The Dark Side - Danielle Steel Page 0,79

speak openly to her, which was a relief.

“Sometimes I think I imagined the whole thing, and I wonder if I’m crazy. She’s so perfect, so brilliant at everything she does. Her work at her shelter, the outward appearances of motherhood, being a good wife. How could someone like that want to hurt a child?”

“It’s the ‘too good to be true’ syndrome. I never trust that,” Constance said at one of their lunches at Da’Giulio. “She wants you to believe that and see her as perfect. She needs everyone to think that about her, but there’s someone very different behind the mask. The act is convincing, that’s why people with Munchausen by proxy are so hard to identify.” He had come to hate the words.

He didn’t tell his mother but sometimes he realized he still loved Zoe, and felt guilty for sharing his fears with others, like Cathy. What if he was wrong about her, and the incidents really were accidents? There was a seed of doubt in his mind, but it never grew beyond that, when he read more about the disorder, and saw again how perfectly the criteria matched up to his wife. But his heart ached when he saw her in a tender moment with Jaime, or how happy Jaime was with her, and how much she and Zoe loved each other. It was a kind of passion, and they left him out at times.

Cathy felt that way too, and also had doubts occasionally, and wondered if they’d gotten riled up, and panicked for nothing. As time passed, the previous incidents seemed less ominous and their menacing quality began to fade. She and Zoe had spent a particularly nice Saturday together, shopping uptown at Bergdorf’s when Austin liberated Zoe by taking Jaime to Central Park, and they met up for tea afterward at the Plaza. Zoe told Jaime all about Eloise, the mischief she got up to, and how much Zoe had loved her as a little girl. She pointed out a portrait of her in the lobby, with her pug dog and turtle, and Jaime loved seeing it. Zoe promised to get her the book. She really was the perfect mom, or so it appeared.

Austin, Zoe, and Jaime had brunch at a restaurant with an outdoor terrace in SoHo the following weekend. It was the first really warm spring day, and they were relaxing in the sunshine, as Jaime finished the donut she’d had for dessert. It was one of their specialties, and the restaurant was known for them. Jaime got flushed after she ate it, and Zoe put more sunscreen on her, thinking she was getting burned. Austin was drinking a cappuccino and struggling with the New York Times crossword puzzle when Jaime started to choke and gasp for air. She wasn’t eating at the moment, so there was nothing in her throat, and no Heimlich necessary. But she couldn’t stop wheezing and coughing, and she looked panicked as she glanced at her mother.

“I can’t breathe, Mommy,” she whispered. Her face was red and swelling, and Austin put down the paper with a look of panic.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.” Zoe looked terrified too. “She just started choking and gasping for air,” and then suddenly Jaime stopped talking, she was wheezing, and they could see that she couldn’t get enough air. Zoe called 911 on her cellphone, and her hands were shaking, as she held it and told the 911 operator her name, location, and what was happening. They said they would be there in five minutes as a man came over from the next table and said he was a doctor.

“I think she’s having an allergic reaction, an anaphylactic reaction.” Austin was holding her, and Jaime looked wild-eyed. She couldn’t breathe.

“All she had was oatmeal and a donut, and some banana. She’s had bananas before, and she eats oatmeal almost every day.”

“Is she allergic to honey? The donuts are honey-glazed.” It said so on the menu. The doctor was taking her pulse and it was racing, and he was watching her closely. He could tell that her airway was closing. She was dying in front of their eyes, it was a severe reaction, and Austin was silently wondering if Zoe had poisoned her.

“She’s never had honey,” Zoe said frantically. “I read somewhere that they shouldn’t have it till they’re four or five.” They could hear a siren approaching, and seconds later, the paramedics rushed onto the terrace and spotted them immediately. The doctor told