One Wish In Manhattan (A Christmas Story) Read Online Free Page B

One Wish In Manhattan (A Christmas Story)
Book: One Wish In Manhattan (A Christmas Story) Read Online Free
Author: Mandy Baggot
Tags: Fiction, adventure, Romance, Contemporary, Adult, Travel, New York, Christmas Wish, Holiday Season, Holiday Spirit, White Christmas, Billionaire, Twinkle Lights, Daughter, Single Mother, Bachelor, Skyscrapers, Decorations, Daughter's Wish, Fast Living, Intriguing, New York Forever, Emotional, Moments Count, New Love, The Big Apple
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Yorkshire puddings.’ Hayley grinned. ‘So, let’s recap. We know what a bodega is and we can probably pick up the Yorkshire pudding mix while we’re getting the fizzy wine.’
    ‘Mum!’ Angel said, swiping a hand at Hayley’s arm and laughing.
    She kept the smile going but inhaled a long breath and watched the happy expression restored on her daughter’s face. This trip was all about Angel and she didn’t even know it yet.
    Hayley leaned forward, kissing Angel’s forehead. ‘Go to sleep now. No reading up on George Washington or how many types of squirrel there are in Central Park.’
    ‘Only one, the grey squirrel and they’re in decline. Apparently …’
    Hayley put a finger to her lips and Angel stopped talking.
    ‘Time for sleep now but tomorrow I want to hear all about the little critters.’
    Angel smiled. ‘Night, Mum.’
    ‘Night, Miss Mensa.’ Hayley went to the door turned off the light and stepped onto the landing.
    She waited a few seconds, just wanting to stay in this happy bubble before everything in their lives changed, and then she heard the softest of voices.
    ‘Dear God, or Father Christmas, it doesn’t matter which … If you’re listening I really, really want to find my dad.’

4
    St. Patrick’s Hospital, Manhattan, USA

    O liver felt as if he had the contents of a toolbox in his mouth. Every single spanner and a dirty wrench. A horrid, metallic taste tainted his tongue and the flesh on the inside of both cheeks. It was making him nauseous – as was the chattering machine next to the hospital bed that was recording every movement of his heart. All the doctors arriving en masse when he’d been admitted had since disappeared. He was prostrate on the bed, the sensation in his chest now nothing more than a numb ache, Clara tapping on her phone next to him. Worry was etched on her forehead. He couldn’t be here anymore. He hated these places and he needed to get back to work, get to the bottom of all that was going on with Regis Software. He tried to move into a half-sitting position.
    ‘Oliver, don’t you dare move. The nurse said you need to lie completely still.’ Clara clamped a hand to his forearm, dropping her phone into her lap.
    ‘I just need to see what this damn machine is saying and then I can get out of here.’ He craned his neck. ‘What’s it saying?’ He tried to focus his eyes on the graph shapes appearing on the screen.
    ‘It’s saying if you don’t lie still your personal assistant is going to get the meanest nurse she can find,’ Clara retorted. ‘Try to stay calm.’
    ‘In this place?! Are you kidding?’ He flopped back down.
    He didn’t need to read the graph to know what it was saying. Those humps and bumps, the lines rising and falling, they only meant one thing. Heart attack . He knew without any shadow of a doubt. It was his destiny. It wasn’t a case of ‘if’ but ‘when’. It was genetic, written in family history. This was what the male Drummonds had in their future. Heart problems and eventually … death.
    That realisation weighed on his shoulders like an unmoveable snow drift. Maybe this year was it for him. Time out, nothing else, not even making thirty. Like his brother.
    ‘It’s not a heart attack.’
    Now his PA was apparently a mind reader, although clearly no physician. Oliver stared up at the ceiling, looking into the pattern of the off-white tiles, a string of cheap silver tinsel hanging lamely from one crack. It looked like someone hated Christmas just as much as he did.
    He wasn’t going to meet Clara’s eyes. The woman was just trying to keep his spirits up. That’s all people knew how to do in situations like this. She knew his family story. She knew the inevitable ending.
    His tightened chest had definitely slackened slightly, but it wouldn’t stay that way. It would take him over again, when he wasn’t ready, another time, another place.
    ‘When my first husband had his first heart attack he turned the colour of

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