Chapter 4

The morning of my surgery arrived with an unseasonable chill that seemed to seep through the hospital walls. I lay in my bed, watching the gray dawn creep across the sky through my window, and felt nothing but a strange, hollow peace.

No one had come to see me.

Not Alexander, who was probably still basking in the afterglow of last night's celebration. Not my mother, who lived three states away and didn't even know I was sick. Not a single friend or colleague who might have wondered why Catherine Blackwood had simply vanished from society's radar.

Margaret knocked softly…