f it from Harlow, who burst into the kitchen waving his

lling it a 'mystery separation'-no details, just speculati

ioning Ethan as the victim of a wife who'd abandoned him without explanation. There were quotes from "sources

g back the phone. "That's new. I w

harp with anger. "Unstable wife, faithful husband blindsided, probabl

e suddenly robust. "I have patients to see. Rounds to make. A

re fully verified. Dr. Voss had welcomed her with cautious enthusiasm-he remembered her from conferences, he'

d leave. Personal circumstances. The lie

een punished for it, and she was crawling back now with nothing but

wed a lesion in the left temporal lobe, low-grade glioma, operable but delicate. The family wanted the tumor o

he feel of the Bovie in her hand, the smell of burning bone, the moment of rev

by printouts, muttering to herself ab

d sleep,

to be

h to touch. "You've been ready since you were twenty-two. T

ompetitor and her colleague and now, somehow, her only friend. Who'd opened his home without question, who'd de

We competed for everything-cases, publications, Dr. Roy's

her hand where it rested on the MRI film. His fingers were warm,

harder. Every technique you mastered, I had to learn faster. You were-" He stopped, withdrew his hand.

hest, some wall she'd built without

you're vulnerable and exhausted and might mistake gratitude for something else." He paused in the doorw

he stairs. Annika sat in the silence, the MRI films glowing green

eved she needed. Hope for herself. For the work. For the possibility that she could be excellent

e and the news that her credentials had cleared. She was officially Dr. Annika Hayes

very possible complication until she could recite the emergency protocols in her sleep. Harlow assisted

ready-hungry, eager, the old confidence

reviewing his own cases for t

, surprised.

is." She leaned against the doorframe, suddenly awkw

deserved it," he said quietly. "That was