all right?’ she demanded shrilly, in spite of the fact that her certainty about her daughter’s convictions had been summarily destroyed. ‘Did she tell you why she took them? It must have been a mistake … a … a …’

      ‘They pumped out as many as they could, but she’d already absorbed enough to send her …’ At the last moment he paused, wondering if the mention of the word ‘coma’ would be the final straw. Instantly, he knew that his mother-in-law would definitely have hysterics if he so much as mentioned the possibility, and sidestepped the prospect by choosing a less emotive word.

      ‘Zara’s deeply unconscious, so she’s been taken into Intensive Care where she’ll be monitored constantly until the drugs wear off and she wakes up.’

      He hoped they were too shocked to notice the guilt he was trying to hide, but no way was he mentioning the very real chance that the drugs might have already caused significant damage. He knew that, as her parents, they had a right to information about their daughter, but he was hoping that he wouldn’t have to be the one to tell them. It was bad enough that he knew that Zara might never wake up again, at least not in any meaningful way.

      It might be cowardly, but he was intending to leave it to the consultant to tell them that, even when the effect of the drugs she’d taken did wear off, the daughter that the two of them idolised might already be lost to them for ever.

      Sara was a different matter. There was no way he could have left her to find out what her sister had done, not after the shock her system had already sustained this evening.

      He stifled a weary sigh as he assisted his sobbing mother-in-law into his car, knowing that there would be very little chance that he would be seeing his bed tonight.

      Hoping that his silence could be taken as the result of navigating the busy streets, he tried to get his thoughts in order.

      He would definitely have to contact Human Resources as soon as possible to notify them that he wouldn’t be in for his shift the next day … or for the foreseeable future, at least until the drugs had left Zara’s system and he had some idea what sort of prognosis they were looking at.

      He would also have to see if there was a relatives’ room free for the Walkers to use. He couldn’t imagine that anyone would be able to persuade Audrey and Frank to leave the hospital until their daughter was out of danger, but they might be persuaded to rest in between the short visits they would be permitted by her side.

      Then there was Sara.

      Bruised, bloodied and broken her body might be, but her spirit appeared even stronger than ever if the way she’d confronted him was any gauge.

      He found himself stifling a grin when he remembered the way she’d turned on him like a spitting cat. It was the closest she’d ever come to telling him exactly what she thought of him, although he had a pretty good idea.

      He’d barely admitted to himself how much of his time had been spent thinking about her, even in those first few weeks. Then he’d been stupid enough to allow himself to be snowballed into marriage with her sister, committing the oldest blunder in the book when he’d allowed his hormones to overrule his heart.

      Then, when he and Zara had been unable to conceive, he’d been amazed and delighted when his in-laws had told him that Sara had volunteered to act as a surrogate mother for them.

      How stupid could he have been? He should have known that her parents’ desire to give Zara everything she ever wanted would have made them resort to any means to persuade her soft-hearted sister to agree.

      No wonder she had so little time for him, even when he was concerned about her welfare. No wonder she’d been convinced that his only interest was that his child had been unharmed.

      Children, he reminded himself with a surge of mingled joy and terror.

      He’d been amazed and delighted to see not one but two hearts beating strongly on the ultrasound screen, evidence that they were both still snugly ensconced in their rightful environment and supremely unaware of their narrow escape. One side of him was ecstatic to see the evidence that his precious children weren’t just a dream but a miraculous reality. It was the other side—the doctor side of him—that knew enough to be afraid; the doctor half of his brain that knew just how much more dangerous the existence of that second baby was, both to the pregnancy and to Sara herself.

      Bearing a child was already one of the most dangerous things a woman could put herself through, and to carry twins …

      He shook his head when he realised that he was already planning a session on the computer to access all the relevant statistics, irrespective of the fact that knowing the figures would worry him even more.

      ‘What’s the matter?’ Audrey demanded in a panicky voice as she entered the relatives’ room at exactly the wrong moment. ‘Why did you shake your head? Did the doctor say something to you while we were in with Zara? She’s not going to …? Oh, no! Please! She can’t die. Not my beautiful girl!’

      Dan swore silently as her voice rose shrilly with every word, his head thumping unmercifully.

      ‘No one’s told me anything,’ he said firmly as he took her by the shoulders and leant down to force her to meet his gaze. ‘Audrey, the only time I’ve spoken to Zara’s consultant was when you were with me. The situation hasn’t changed. We’ve just got to wait and see how her body copes with whatever it is she’s taken. We’ve just got to be patient.’

      ‘How can I be patient?’ she demanded angrily, shrugging his hands off and whirling away. ‘I’m her mother! You have no idea how dreadful it is not being able to do anything. Just waiting …’

      ‘You could visit Sara,’ he suggested. ‘She must be wondering what’s happening down here, worrying about—’

      ‘If