Though he'd been glad she'd called last night and had asked some pointed questions about Anna's condition, and had finished by saying he'd do what he could, he'd hung up on her soon after she'd said there was nothing to be done.

He said that he loved Anna. That was all she could ask.

You didn't trust him to love you.

Megan bit her lip. While Stefano both angered and hurt her when he walked out, the last thing she should be thinking of now was her relationship with the man. It wasn't that she didn't trust him when she'd kept the folder stashed away. She'd been scared. What if he'd seen the contents and thought she'd pursued the job without so much as considering a life with him? Or, worse, what if he'd panicked at the sight of the photo as Santi had and decided to stay away?

In the end, keeping the information from him caused precisely the result she feared.

She leaned her forehead against the cool gla.s.s that separated her from Anna. She shouldn't have been afraid of an open discussion with Stefano. He'd shown over these last couple of months that he'd care for her, he'd protect her, he'd encourage her in everything. True, he'd questioned some of her parenting decisions, but in the end, he'd listened and been willing to see things from her perspective. She should've trusted that he'd listen with an open mind when she explained how she'd gotten both the job offer and the photo. That they'd discuss the ramifications together.

She smiled, picturing the way Anna launched herself into his arms for a hug before going to her last sleepover at Julia's. Unabashed joy radiated from his face as well as from Anna's. She could only imagine how utterly enjoyable life under the same roof might've been for the three of them. And no doubt, during the times they were alone, she and Stefano would've had an off-the-charts s.e.x life. The biggest risk she faced was that he might not love her as deeply as she loved him. But didn't every marriage carry that risk? There were never guarantees, in any marriage. She shouldn't have been scared.

On the other hand, the possibility she could lose Anna forever scared her all the way to her bones. She stared at the small, fragile body in the bed on the other side of the gla.s.s. With each pa.s.sing minute Anna remained unconscious and feverish, that possibility became more and more real.

Dr. Serrano's low voice floated to her from the hallway, causing her to straighten. She couldn't understand his rapid-fire Catalan, but she gathered he was discussing Anna's case with the nurses. He'd visited Anna's room a half-hour ago, but left to take a phone call from another doctor before he could give Megan an update.

While she respected that Dr. Serrano had other patients and medical professionals who needed his attention, a selfish part of her wished he could've waited until after he'd shared what he planned to do next for Anna. The lack of information wore on her more as much as the lack of sleep.

At long last, the doctor rounded the corner and entered her room. He apologized for the delay in visiting her with an update, then gestured for Megan to take a seat so they could talk. Megan was too agitated and nervous to respond. Her jaw shook as she sent prayers skyward for Anna.

Once she was seated, Dr. Serrano dropped his clipboard on the bed, then sat beside it and leaned forward, his dark eyes filled with concern.

"She hasn't gotten any better, has she?"

"No, which is a bad sign. By now, the antibiotics should have had some effect. In fact, I'm becoming concerned about the potential for swelling around her brain." Megan's throat constricted as she absorbed the impact of Dr. Serrano's words. "However, I do have some good news."

"Yes?" She'd take anything at this point.

"There is a Canadian doctor-a Dr. Jenkins-who is the foremost authority in the world on bacterial meningitis. By good fortune he is at a medical conference in Madrid this week. I've spoken with him on the phone about Anna's case. He has some ideas about the next steps to take, though he would like to evaluate her himself first. We can have him here this evening with your permission. With his expertise" -he cringed slightly at his mangled p.r.o.nunciation of the word- "I believe we can give Anna a fighting chance. More than a fighting chance."

How much did she adore Dr. Serrano right now? She shouldn't have begrudged him an instant of the time he took before he came in to update her. The man was an angel. "Anything that will help, you have my permission to do. And as soon as possible."

The doctor stood. "In that case, I will call him back right away."

"Thank you. From the bottom of my heart." She stood and clasped his hand. "I'm so grateful that you thought to call him and convince him to leave his conference to come see Anna."

"You are quite welcome," he replied. "However, Dr. Jenkins called me."

"He did?" Megan frowned as she released the doctor's hand. "But how could he-"

"A friend of yours knew of Anna's condition and called Dr. Jenkins asking for advice. When your friend mentioned that you live in Barcelona, the doctor called me and offered to come from Madrid if I wanted him to consult on Anna's case. I told him it would please me a great deal to have his a.s.sistance, but that I wished to speak with you first." Dr. Serrano raised an eyebrow. "Whoever your friend is, they must have a great deal of influence. That call for advice very well may save Anna's life."

