Chapter One
RAIN WAS DRUMMING HARD against the windows when the midnight to 8:00
rounds began at San Francisco Municipal Hospital. Inside the ICU,
thirty year old Jessie Falk was asleep in her hospital bed, floating
on a Percocet lake of cool light.
Jessie was having the most beautiful dream she'd had in years.
She and the light of her life, three year old Claudia, were in
Grandma's backyard swimming pool. Claudie was in her birthday suit
and bright pink water wings, slapping the water, sunlight glinting
off her blond curls.
"Simon says, kiss like a butterfly, Claudie."
"Like this, Mommy?"
Then the mother and daughter were shouting and laughing, twirling
and falling down, singing out "wheeeeeee," when without warning a
sharp pain pierced Jessie's chest.
She awoke with a scream bolted upright and clapped both of her hands
to her breast.
What was happening? What ...
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