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PROLOGUE

4 Years Ago

FARROW KEENE

I head to the hospital’s break room in blood-splattered scrubs As I pass the ER beds, a few patients side-eye me, but not because of the red stains They scrutinize my dyed white hair and s on ers, andlike a poster boy for Doctor of the Year

But I’lance back at these patients unless they’re coding or I’m called to help

I know better

At Philadelphia General Hospital, I’s me about as much as water would a shark

I just do o hoain

See, being a doctor shouldn’t feelclose to ordinary, but it’s all I’ve ever fucking known, and it’s getting to me

Really getting to me

I push through a door 11:54 am—medical interns and residents ja loudly and eating Pizza boxes overflow the few tables and counters where a pot works overtime to brew coffee

I don’t ask about the spontaneous pizza party It’s always someone’s birthday in the hospital, and there’s always cake

As hungry as I ae out of these scrubs I’m about to reach the door to the men’s locker room but a voice stops me

“Keene, what’d you get?” Tristan asks from across the crowded break room

I coh my bleach-white hair So for the answer

Short and stocky Tristan MacNair leans on the sill, pepperoni pizza in hand His sideburns touch his jaw as though he’s stuck in the 1970s, and his curious eyes flit to the bloodstains on my scrubs

I wouldn’t say we’re close friends or even enemies, but he’s a Med-Peds intern like me

“Thirty-year-old male,” I tell him, “stab wound to the neck with a key and to the upper abdomen with a knife Couldn’t intubate or ventilate, so he needed a cric Morris did the chest tube” Apparently this fucker attacked a fe, and she keyed his throat He fell on his own knife

Karma is a beautiful bitch

“Who did the cric?” Tristan asks

My brows rise “Me”

Dr Leah Young, a second-year resident, alency cricothyrotomy?”

“Yeah” I e in the patient’s neck to obtain an airway Normally my lips would upturn, but my exciteust

I grab the doorknob, about to leave

“Your shift ending?” Tristan asks, quickly straightening up and balling his napkin

I nod “Done for today You?”

“Just starting” He stuffs his mouth hurriedly with pizza He wants in on that patient

Too bad for hiuy was tachycardic and hypotensive,” I tell Tristan “We just sent hiery”

“Daroans, then sluood ones”

I wouldn’t haveproblem For most of my life, I’v

e wanted in on the action Excited to learn new things, to do new things with medicine

To help people

Now I’ency cric and tube thoracostomy

I want to blaer shifts and been more tired than this

When I enter the locker roo out the commotion Cedar lockers line every inch of wall; most cubbies house white coats, extra clothes, toiletries, some books and snacks

I find mine in a corner

It takes e out ofPumpkins V-neck and black pants My reat jobshit

I’ now

By the tirab s I check the Caller ID and then put the cell to my ear “What do you need?”

My father rarely calls to shoot the shit, and I’d rather cut to the chase

I hear hih papers “What rotation do you have this week?” he asks, his tone warm and relaxed One of the many reasons why the three famous families (Hales, Meadows, Cobalts)—his patients—essentially love him

He even has a s mint juleps and mojitos on the weekend, but simply put, he’s not a laidback, soon-to-be-retired physician He’s constantly working, and I can hardly pictureup the white coat

I sling my backpack strap over my shoulder “ED”

He knows that stands for eency depart on a laptop, keys click click click

“Just ended” I shut my locker

“I’m in Spain for the week—”

“I heard,” I cut hi a five-hundred-foot cliff” He’s a skilled professional climber, but the Hales, Meadows, and Cobalts like to ensure if the worst happens, their concierge doctor is present

“Right,” my father says a little bit distantly, his attention split “I got a call, and you’re in distance”

Finally, we’ve reached the point “Call” ency” And I know exactly where this conversation is going

I lean ot off a twenty-eight hour shift Ask Uncle Trip to take your calls”

“He’s here with me in Spain”

I roll e doctor”

“You will be after you’re board-certified,” he says h calls Think of this as a test-run for when you take over as their primary physician”

I shake my head on instinct