Little Black Dress with Bonus Material Read Free Page B

pondered giving up, drifting along with the tide and letting go. I would see Jon on the other side, wouldn’t I? And Mother and Daddy?
    Then I thought of Antonia and Anna, of what I’d left unfinished and the things I’d done wrong and how I needed to right them, and I knew that it wasn’t my time yet. That alone kept me from sinking deeper.
    So I clung to them—to my daughter and my sister and the ghosts from the past—and I struggled against the darkness, treading the water somewhere between life and death.

Chapter 4
Toni
    I t was ten o’clock by the time Toni exited the highway onto the rural route that curved and dipped toward Blue Hills, Missouri. A light dusting of white covered trees and houses, barns and fences. Even in the dark, it looked magical, as if she’d entered the world inside a snow globe. But the beauty of the winter night escaped her. Her stomach in knots, she headed straight for the hospital and rushed in, asking at the front desk for her mother.
    â€œI’m Antonia, Evelyn Ashton’s daughter,” she explained without catching her breath. “You called my cell just over an hour ago while I was still in St. Louis, and I drove like a bat out of hell to get down here. How could this have happened early in the morning, and you only phoned me then?”
    Stern eyes softened. “I realize what a shock this is, ma’am,” said the nurse in blue scrubs and cornrows, “and I apologize for the delay in reaching you, but your mother hadn’t updated her primary physician’s contact list in years, and we couldn’t find a living will. We eventually tracked down your number from her housekeeper.”
    Had she just said “living will”? Wasn’t that the paperwork designating whether or not to pull the plug?
    Holy crap.
    Toni felt woozy and grabbed the edge of the desk for support. “Can I see her?” she got out, her tongue thick and dry as cotton batting.
    â€œGive me a moment, if you would.” The nurse picked up the phone and murmured into it briefly before hanging up to say, “Dr. Neville’s just finished up his evening rounds. He’d like to speak with you if that’s all right.”
    â€œYes, of course that’s all right.” Toni jerked her head up and down like a bobblehead doll.
    The woman got up from the desk, maneuvering around it. “If you’d please follow me . . .”
    Toni all but stepped on her heels as they walked up a short hallway. She quickly found herself in a small office where the neurologist waited.
    â€œMs. Ashton, I’m very glad you’re here.” Dr. Neville stood as she entered and indicated the chair opposite his desk. His craggy face looked unlined and youthful, but his fine blond hair cut marine-short was shot with enough gray to be vaguely reassuring.
    â€œHow’s my mother? Will she be okay?” Toni asked in a rush, her fingers working the clasp on her bag, half of her wanting to blubber and the other half determined to stay composed as Evie surely would have if the shoe had been on the other foot. “What exactly happened? Do you know?”
    The chair creaked as Neville leaned against it. “Mrs. Ashton was apparently alone when she had the stroke. Her housekeeper didn’t find her for several hours, so she wasn’t in great shape when she got here, but it could have been worse. Luckily, I was doing rounds, and we got her into surgery as soon as we could. But we won’t know anything more for a while. She’s in a drug-induced coma to allow her brain time to hibernate and heal. But rest assured, we’re monitoring her cranial pressure and doing everything we can to keep her stable in the meantime. We don’t want to lose her any more than you do.”
    Hibernate and heal? Toni wrinkled her forehead, thinking it sounded as though the doctor were describing how a bear dealt with the winter blues, not treatment