As his Chevrolet slows down to a stop, Dr. Patel is eyeing my knees. At first, I press them tightly together and smooth down my skirt as far as it can go, which is not much. Then I figure, why not let him swoon over what he’ll never get to touch?
Don’t hate me for acting sexy. I already hate myself for it. At the same time, I recognize that seduction may be my best weapon. I must get him to lower his defenses, so I may gather clues about his past. Nothing will please me more than to gain confidence in the veracity of his education. A failed experiment is not what I want to be.
Dr. Patel hops out, comes over to my side while spreading out his umbrella, and opens the door for me. This is the first time I watch him outside the ER. Without his scrubs he looks somewhat different, even handsome, and not in a boyish way. Wrapped in a dark gabardine raincoat designed by Prada, he is slightly shorter than my boyfriend, Michael, and more muscular.
I swing my legs around, step out past him, past the edge of his black umbrella, where the pinging of raindrops reaches a high note. I glance over my shoulder at his hand, expecting to see a wedding ring—finding none.
Has he removed it, especially for this date?
No. Apparently he never wears it, because the skin at the base of his ring finger is no paler than the rest of it.
For someone known to be a perfect family man, not wearing a wedding ring seems peculiar, but I remind myself that it doesn’t mean much.
Perhaps he and his wife have some kind of understanding about such things, although—despite the thick, horn-rimmed glasses—he is attractive. In her place, I would be watchful. Perhaps he tells her that jewelry of any kind would be in the way when patients lie under his knife.
Months after recovering from coma, Ash discovers that the man who performed her brain surgery has a questionable medical experience and a dark past. Should she expose him, at the risk of becoming vulnerable to his revenge?
"This book is exactly the kind of complex psycho-drama I've come to expect of Uvi Poznansky. The characters are full blown and full of contradictions and there are more plot twists than switchbacks on an Tibetan mountain side."
- Aurora Dawn, VINE VOICE
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