Stefano. It couldn't be anyone else. Her heart swelled with grat.i.tude.

"Even so, I really appreciate all you're doing for Anna. She's very lucky to have you."

The doctor smiled before leaving Megan alone once more, with only the drone of a television infomercial to keep her company. She returned to the window, but Anna appeared as she had all afternoon. Still, pale, and quiet.

Megan let out a ragged breath and told herself for the millionth time that afternoon that everything would be all right. Everything possible was being done to help Anna's recover. Allowing herself to think otherwise wouldn't help Anna one iota.

Across the room, a low buzz came from her purse. After calling in sick to work again this morning-she couldn't bring herself to tell Ramon how bad things were with Anna, knowing he'd rush to the hospital and half the hotel staff would follow in his wake-she hadn't checked her cell phone. The messages were likely piling up. May as well distract herself dealing with them until Dr. Jenkins arrived. Rather than sit in the chair she'd occupied all day, she flopped on her back on the bed and thumbed the phone's power switch to reveal a new text message from her mother.

Thank you for tix. You shouldn't have. Will see you shortly.

Megan did a double take. Tickets? What tickets?

The message had to be meant for someone else. Her parents frequently enjoyed attending movies with the next door neighbors. Perhaps the neighbors bought tickets in an effort to get the Hallbergs' minds off their sick granddaughter. She'd bet anything the neighbors' phone number was right next to hers on her parents' speed dial.

As Megan started typing a response, a second message appeared on the screen.

Car service just arrived at the house. Flight in three hours. We'll be there tomorrow morning. Love you, sweetheart. Kiss Anna for us.

She paused with her thumbs over the screen. The message was definitely meant for her. But how in the world-?

Stefano. It had to be Stefano. He'd bought plane tickets for her parents so they could be by Anna's side.

She set the phone on the bed beside her after typing back a quick see you soon. She needed to call Stefano and thank him. She closed her eyes and pulled her sweater tighter around her shoulders as she thought through what she'd say. A simple thank you didn't cover it.

"Ms. Hallberg?" A soft voice came from the doorway. "Are you awake?"

Megan took a moment, then opened her eyes to see one of the nurses turning to tiptoe away. The angle of the sun had shifted. She must've fallen asleep. "Yes?"

The nurse spun back around. "I am sorry if I woke you. There is a Mr. Jones here who claims he is family? You said not to expect family visitors, but he asked me to find you-"

"Jones?" She blinked, dazed. It couldn't be. She pushed to a seated position. "Yes. Yes, let him in."

Skepticism clouded the nurse's features. "Only immediate family is permitted, you understand."

"He is immediate family." Megan used her index fingers to swipe the gumminess from her eyes. "Is he downstairs or up here at the nurses' station?"

A rich voice came from the doorway, gliding over her like a warm, comforting blanket. "I'm right here."

Megan looked like h.e.l.l.

Black smudges marred the skin under her eyes, strands of hair fell from her loose ponytail, and her clothes looked as if she'd slept in them. She sat atop a hospital bed with its sheets perfectly in place, but its pillow mushed. A black sweater hung off the side of the bed and her cell phone rested face down near her hip.

She must've crumpled there in exhaustion, keeping herself available the instant Anna needed her.

Heaviness threatened to collapse his chest at the sight of her blinking at him. Never had she looked so beautiful. Stefano dropped his bag on the floor, then crossed the room in three steps to wrap her in an embrace.

Instantly, her arms came around him and she buried her face in his shoulder. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

He ran a hand over the back of her head, smoothing her hair. "Why are you sorry?"

"I don't know," she whispered into his shirt. "For Anna. For everything."

"No. Don't be sorry. It'll be all right." Still clasping the back of her head, he kissed the top of her hair. He wanted to say that he was sorry, too. Instead, he offered, "I called a doctor in Madrid who's offered to consult with Dr. Serrano if it will help."

She nodded against his shoulder, then slowly pulled back. Her eyes brimmed with tears, though she held them in check. "Dr. Serrano told me. When he said a friend of mine called a meningitis expert, I knew it had to be you. Thank you. And thank you for flying my parents here. I can't believe you did that."

He couldn't help but give her a small smile. He'd half expected her to accuse him of wanting to control the situation and tell him he shouldn't have made calls about Anna without consulting her first. But she didn't. She seemed genuinely grateful.

She frowned, then angled her head to look at his hat. "You got rid of the Red Sox."

