Chapter 20
All her life Catherine had feared a loss of control in public—like passing out. Even though it had lasted only a moment, she felt embarrassed and more than annoyed that the Secret Service had insisted on spiriting her away to Walter Reed Army Medical Center as a precaution for what was sure to be dehydration, low blood sugar, overwork, stress, or some other minor problem, she prayed. True, her period had been a bit erratic of late and she had been experiencing hot flashes, which she attributed to perimenopause. But she could also no longer deny that she was gaining weight in the middle, where she never carried it, and her belly was a hard mass, not soft and rippling. That could mean only one thing, she thought—ovarian cancer, which had claimed her mother and now, she feared, ha
