Sunset in St. Tropez by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online

her would have brought her back, what he felt for her would have done it.
    It was a long, grim night, and just after eight o"clock in the morning, as Diana came back from the cafeteria with a tray of coffee for everyone, the cardiologist returned to the waiting room with a solemn expression. Eric saw him first, and knew without a word what had happened, as did Robert.
    Robert stood straight up and looked at him, as though wanting to ward off his words before he said them. “No,” he said, as though refusing to believe what hadn't even been said yet. “No. I don't want to hear it.” He looked terrified, but strong suddenly, and almost angry. His eyes were wild and unfamiliar to all who knew him. It was heartbreaking to see him.
    “I"m sorry, Mr. Smith. Your wife didn't survive the second coronary. We did everything we could. She never regained consciousness. We massaged her heart … she just gave out on us. I"m so very sorry.” Robert stood staring at him, looking as though he were about to collapse, and in an instant Amanda was in his arms, sobbing uncontrollably over the loss of her mother. None of them could believe what had just happened. It seemed impossible, only hours before they had been having dinner with friends, and now she was gone. Robert couldn't even begin to absorb it, and he felt wooden as he held his daughter, and when he looked over her shoulder, all he could see were Eric and Diana, crying, and his two sons with their arms around each other, sobbing.
    The doctor told him as gently as possible that he would have to speak to someone about making arrangements, and they would keep Anne there in the meantime. And as Robert listened to him, he began sobbing. “What arrangements?” he asked hoarsely.
    “You'll need to call a funeral home, Mr. Smith, and talk to them about it. I"m very sorry,” he repeated, and then drifted back to the desk in the ICU to talk to the nurses. There were forms he had to fill out before he went off duty, as Robert and the others stood aimlessly in the waiting room, while other visitors began to drift in. It was nearly nine o"clock on Saturday morning by then, and people were coming to visit other patients.
    “Why don't we go back to our place for a while?” Eric suggested quietly, wiping his eyes, and putting a firm arm around Robert. “We can have coffee and talk,” he said, eyeing Diana, and she nodded. She took Amanda under her wing, and Robert walked out of the waiting room, flanked by both of his sons, with Eric just behind them. They walked blindly through the hospital, and outside into the winter morning. It was icy cold after the rain the night before, and it looked as though there was another storm brewing. But Robert saw nothing. He felt deaf, dumb, and blind, as he slipped into a cab with his children. Eric and Diana took another just behind them, and five minutes later they were at the Morrisons" apartment.
    Diana moved quickly and quietly around her kitchen, making coffee and toast for all of them, as Robert sat in her living room, looking devastated, with the others.
    “I just don't understand it,” he said as she set a mug of coffee in front of him on the coffee table. “She was fine last night. We had such a good time, and the last thing she said before she went to sleep was how much she was looking forward to the house in France next summer.”
    “What house in France?” Jeff, his elder son, asked numbly.
    “We rented a house in St Tropez with the Donnallys and your parents for next August,” Eric explained. “We were looking at pictures of it last night, and your mother seemed fine then. Although now that I think of it, she looked tired and pale, but all New Yorkers do in winter. I didn't think anything of it.” Eric was angry at himself now for not suspecting something.
    “I asked her on the way home,” Robert said, going over it in his mind again, “if she was okay. She seemed exhausted, but she always works so hard, it didn't seem unusual.