"You said you liked the Twins. Does it look all right?"

She nodded, a smile pushing through her tears. "It's perfect for Mr. Jones. Suits his personality."

"Good." He eased back, his hands moving from her back to her arms. "So how's Anna doing?"

"Stable. But in this case, stable isn't good." She slipped from his embrace and stood, leading him to a window that separated her room from Anna's. He stood behind Megan and gazed through the gla.s.s.

"Dr. Jenkins should be here soon. He wants to examine her, then he and Dr. Serrano will decide what to do next."

"She looks so tiny." With her eyes closed and the covers pulled to the center of her torso, Anna was dwarfed by the bed. The sight of her brought Stefano right back to the hospital he'd visited with his mother when he was seven. Crisp white sheets, white walls, silver bed rails. Monitors flashing on either side of the bed. An IV bag hanging from a hook, its tube snaking down to a child's hand. The little boy whom he'd met then looked far better than Anna did now-he'd been alert and feeling well enough to play cards-and that boy succ.u.mbed to his infection only days later.

A masked nurse entered the room and glanced at the monitor, then put her fingers to Anna's wrist to double check the girl's pulse rate, yet his daughter remained immobile. He'd never seen Anna when she wasn't bouncing.

Never in his life had stillness caused him such fear.

"I'm scared to death," Megan whispered as the nurse departed, leaving Anna alone. "We can't lose her. We just can't."

We.

He put his hands on Megan's shoulders and squeezed, then slid his arms around her to pull her against him. He couldn't carry the horrible burden for her, but he could share it.

"We won't."

Chapter Twenty-Nine.

Gingerly, Stefano extracted one foot, then his arm, out from under Megan's slumbering form before twisting his way off the narrow hospital bed. He froze when she shifted a knee, drawing it closer to her body, but a beat later he realized she wouldn't wake.

It had taken nearly six hours from the time he'd entered her room, but he'd finally convinced Megan to lie down and rest, arguing that she needed to muster her energy for when Anna recovered. Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Serrano had spent copious amounts of time with Anna over the course of the evening. After a.n.a.lyzing a new lab report on the bacteria suspected of causing her meningitis, they opted for a different regimen of antibiotics combined with medications that would lower her fever and alleviate any pressure on her brain. The doctors seemed optimistic, but warned Megan that it could take a day or more to see results. While Dr. Jenkins had nodded to Stefano in acknowledgement of their long friendship-Stefano's family donated generously to a children's relief project the doctor founded-he knew from their earlier phone call that Stefano wanted to remain anonymous while at the hospital and refrained from addressing him directly.

Thankfully, Dr. Jenkins hadn't asked any personal questions during their phone call. Stefano suspected they'd come later, however. The nurses already wondered at his presence. Though they hadn't said anything since Megan claimed he was part of her immediate family, they'd looked at him askance. Anna wasn't listed as having a father in her medical records, Megan wore no wedding ring, and it was clear by the way Megan had fallen asleep cradled in his arms that he and Megan weren't siblings.

He leaned over the bed to adjust Megan's sweater-a necessity in the chilly hospital despite the bright summer sunshine outside-but resisted the urge to smooth her hair away from her face. As much as he wanted to stay and comfort her, he wondered at what point his presence would cause her pain.

After glancing through the window to ensure Anna looked as comfortable as possible, Stefano tiptoed into the bathroom with his overnight bag and eyed himself in the mirror. He'd thought Megan looked like h.e.l.l when he arrived. Compared to her, he looked like muck dredged from the lowest levels of Barcelona's Bess River. Not even when he'd been in the military and spent two weeks in the field, training in the rain and mud, had he looked this haggard.

Of course, he'd slept more than this during training.

After receiving Megan's call, he'd spent the rest of the night researching meningitis, trying to get a grip on what Anna faced and what the current protocols might be. He'd made phone calls and done what he could to get her help. He'd cancelled his appearances for the next day, claiming a migraine, and told his secretary to hold his calls and to do her best to fend off inquiries from his parents. Unwilling to use his own jet and alert anyone to his whereabouts, he'd booked a private flight to Barcelona. Once he secured a plane and pilot, he hadn't bothered to shower. He'd thrown on jeans, a T-shirt, and the Twins hat he'd ordered nearly a month before but hadn't yet worn for Megan. He'd packed only his toothbrush, deodorant, and one change of clothes, anxious to get off the ground as soon as possible.

