“While you were examining the gown, you started hallucinating about Bertha Palmer.”
Athena’s head and body throbbed all over with a dull, constant ache, sicker than she’d ever felt, but she knew she couldn’t be at death’s door or even close to it, or Diana wouldn’t sound so calm. She looked closely at her sisters.
“You both look like you’ve slept in your clothes. Did you two stay with me all night?”
“Naturally. You were so out of it you thought you were actually visited by Bertha’s ghost.” Venus shivered with her usual drama. “Wish I’d been there. I’d love to ask the old girl about her jewelry.”
“I would have loved to meet Jackie O. She had such impeccable taste,” Diana sighed.
“I thought I saw both of them?” Athena gasped.
Venus nodded. “That’s why Bridget rushed you to the ER. And before you passed out in the back seat, you were singing at the top of your lungs.”
Singing. The word caught in Athena’s splitting headache. “Oh, my God. Poor Bridget.” She tried to gather her scattered senses to understand why she’d suddenly lost her mind. “What do the doctors think is wrong with me?”
“Drew Clayworth sent Lewis Stemmer to examine you. He’s the very best infectious-disease doctor and toxicology specialist in Chicago.”
Venus tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Then Drew insisted on seeing you for himself.”
Drew Clayworth.
The instant she heard his name, her sisters’ voices slowly faded away. Images took living, breathing form around her.
I’m still hallucinating!
A 3-D home video played around her hospital bed.
She felt the frigid December air, saw the light snow falling, perfect for Christmas Eve, glistening off Drew’s hair and skin. Heard her heels clicking on the dark flagstone terrace of the Clayworth mansion in Lake Forest. Drew looked up and saw her. His blue eyes pools of grief.
“I’m alone and it’s my fault. The race was my idea, and my parents died because of it. Because of me,” he whispered.
Her young heart splintered, and she wanted to give each and every piece to him. She knelt in front of him and cupped his face. “No, no, it’s not your fault. You’re not alone. I love you. I’ve always loved you, and nothing will ever ever make me stop loving you.”
He stared at her so long and hard she’d thought she’d die of longing.
“I believe you love me,” he whispered and crushed her to him the way she’d always dreamed.
Athena blinked, willing the images to go away before she saw the ending yet again. She’d replayed it in her head too many times.
“I don’t remember seeing Drew very much after his parents were killed in that terrible sailing accident when he was nineteen,” Diana said quietly. “It almost seemed like he avoided us after he moved in with the Henry Clayworth clan.”
Athena knew he’d been avoiding her.
She forced herself to focus on her sisters, who were glaring at each other like they did whenever Diana said anything that remotely cast the Clayworth posse in a good light. Venus always disagreed with her, and soon their voices would reach a fever pitch of sisterly bickering.
“Please don’t argue. My head hurts enough already. I don’t remember seeing a doctor or Drew. Was I still unconscious when they were here?”
“Far from it. You were calling for Drew.”
“No fair teasing, Venus. I’m too weak to fight back.” Athena shut her eyes, wishing this whole thing was one long hallucination. She opened them again and looked up at her more serious sister. “She’s teasing, right?”
Diana shook her head. “I don’t know why, but you kept calling for him, so we let him in.”
The thought made her so weak she sank deeper into the pillows. “What did I say to him?” she whispered, dread nearly choking her.
“We couldn’t hear anything through the closed door,” Venus admitted with a frown.
“Did anyone bother to tell you why I’ve lost my mind?”
Diana patted her arm. “Do you want us to locate Dr. Stemmer and find out what’s going on?”
“Please,” she whispered, needing to get out of here before she made an even bigger fool of herself.
Her headstrong sisters quickly and silently left the room, but at the door Venus turned to mouth, “We’ll be right back,” and Diana gave her a thumbs-up.
Comforted by the knowledge that support would be only a shout away, Athena closed her eyes.
“How are you feeling, Athena? Dr. Stemmer will be here in a few minutes.”
Shock opened her eyes, and for the first time in fifteen years Athena looked up straight into Drew Clayworth’s eyes.
Sure, she’d glimpsed him across crowded ballrooms at black tie affairs, large cocktail parties, any number of places, but she’d never purposely looked at him.
Yes, he really did look exactly like the vintage poster of Paul Newman in Hollywood’s version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof she’d once hung on her bedroom wall because it reminded her of Drew. Every feature from brow to lips seemingly chiseled in stone. His close-cropped fair hair made his eyes appear even more startlingly cornflower blue, piercing and crinkled at the corners with a smile.
A far cry from the deadly serious, hurt glare he’d flung her the last time they’d been together.
A burst of warmth exploded inside her, and all at once the hospital sheet felt heavy against her skin. She pushed it down the tiniest bit with her free hand.
In two strides Drew reached her bedside. “How are you feeling?”
The world tilted slightly to the right, and she bit her lip to stop the crazy thoughts racing through her mind.
I know most women in Chicago would love having you hover over their beds. But I’m immune to you. Have been for years since you told me exactly what you think of me. And I’m here to tell you I feel the same way about you after what your family did to my dad. I don’t trust you any further than I could throw you.
“Athena, what’s wrong?” Drew asked sharply and leaned closer to her.
“I’m sorry I’m late.” A tall, handsome man she’d never seen before came striding through the door. “Hello, Drew. Athena, how are you feeling this morning?”
With a thud that rattled her insides, the world settled back on its axis and sanity returned. “Better. Thank you,” she gasped, the room coming into crystal-clear focus.
A ghost of a smile curled Drew’s long, full mouth. It vanished so quickly she might have imagined it, considering she’d been seeing other ghosts lately.
To hide her confusion, she swept her dark glasses up off the bedside table and slipped them on.
“You must be Dr. Stemmer come to tell me why I’ve lost my mind.”
“You haven’t lost your mind, Athena.”
Dr. Stemmer spoke with such utter assurance she actually felt the tiniest bit less panicked at wanting to brazenly tell Drew what she really thought of him.
“After studying your blood test results, I believe you were exposed to toxic fumes or particles that caused a rapid and adverse neurological reaction. The effects can mirror those of being exposed to Sodium Pentothal, the so-called truth serum.”
“Truth serum.” The thought of what she might have done made her feel sick again. She purposely concentrated on Dr. Stemmer and tried to ignore Drew’s looming presence.
“Is Bridget all right? Is she hallucinating, too? She was in that vault, too, breathing the same toxic air.”
“I checked on her this morning. Bridget is fine. She didn’t have any direct close contact with the four Bertha Palmer gowns the way you did, so she wasn’t as severely affected.”