| For Love Or Money | ✔︎

Chapter Eleven

They charged up the stairs to the second floor and down the hallway to Charles Pierce's suite. Eleanor was running toward the room from the other direction, and Karen and Jack were at the doorway.

"It's the old man," Jack told them, his face reflecting his concern and rage. "I think he's dead."

Nancy rushed past him into the suite. She found Nila sitting on the edge of the bed, sobbing as she embraced Charles Pierce, who lay unconscious in bed, his face white as chalk.

Nancy didn't waste time asking the distraught Nila questions. Instead, she felt for Pierce's pulse and was relieved to find that he was still alive. The heartbeat was weak and uneven but still there. "Bess, call an ambulance !" She shouted. Her friend ran to the nearest phone.

"It's his heart," Nila managed to say between sobs. Either she was the best actress Nancy had ever seen or she was truly, deeply upset. "I came in to give him his medicine, and I found him like this."

Nancy saw the bottle of pills and the nearly empty glass of water on the bedside table. As Nancy got up to examine them, Karen walked over to her father and took his hand in hers. Tears trickled down her cheeks. "Oh, Daddy," she said in a small voice. "Please don't die. Please don't die."

Philip came up behind his sister and put his arms around her. "He'll pull through," he said. "He's a tough old bird."

"There's so much I still want to tell him," Karen said tearfully. Philip just squeezed her shoulders tighter and nodded. Nancy was touched by their sorrow and surprised by it, too. She'd never suspected how much the two Pierce children actually cared for their father. He hadn't been around very much while they were growing up, and Philip had even told her he didn't much like his dad. Judging by the expression on his face, even he hadn't been aware of how deeply he cared for his father ---- until now.

The sound of ambulance sirens broke into Nancy's thoughts. Soon the emergency medical team had bundled Pierce onto a stretcher and carried him out of the house. The whole family got into cars and followed the ambulance to the hospital. Nancy and Bess went along, too. Nancy wanted to make sure this sudden medical crisis had natural causes.

They all took seats in the waiting room outside the intensive care unit. Nancy leaned against a wall, watching the others.

Jack paced while Eleanor comforted Cecilia, and Philip did the same for his sister. Bess sat with Nila, trying to keep her from hopping up and arguing with the staff that she should be allowed inside with her future husband. After all, she kept saying, she was a nurse herself. They finally did let her in to see him briefly, after they had stabilized his vital signs and finished examining him.

But there was nothing Nila or any of them could do for Pierce right then ---- nothing but wait. It was two hours before the doctor in charge stepped into the waiting room, his face impassive and serious.

"There's been no change in Mr. Pierce's condition," he told them. "He's alive but comatose. He may or may not make it through this. His condition is stable for the moment, though. We'll have to wait and see.

"For now, it's very late, and I suggest you all go home and get some sleep. Call in the morning, and we'll update you."

"But I want to stay with him," Nila cried.

The doctor shook his head. "You need to rest, ma'am," he said. "You've had quite a shock, and you can't do him any good if you haven't had any sleep. I assure you, if there's the least change in his condition, we'll call you immediately.

Reluctantly Nila consented to go. They all filed out of the hospital, acknowledging their exhaustion and the futility of waiting around any longer.