to the pain of naked air. Sheâd been abandoned as a child. She knew what an abandoned child felt likeâ¦and would feel like, her whole life.
A crinkle of paper slipped out of the basket. It only took Winona a few seconds to read the printed message.
Dear Winona Raye,
I have no way to take care of my Angel. You are the only one I could ask. Please love her.
Winonaâs cop experience immediately registered several thingsâthat thereâd be no way to track the generic paper and ordinary print, that the writing was simple but not uneducated, and that somehow the mother of the baby knew her specificallyâwell enough to identify her name, and well enough to believe she was someone who would care for a baby.
Which, God knows, she would.
As swiftly as Winona read the note, she put it aside. There was no time for that now. The baby was wet beneath the blankets, the morning biting at the January-freezing temperatures. She scooped up the little one and hustled inside the warm house, rocking, crooning, whispering reassurancesâ¦all past the gulp in her throat that had to be bigger than the state of Texas.
God knew what she was going to do. But right now nothing mattered but the obvious. Taking care of the child. Making sure the little one was warm, dry, fed, healthy. Then Winona would try to figure out why anyone would have leftthe baby on her doorstep specificallyâ¦and all the other issues about what the childâs circumstances might be.
That fast, that instantaneously, Win felt a bond with the baby that wrapped around her heart tighter than a vise. The thing was, as little as she knewâshe already knew too much.
She was already positive that the child was going to get thrown in the foster-care system, because thatâs what happened when a child was deserted. Even if a parent immediately showed up, the court would still place the child in the care of Social Servicesâat least temporarilyâbecause whatever motivated the parent to abandon the child could mean it wasnât safe in their care. A change of heart wasnât enough. An investigation needed to be conducted to establish what the childâs circumstances were.
Winona knew all those legal proceduresâboth from her job and from her life. And although she knew her feelings were irrationalâand annoyingly emotionalâit didnât stop the instinct of bonding. The fierceness of caring. The instantaneous heart surgeâeven panicâto protect this baby better than sheâd been protected. To save this baby the way she almost hadnât been saved. To love this baby the wayâto be honestâWinona never had been and never expected to be loved.
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There were several coffee machines spread through Royal Memorial Hospital, but only one that counted. After heâd switched from trauma medicine to plastic surgery, Justin had generally tried to avoid the Emergency Room, but by ten that morning, he was desperate. Groggy-eyed, he pushed the coins into the machine, punched his choice of Straight Black, kicked the baseâhe knew this coffee machine intimatelyâand then waited.
He wasnât standing there three minutes before he got a series of claps and thumps on his back. It was, âHey, Dr. Webb, slumming down here?â and âHi, Doc, we sure miss youâ and âDr. Webb, itâs nice to see you with us again.â
As soon as he could yank the steaming cup out of the machine, he gulped a sip. Burned all the way down. The taste was more familiar than his own heartbeat. Battery acid, more bitter than sludge, and liberally laced with caffeine.
Fantastic.
He inhaled another gulp, and then aimed straight ahead. Down the hall, through the double glass doors, was his Plastic Surgery/Burn Unit. The community believed that the wing had been anonymously donated, which was fine with Justin. What mattered to him was that in two short years, the unit had already developed the
Alice Clayton, Nina Bocci