He'd thought it the best decision at the time, but now his eyes appeared bloodshot and he was in desperate need of a shave and a shower. If-when-Anna awoke, he'd scare the daylights out of her. It was one thing to appear incognito, it was another to appear frightening.

He stifled a yawn as he rummaged through his bag for the toothbrush and toothpaste. He couldn't shower as long as Megan slept. One of them should remain alert and available in case anything changed with Anna. As long as no one got close enough to get a good whiff, he supposed he'd have to do without.

Probably a good thing he didn't have to worry about impressing Megan anymore.

A commotion from outside the room caught Stefano's attention as he finished brushing. Cautiously, he looked into the hallway for its source and spotted two nurses muttering in fl.u.s.tered Catalan. One was crawling under the sink behind the nurses' station while another handed her a stack of towels. A third nurse was on the phone, apparently arguing with maintenance over the time it would take to get help. She hung up and spread her arms wide as she looked at the other two nurses, her expression clearly indicating that for the time being, they were on their own.

Stefano stepped back into the room, checking first on Anna, then on Megan. Both were sound asleep. Figuring he may as well keep himself occupied, he approached the nurses' station to offer his help with what appeared to be a leak. He spoke no Catalan, but thankfully all three spoke English.

The nurse who'd been on the phone, a middle-aged woman who wasn't much taller than Anna, opened a cabinet alongside the sink. "Those are all the tools we have, I'm afraid. A hammer that's of no use at all and two wrenches. And some wire."

He shrugged. "We'll see what the problem is, then see what we need."

The nurse who'd been under the sink eased her way out. Her back was wet, so she left to change as Stefano crouched down, then slid in to see what caused the problem. The nurse who'd been cleaning up the mess handed him a flashlight and said, "It's Mr. Jones, isn't it? Please tell me you're a plumber."

He smiled to himself as he studied the pipes with the flashlight. "No, not a plumber. But I've done some work on water systems. Volunteer work when I was younger. I might be able to figure this out."

"I sure hope so." He heard her feet moving as he continued to study the pipe leading from the drain to the wall. "I need to go check on some patients, but Maria will be right here. Let her know what you need."

He a.s.sumed Maria was the nurse who'd lambasted the maintenance staff on the phone. A moment later, he was proven correct as he asked for a wrench and she bent to hand it to him.

"Do you know why it's leaking?"

He stretched to loosen the collar of a water filter that had been installed under the sink. "I think it's a simple case of either a weakened seal or a loose collar." Especially since the filter came off easily in his hands. He shimmied his way out from under the sink holding the filter. The seal looked fine, but the filter itself needed replacement. "More likely a loose collar."

The nurse immediately spied the brown filter and grimaced. "Let's change that. I'm sure I have another here."

As she rummaged in a nearby cabinet, Stefano poured the excess water from the filter container into a nearby bucket and disposed of the old filter.

"Got it," Maria said. She removed the packaging, then handed him the new filter. While he was under the sink with the replacement, she said, "Thank you. I know you must be terribly worried about Anna. It's kind of you to do this when you have her on your mind."

"This helps get her illness off my mind," he replied. "At least until the doctors have something new to report."

"Hopefully soon," she said. He could hear her ripping open a new roll of paper towels to clean the rest of the water that had run onto the floor.

"It's the worst feeling in the world not being able to help her," he said. "Meningitis can be so tricky. I knew a boy once" -he gave the filter collar a twist to lock it in place- "I thought he was going to be fine, but in the end, with meningitis...well, you've probably experienced plenty of difficult cases working here, so you're well aware of what can happen. So much is out of your control that it makes you want to help whenever it's an option. That volunteer work I said I did on water systems? The main reason I did it was because I never wanted to see a kid come down with a preventable illness when there are so many illnesses that aren't."

"I understand completely. It's why I became a nurse. Livia, too." Maria laughed. "She's the one who tried to fix the sink before you came out. She's a much better nurse than she is a plumber."

"She would've figured it out," Stefano said. He shone the flashlight around, ensuring nothing else under the sink appeared loose, then gave the filter a wiggle to ensure it was tight. As he was checking the seals, he heard a male voice asking where to put a bouquet of flowers and the nurse make an exclamation of surprise.

"Anna Hallberg, sisplau," the male added, to which the nurse responded in Catalan.

Stefano eased his way out from under the sink, glancing at the gigantic bouquet of flowers now on the nurses' station counter as he turned on the spigot. He bent and shone the flashlight underneath the sink, waiting for leakage, but there was none.