Hitting the Right Note Read Online Free PDF

with more urgency.
    The three women rushed downstairs, JJ making it to the front hallway first. Without checking the peephole, she flung the door open. Before she could say a word, a heavyset man walked in and set two suitcases in the hallway before stepping out and making way for a second man, who brought in a huge, heavy-looking box.
    â€œWhat in the world—”
    â€œWhose are these?” Lissandra demanded from the second brother who had set down the box. “And why are you bringing them into my house?”
    â€œI’m just following orders, ma’am.”
    â€œWhose orders?”
    â€œMine.”
    All three women looked up to see a fourth, very pregnant, very tired-looking woman standing in their doorway.
    JJ hadn’t seen her in more than a month. But there was no mistaking the person standing in front of her.
    â€œSheree?”
    The woman let out a tired breath. With a hand on her back and another one under her protruding belly, she took two slow steps into the entryway.
    â€œHey, JJ . . . Lissandra . . . Sydney,” she puffed, taking a labored breath after each word. “Is there anywhere I can sit down? I think . . . I’m about to . . .”
    And then, before she could even get the words out, she fainted.

Chapter 4
    S imon hated hospitals.
    It was the first thought he’d had every morning since he first arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, and it was the first thought he’d had again this morning as he stepped through the sliding glass doors. He hated hospitals. It didn’t matter whether they were in North America or Northern Africa; whether they had state-of-the-art technology or secondhand machinery. In every case it was the same. And it was mostly because of the smell. Whether it was of disinfectant or dysentery, it was unhealthy. Unnatural. It was not the smell of life. It was the smell of sickness and death. No wonder so many people died in hospitals.
    And yet this was where he would have to spend several of his days for the next few weeks. It was for the greater good, he knew. This is where people came for care, and so this was where he needed to be. But the Lord knew that if he could have built a makeshift office on a boat and docked it in the Toronto Harbourfront nearby, he would have. At least that way he might breathe in a little semi-fresh, non-artificial air every now and then.
    â€œPaging Dr. Massri. Dr. Massri to the Maternal Fetal Medicine Unit.”
    â€œThey musta spotted you in the parking lot, Doc,” the security guard in the lobby called out to Simon as he saw him approach.
    â€œNah. It’s that tracker they implanted at the airport, Lawrence,” Simon said, tossing an apple to the burly, baby-faced man in uniform. “They always know where I am.”
    Lawrence caught the apple and nodded his thanks. “They got us all on the grid, I tell you.”
    Simon chuckled as he entered the waiting elevator and hit the button that would take him up to obstetrics, where he would spend most of his day. He might hate hospitals, but usually the people weren’t too bad.
    â€œDr. Massri, where have you been? You were supposed to be here at ten o’clock. It’s a quarter to eleven.”
    â€œGood morning to you too, Dr. Sterling,” Simon said, trying on his best smile for the acting chief of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, who looked like she had been waiting for him to arrive so she could remind him how late he was. Other doctors at his level would have told him not to take that kind of talk from a local staff MD, even if she was the chief. But he had met Dr. Sterling over ten years ago, when he was nothing but a young doctor still wet behind the ears. Before he got a PhD in research. Before he had received any international awards or been called to work all over the world. Before he gave it all up to do what he did now. She had known him then. And she still knew his mother and father. So when it