Baby out of the Blue

With such exquisite coloring, she looked like a cherub from the famous painting done by the Italian artist Raphael, but this cherub’s eyes were closed and there was no animation.

She put her hand through the hole and touched the baby’s forearm. “Where did you come from? Did you fall out of heaven by accident? Please come back to life, little sweetheart. Open your eyes. I want to see their color.”

There was no response and that broke her heart. Even if the baby could hear her, she couldn’t understand English. “Of course you want your mommy and daddy. People are trying to find them, but until they do, will you mind if I stay with you?”

Fran caressed her skin with her fingers, careful not to touch any cuts. “I know you belong to someone else, but do you know how much I’d love to claim a baby like you for my own? You have no idea how wonderful you are.”

Tears trickled down her cheeks. “You can’t die. You just can’t—” Fran’s shoulders heaved, but it wouldn’t do for the baby to hear her sobs. By sheer strength of will she pulled herself together and sang some lullabies to her.

After a time the nurse walked over. “I’m sure you’re being a comfort to her, but you’re wanted down in the E.R. Come back whenever you want.”

Fran’s head lifted. She’d been concentrating so hard on the baby, she hadn’t realized she’d already been up here several hours. “Thank you.”

“Leave everything in the restroom on your way out.”

“I will.” With reluctance she removed her hand and stood up. “I’ll be back, sweetheart.”

A few minutes later she reached the E.R. lounge and discovered Kellie talking quietly with Leandros. Her attractive husband had arrived at last, but he looked as though he’d aged since Easter. When he’d flown to Pennsylvania with Kellie in the Petralia company jet at that time, the three of them had gone out for dinner and all had been well.

The second her friend saw her, she jumped up from the chair and ran across the room to meet her. Leandros followed. “Is the baby going to make it?” Kellie cried anxiously.

“I don’t know. She’s just lying there limp in the incubator, but she’s still breathing and has a steady heartbeat. Have the police found her parents yet?”

“There’s been no news.”

Leandros reached for her. “Fran—” he whispered with a throb in his voice. It revealed the depth of his grief. They gave each other a long, hard hug.

“It’s so good to see you again, Leandros, but I wish to heaven it were under different circumstances. I’m so sorry about everything,” she told him. “I’m sure you feel like you’ve been through a war.”

He nodded, eyeing his wife with pained eyes. Something told Fran the pain she saw wasn’t all because of the tragedy. She could feel the negative tension between Kellie and her husband. Her friend hadn’t been exaggerating. In fact, their relationship seemed to be in deeper trouble than even Fran had imagined.

“Five guests at the resort died,” he muttered morosely. “We can thank God the honeymoon couple weren’t in their suite when the tornado touched down or there would have been two more victims. Unfortunately the other two suites were occupied. Mr. Pappas, the retired president of the Hellenic Bank and his wife, were celebrating their sixtieth wedding anniversary.”

“How terrible for everything to end that way. What about the other couple?” Fran asked because she sensed his hesitation.

Leandros looked anguished. “The sister of my friend Nikolos Angelis and her husband had only checked in a few hours earlier with their baby.”

“A baby?” she blurted.

“Yes, but when the bodies were recovered, there was no sign of the child. The police have formed a net to search everywhere. You can imagine the anguish of the Angelis family. They’re in total shock. People are still combing the area.”

“Nik is the brilliant youngest of the Angelis brothers,” Kellie informed her. “He’s the new CEO of the multimillion-dollar mega corporation established by their family fifty years ago. He was out of the country when Leandros and I married, or he would have been at the wedding.”

“I remember seeing some pictures of him in a couple of magazines while I was on the plane flying over.” Gorgeous was the only word to come to mind.

Leandros nodded. “We’ve both put up money for volunteers to scour the region, but so far nothing. His parents are utterly devastated. They not only lost their daughter and son-in-law, but their little granddaughter.”

Granddaughter?

The mention of a baby girl jolted her as she thought of the baby upstairs fighting for her life.

“How old is the baby?”

“Seven months.”

“What color is her hair?”

“Black.”

A cry escaped her lips.

Maybe she hadn’t fallen out of heaven.

Was it possible she’d been carried in the whirlwind and dropped in the hotel garden? Stranger things had happened throughout the world during tornadoes.

“Kellie?”

“I know what you’re thinking, Fran—” Kellie cried. “So am I.” The two women stared at each other. “Remember the little girl in the midwest a few years ago who was found awake and sitting up ten miles away in a field after a tornado struck, killing her entire family? We both saw her picture on the news and couldn’t believe it.”

“Yes! She was the miracle baby who lived!”

“It would explain everything.”

Leandros’s dark brows furrowed. “What are you two talking about?”

“Quick, Kellie. While you tell him what we’re thinking, I’m going back upstairs to be with the baby. Maybe she has come to by now. After hearing from Leandros that their baby is missing, I think she could be that lost child! She has to be! There’s no other explanation. She has to live.” Those words had become Fran’s mantra.

The police had made a grid for the volunteers to follow. Nik and his brothers had been given an area to cover in the pine trees behind the resort. They’d searched for hours. Separated by several yards, they walked abreast while looking for any sign of Demi.

Debris had been scattered like confetti, but he saw nothing to identify their family’s belongings. The tornado had destroyed everything in its path, including lives. Pain stabbed him over and over.

Where in the hell was the baby? How could they go home without her body and face their parents? The grief was beyond imagining.

Each of his brothers had two children, all boys. Their wives and families, along with Stavros’s family had flown to Mykonos to join Nik’s parents. He knew Sandro and Cosimo were thanking providence that their own children hadn’t been anywhere near either tornado, but right now their hearts were so heavy with loss, none of them could talk.

Demi was the only little girl in the family, so beautiful—just like her mother. Not having married yet, Nik had a huge soft spot for his niece. She possessed a sweetness and a special appeal that had charmed him from the moment she was born.

Melina’s baby was the kind of child he would love to have if he ever settled down. But that meant finding the kind of woman who could handle what he would have to tell her about himself before they could be married.

Up to now he hadn’t met her yet and was forced to put up with the public’s false assumption about him. Throughout the last year, various tabloids had put unauthorized pictures of him on their covers with the label Greece’s New Corporate Dynamo—The Most Sought-After Playboy Bachelor of the Decade. He was sickened by the unwanted publicity. But this tragedy made the problems in his personal life fade in comparison.

Just two weeks ago he’d bought Demi a toy where you passed a ball through a tube and it came out the other end. She loved it and would wait for it to show up, then crawl on her belly after it. She could sit most of the time without help and she put everything possible in her mouth. Her smile delighted him. Never to see it—or her—again…he couldn’t bear it. None of them could.

Hot tears stung his eyes at the thought that the seven-month-old was gone, along with her parents. It was a blow he didn’t know whether he could ever get over. He and Melina had shared a special bond. She’d been there for him at the darkest point in his life. A grimace broke out on his face as he realized he couldn’t even find her baby. He felt completely helpless.

Sandro caught his arm. “We’ve finished this section.”

“Let’s move to the next grid.”