“You didn’t cause any trouble, Papa,” she said softly, holding his hand. “But you have to be careful now. You and Natalie are both on bedrest. You have to take it easy, but you can keep her company until the triplets come, and the doctor said you can go for a walk every day. We’ll take care of the hotel.”

“This is so stupid,” he complained. “I don’t know what happened. I’m fine. I must have just been tired or something.”

He looked more awake but still very beaten up, and Heloise didn’t look great either. It had been a long night for both of them. “I can’t let you do all the work,” her father said, looking agitated.

“You’re not coming back to work until the doctor says you can,” Heloise said sternly. “The rest of us can handle whatever comes up. We need you, Papa,” she said softly. “I need you. I’d be lost without you. You’re all I have.” There were tears in her eyes as she said it, and he gently stroked her hair with his hand.

“I’m not going anywhere. Tell Natalie I’m fine, and not to have the babies till I get back.” He smiled at her.

“You’ll be home in a few days. I’ll come back later. Brad is here with me, and he sends his love.”

“I’m glad he’s here with you. Tell Natalie I love her, and I love you too,” he said, smiling weakly at his daughter, and then he turned his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. He drifted off to sleep then, and she quietly left the ICU and went back to Brad in the waiting room, and they walked out in the morning sunshine. She felt like they’d been in the waiting room for a week as Brad hailed a cab and they went back to the hotel. They talked quietly in the back of the cab about what had happened. It had been the most frightening night of her life.

Everyone had a thousand questions when they saw her walk into the lobby. She looked exhausted, but not devastated, and everyone was relieved to hear that her father was doing well and would be home in a few days.

Brad went to her room to shower and change. He had class that morning, and Heloise went straight upstairs to see Natalie in her father’s apartment. She walked into the bedroom, and Natalie was wide awake, watching the morning news on TV. She had the TV on constantly now. She had nothing else to do except eat, watch TV, call her office, and watch her belly grow. And she was huge now with three babies inside her.

“Where’s your father?” she asked immediately with a worried expression. Heloise hadn’t planned to tell her, but there was no way she was going to be able to hide it from her for several days. And Natalie’s radar was telling her that something had happened to her husband.

Heloise sat down on the edge of the bed and smiled at her. “He’s fine. He’s really fine, and he’ll be home in a few days. He gave us a scare last night. He’s at New York Hospital, he had a mild heart attack, they did an angioplasty, and they said he’s going to be good as new. And I’m making him take four weeks off. He can keep you company till the babies are born.” She had told her everything in one fell swoop, and strangely, Natalie looked relieved. She knew something had happened, and she’d been panicked about what it was all night.

“Thank you for telling me the truth,” she said, clinging to Heloise’s hands. “Is he really okay?”

“Yes, he is. I promise.”

“Can I talk to him?”

“He just went back to sleep. He had a long night. You can call him in a couple of hours when he wakes up.” She jotted down the number for her and put it on the pad next to her bed. “I’ll stay here with you while he’s gone,” Heloise offered, and Natalie was relieved. She didn’t want to be alone at night in case she went into labor and couldn’t move, or had the babies right in her bed with no warning. She was terrified that would happen, although it was unlikely to happen that fast. They were planning to do a cesarean when they were ready to be born.

“Thank you,” she said softly. “I wish I could go see him instead of being stuck here like this.” She felt completely helpless and useless lying in bed, unable to do anything, but the stakes were too high. She couldn’t get up, even for Hugues now.

“He’ll be home soon,” Heloise reminded her. And then she went into the living room and lay down on the couch. She woke up two hours later when the phone rang. It was her father calling for his wife. Natalie picked it up and burst into tears when she heard him, she was so relieved. And they talked for a long time.

Heloise ordered lunch for her, and then went down to change into her uniform. She was on duty at three o’clock, but she went back to see her father first. He was out of ICU and in a private room by then, with a nurse, and happy to see his daughter as soon as she walked into the room. He thanked her again for everything she’d done the night before, and for taking care of Natalie while he was gone. Natalie had told him that Heloise was being very sweet.

