Winners by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online

I have to, New York, Boston, Europe. There has to be someone who can repair the damage to her spine.”
    “I don’t think so, Mr. Thomas. I don’t want to hold out false hopes. But she can lead a very good life just as she is. She’ll need rehabilitation, but one of the best rehab hospitals in the country is right in your city. Lily will be able to make an amazing adjustment and adapt to her new life. And we can’t lose sight of the fact that it’s a miracle that she’s alive, given the injury she sustained.”
    He sat down on the couch again with his head in his hands. The room was reeling. He couldn’t even imagine Lily’s future. It was a cruel turn of fate for her to wind up in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. He wasn’t going to accept it. He would take her all over the world if he had to. Whatever it took, he was going to find someone to fix her. He looked up at Jessie then with anguished eyes.
    “I’m not going to let this happen to her.” Jessie knew better than anyone that he had no choice in the matter, any more than he had control over the cable on the chairlift breaking. It had happened, whether he wanted to face it or not. And for now he was in denial about the consequences of the accident for Lily. Jessie stayed and talked to him for a few more minutes and told him that he could see Lily in a few hours, when she was awake. She suggested that he go home and get some sleep for a while—they would call him if anything happened. But he was determined to stay. He didn’t want to leave until he saw Lily. And then Jessie and Ben left. Her conversation with him had not gone well, but it was what she had expected. She suspected that it would be a long time before he was able to face the truth.
    Jessie turned her cell phone back on as they came out of the elevator and were walking into the lobby. It had been a long, hard night of intense concentration and back-breaking work, and all she wanted to do now was go home, take a shower, and go to bed. She listened to her messages on the way to her car, and was surprised to hear that she had three from a resident in the ER and two from the police. Her heart nearly stopped as she suddenly thought of Chris. Had something happened to him on the road the night before? But she had no messages from him or Tim, so it couldn’t have been about him. She was puzzled as she called the resident in the ER, and as soon as he answered, he asked her where she was.
    “In the parking lot. Why? I just walked out of an eleven-hour surgery on an SCI. I warn you, I’m not in great shape, if you want me to look at a patient. Is it someone from the chairlift accident yesterday?” She was willing to examine a patient, but there was no way she could perform surgery again right now. She was exhausted.
    He hesitated before he answered. “Your son was in a car accident last night, Dr. Thomas,” he said, sounding awkward. It was exactly what she’d been afraid of, and all she wanted to know was how bad it was.
    “Chris?” she asked, panicked. He could hear the terror in her voice.
    “No, Jimmy.”
    “How is that possible? He was with his father. No one called me.” Except the police. And suddenly she added confusion to panic. “Where is he? Did you admit him?”
    “He’s upstairs in pediatrics. He’s fine. He has a mild concussion.”
    “Then why did you admit him? Where’s his father?”
    “I … why don’t you come in?” She started back toward the hospital at a dead run, as she hung up and called Tim. It went straight to voicemail, and then she called the number on the message from the police. A sergeant answered, and she told him who she was and why she was calling.
    “I think something happened to my husband and son last night. I got a message from the police. I just picked up the message. Is there someone who can tell me what happened?”
    The sergeant hesitated, not wanting to tell her over the phone, but he had no choice.
    “There was an accident last