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CHAPTER ONE
THE SHRILL OF the phone cut through the dark night
Vivienne Kerr fought her way free of the tangled sheets, her brain desperately trying to make sense of the noise Was she on call? Was this a home delivery?
By the ti her head No Definitely not on call Not tonight She’d been on call for the last three nights in a row This was her first night off
OrMaybe she’d slept for more than twenty-four hours and was late for her next shift
Her eyes glanced at the green lights of her clock Three thirty-seven Her heart sank Nope She definitely wasn’t late, and no norht—not unless it was bad news
She picked up the phone, sucking in a breath as if, in some way, it would protect her from ould come next
She was practically praying that this would be a wrong nu for a taxi, or sos that could only be filled with souy she’d previously given her number to She’d take any of the above
‘Hello?’
For a few seconds there wasn’t really a reply
Every tiny hair on her bare ars froe Her stomach clenched
‘Hello?’ she tried again
There was a noise at the end of the phone She couldn’t quite work out if it was a sob or a choke ‘Viv’
The voice stopped, as if it had taken all their effort just to say her nanise that voice anywhere
‘Duc?’ Panic gripped her Her best friend Where was he working now—Washington? Philadelphia? Shethat could go wrong at a delivery did go wrong
Take charge
‘Duc? What’s wrong? Where are you? Are you okay?’
Every tiny fragment of patience that she’d ever had had just flown out of theDuc As she squeezed her eyes shut, she could see his floppy brown hair and soft brown eyes in her head Duc They’dhospital in London while she’d been a midwifery student and he’d been a medical student No one could have predicted how irl would click with the ever cheerful, laughing Vietnamese boy
It was fate It waskind of ic
A clinical enosed placenta praevia Both had only been in the room to observe Both had had no experience of a situation like this before Theto the delivery of a very blue baby Both Vivienne and Duc had ended up at either side of the bed, squeezing in eency units of blood at al back out of the poor one out of the win
dow in the attempt to save both baby and mum
By the tiency surgery, and baby rushed to the NICU, Duc and Vivienne had been left in the remnants of the room, with almost every surface, them included, splattered with blood
Vivienne had done her best to hold it together And she’d ed it Almost
Right until she’d reached the sluice rooloves Then she’d started to shake and cry When the sli arms had slid around her waist without a word, and Duc had rested his head on her shoulder, she’d realised that he had been shaking too He’d known not to try and speak to her He’d known not to ask her if she wanted a hug He’d just acted, and they’d stood there, undisturbed, for nearly fivetheir friendship for ever
But now? Fear gripped her chest Duc hadn’t answered
Worst-case scenarios started shooting through her brain He was sick He was injured So terrible had happened to him
‘Duc? Talk to me, please I need to kno you are I need to know that you’re okay’
‘III need you’
She was on her feet in an instant, looking frantically around her room She clenched the phone between the crook of her neck and her ear as she fell to her knees and pulled a bag from the bottom of her cupboard
‘I’ll be there’ She’d never been surer of anything in her life ‘Where are you? What’s wrong?’
‘It’sme? va cha’
She recognised the Vietnamese words instantly ‘Your mum and dad? Duc, what’s happened? Are they hurt?’
Her stomach clenched She’dcouple, completely devoted to the hospitals they ran in Hanoi and two other outlying areas in Vietnam
Silence filled her ears and an ache spread across her chest Experience told her that silence usually meant the worst possible case
‘Duc,’ she stumbled ‘No’
She couldn’t keep the e in her eyes