Twenty Wishes (Blossom Street #5)(39)

Ellen’s eyes brightened and she nodded, then ran off.

Watching Ellen join her friends, Anne Marie walked into the office; she asked to speak to Helen Mayer and within five minutes was escorted into the other woman’s office.

“Is everything okay?” Helen asked immediately, a small frown between her eyes.

“Not really…” Anne Marie described the events of the night before.

Incredulous, the counselor stared at her. “Oh, my goodness.”

“As you can imagine, this has all been a shock.” Anne Marie pinned her gaze on the other woman. “I wonder how she got my phone number.”

“Actually I gave it to her,” Helen admitted a bit sheepishly. “She phoned last week and asked for it and I couldn’t see any reason not to tell her. She said she wanted to talk to you about Ellen.”

To be fair, the school counselor couldn’t have known that Dolores would call in the middle of the night and place Anne Marie in such an awkward position. “I’m going to need the emergency contact number in Ellen’s file,” Anne Marie told her.

“Yes, of course.” Helen turned to her computer and began to type. After a couple of minutes, she said, “The name is Clarisse McDonald.” She reached for a pen and quickly wrote down the number.

Anne Marie took the piece of paper. As soon as she learned about Dolores’s condition, she’d be in touch with Ellen’s aunt.

“Do you know what hospital the paramedics took Dolores to?” the counselor asked.

At the time Anne Marie hadn’t been thinking clearly enough to inquire, but she’d heard one of the EMTs mention Virginia Mason Hospital, which wasn’t far from Blossom Street.

She was telling Helen Mayer this when a bell rang in the distance, indicating the start of classes. The sound caught Anne Marie off guard and she jerked in surprise.

“You get used to the bell,” Helen said. “After a while you don’t even hear it.” She smiled. “You were telling me Dolores is at Virginia Mason?”

“Yes, I think so.” Anne Marie would visit the hospital first. If she hurried, she should be able to make it there and get back to the store before ten.

She stood. “I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”

“Thanks,” Helen said as she walked Anne Marie to the office door.

Before Anne Marie left the building, she decided to check on Ellen. She stood by the classroom door and peeked in to see Ellen chatting with her friends as if nothing was awry. Relieved, she went out to the parking lot.

When Anne Marie reached Virginia Mason Hospital it was already nine-fifteen. She explained her situation to the woman at the information counter, who gave her Dolores Falk’s room number.

She took the elevator to the correct floor and found Dolores alone in her room, hooked up to IV tubes. Her color seemed improved, Anne Marie thought. When she walked in, Dolores opened her eyes.

“How are you feeling, Mrs. Falk?” she asked as she approached the side of the bed.

“I’m doing better. How’s Ellen?”

“She’s fine. Don’t worry about her.”

Tears welled in the older woman’s eyes. “I can’t thank you enough for taking my granddaughter. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t come.”

“I’m glad to help out.” Never mind that it wasn’t entirely true.

Dolores’s chest rose with a sigh. “The doctor says I’m going to need heart surgery.”

Anne Marie squeezed the woman’s hand. “They have excellent doctors here and—”

“I’m not worried for me,” Dolores said, cutting her off. “My only concern is Ellen.”

“You just concentrate on getting well. I have the number for Ellen’s aunt Clarisse and—”

“No!” Dolores cut her off again. Her fingers tightened on Anne Marie’s.

“She’s the emergency contact you gave the school. So I—”

“Clarisse is in prison.”

“Prison?” Anne Marie swallowed her gasp of shock.

“Fraud.” Dolores closed her eyes again, as if admitting this to Anne Marie embarrassed her. Anne Marie was sure it did.

“What about Ellen’s mother?”

Tears rolled from the corners of the woman’s eyes and fell onto the pillow that supported her head. “Her mother is a drug addict. The state of California took Ellen away from her when she was three years old. I’d lost contact with my daughter—I didn’t even know about Ellen. By the time I learned I had a granddaughter, Ellen had gone through a series of foster homes. It took me a year to get that child to sleep through the night. I won’t put her back in the system. I won’t do that to her.”

“Oh, dear…” Anne Marie said weakly. There didn’t seem to be an adequate response.

“Whatever happens to me, don’t let them put her in foster care.” Her agitation grew and Anne Marie began to worry. “Promise me,” she pleaded. “Promise me.”

“Of course.” What else could she say?

Dolores relaxed a little after that.

“What about her father?”

Dolores shook her head grimly. “My daughter probably doesn’t even know who fathered this child.”