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.

I moved closer to him, refusing to give an inch.

“Can you say exactly the same thing to your own children, Gregory?”

A sudden flash of rage broke through Walsh’s smug mask, and his jaw clamped tight.

Behind him in the foyer, Evelyn Walsh took one deliberate step out into the sunlight and looked straight into my eyes.

“Get off my private property this minute, or I’ll have the police haul you away in handcuffs,” Walsh snapped.

I took Brian’s hand, feeling how cold and limp his fingers were, and led him down the stone walkway toward our car.