She spent an hour with her father and then went back to the hotel to take her shift. She was right on time and stayed there until eleven o’clock that night. It was too late to see her father then, and she practically crawled back to her room to get her nightgown and see Brad.

“You look exhausted. Get to bed.” He was worried about her, as she shook her head and picked up her nightgown from the back of the bathroom door.

“I can’t. I have to sleep with Natalie tonight.” He looked genuinely sorry for her, and walked her upstairs to her father’s apartment, and spent a few minutes talking to Natalie before he left and went back downstairs. He was talking about giving up his apartment near Columbia because he was never there anymore. He was always at the hotel with her.

After Brad left, Heloise changed into her nightgown and got into bed with Natalie. They chatted for a few minutes, and Heloise was so tired she was about to drift off to sleep when Natalie took her hand and put it on her belly. There were arms and legs and hands and feet kicking all over the place. It felt like a war going on in a cartoon.

“How do you sleep with all that happening?” Heloise looked at her in amazement, and Natalie smiled at her.

“I don’t. They jump around most of the time.”

“It must feel so weird,” Heloise said sleepily, but she couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. She had to go to sleep, and a few minutes later she was out like a light, while Natalie stayed up late and watched TV. The days and nights were long, and if she was lucky and they stayed in there, she had three more months to go.

Two days later Heloise’s father came home from the hospital. They brought him home in a wheelchair, but he insisted on walking into the hotel on his own. He looked pale and tired but infinitely better than when he’d left, and he went upstairs to his apartment rapidly, to see his wife. She burst into tears when she saw him, and clung to him when he sat down on the bed. He put his hands on her enormous belly and felt their babies kicking and smiled at her. This was all he had wanted, to stay alive and come home to her. He had too much to live for now to let anything happen to him. He swore she had gotten bigger in the few days he’d been gone, and he got into bed with her a little while later and lay there beside her, grateful to be home.

Heloise visited them as often as possible, but she had taken on extra work while he was gone. She came up to ask his advice and called him frequently on his cell phone, and he was happy to feel connected to the activities and decisions of the hotel. Natalie didn’t like it and was on a vendetta against the hotel now. She thought his work was too stressful, it had almost killed him, and now she wanted him to sell the Vendôme. She wanted him to call the Dutch consortium and accept their offer. It was all she talked about. And when he was in the shower, she called Heloise and told her sternly not to call him so often. It made Heloise worry about him more.

“It’s out of the question,” he said firmly to Natalie about selling. “I can’t do that to Heloise. She loves this place too much.”

“She loves you more,” Natalie insisted. “If we lose you, it will destroy us all. You have to live for her and our babies, and this place will kill you if you don’t slow down.” He didn’t know how to slow down so she wanted him to sell. He was constantly on the phone to Bruce, Jennifer, and the front desk to find out what was going on.

“I’m taking a month off,” he reminded Natalie, hoping to mollify her, but Natalie’s only mantra now was for him to sell the hotel. She didn’t say anything to Heloise about it, but she said it to Hugues constantly, and he told her he wouldn’t, in no uncertain terms. She was stressing him more than the hotel. It was the only argument they had. The rest of the time they enjoyed being together. She loved having him home with her.

He went out for a walk around the reservoir every day, and came back with little treats for her. Four weeks after his heart attack, he looked better than ever, and by then Natalie looked like a woman lying under a mountain. He smiled every time he looked at her. She could hardly move.

The doctor came to visit her on a regular basis, and an OB nurse came to check her every day. It was April by then, and she was having contractions. The obstetrician thought it would be soon, but she was seven months pregnant, and the babies were growing nicely. They could survive if they were born now.

They were watching an old I Love Lucy rerun and eating popcorn one night, when Natalie suddenly made an odd expression and then looked at Hugues, as though she didn’t understand what was happening. She was suddenly lying in a pool of water, which rapidly spread to his side of the bed. He was afraid that she was bleeding, but when he looked at the sheets, he saw it was just water, and then they both realized what had just happened.