I thought I knew where my life was going. Which goes to show that we don’t know anything.

I had the perfect life. A husband who loved me, getting the promotion as the head of our cardiopulmonary department, and a life plan that gave me purpose. Then, with one fell swoop, everything was destroyed. Finding your sister in bed with the love of your life puts things in a different perspective. Discovering she’s stealing your dream makes you question every thought you’ve ever had.

I lost everything except my medical career. The one place where my life wasn’t falling apart around me. Until it was. Dr. Eric James was our ER physician, and maybe if I hadn’t had a life plan, I’d never have noticed him in the way a woman discovers a man. Maybe I’d never known what passion was before him. I came to him in a moment of weakness, and he mended a part of me I thought was broken forever. Life has a way of screwing up even the best things that have ever happened to you.

Trauma. When reality crashes into a fantasy, sometimes it’s hard to catch your breath. I knew the right thing to do, but giving up when a person’s life was in my hands went against everything I was taught. Love doesn’t follow the right rules. Unlike a medical emergency, there is no plan for survival. What I needed was a prescription for love that wouldn’t destroy the tiny part left of me still fighting to live.