I showed up at the hospital to surprise my husband during his shift. But the second one of his coworkers saw me, all the color left his face. Then his eyes filled with tears. “He hasn’t said a word to you, has he?” Ben and I had been married eleven years, and for every one of those years, I had shared him with the hospital. He was a remarkably gifted surgeon.

Brian rubbed his eyes wearily.

“Walsh told the disciplinary committee he’d handed the patient off to me before a single incision was made.”

“What about the circulating nurses, or the surgical record?”

“Walsh controls every surgical schedule and every budget in that department, so everybody was scared to death of losing their jobs if they said anything.”

My chest tightened as the cruelty of the cover-up sank in.

“Why did you hide this from me for a whole year, Brian?”