Chapter One
Phoenix Chamberlain wandered out from the hospital room, his senses locked in a mind-numbing daze. He had received the call at nine that morning and he'd immediately jumped in his plane and had flown to Martha’s Vineyard with his heart in his throat the whole way. He and Monica Swarovski hadn't spoken in months. Now he had missed the chance to say goodbye.
Through stinging eyes he took in the busy corridor. The air smelled of antiseptic and death. A passing doctor, deep in conversation with the nurse by his side, brushed Phoenix's shoulder as he walked by.
Where was God's mercy? Monica had only been twenty five years old.
A woman in the crowded waiting room caught his eye, her ebony hair streaming over one side of a tight fitting red dress. She held a swaddled child in her
