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      Dear Reader,

      One of the great privileges of being a writer is spending time with your beloved characters, talking to them, getting to know them, playing with them and then at the end of the book leaving them to get on with your own life. I guess it’s a bit like being a grandparent—at the end of the day you hand the little darlings back!

      How easy would it be for people like my hero Joel and his parents to walk away from what life has dished out to them? Such a dilemma was the premise for this novel and I couldn’t think of a better heroine than Allegra Tallis, who showed such amazing compassion and hope against all odds.

      However, outside of romantic literature not every story has a happy ending, and it is for this reason I dedicated this book to my three nephews and nieces, who daily deal with the human tragedy of what Joel Addison had to face.

      My special thoughts and heartfelt love to all who have to do the same.

       Melanie Milburne

      About the Author

      MELANIE MILBURNE says: “I am married to a surgeon, Steve, and have two gorgeous sons, Paul and Phil. I live in Hobart, Tasmania, where I enjoy an active life as a long-distance runner and a nationally ranked top ten Master’s swimmer. I also have a Master’s Degree in Education, but my children totally turned me off the idea of teaching! When not running or swimming I write, and when I’m not doing all of the above I’m reading. And if someone could invent a way for me to read during a four-kilometre swim I’d be even happier!”

      To my nephews and niece Ben, Tommy, Peter and

      Katherine (Kathy) McNamara. You have all been

      through so much in your young lives and I am in awe

      of how you have coped. I love each of you very dearly

      and dedicate this book to you in acknowledgement of

      your struggles, your tragedies and your joys that I will

      always share with you, not with a glance of pity but

      with the steady gaze of compassion.

      I would also like to give my heartfelt thanks and

      appreciation to the doctors and nursing staff of the

      Royal Hobart Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit for their

      invaluable help in the research conducted for this

      novel, as well as Dee Nally from Salamanca Pharmacy

      for her advice. Thank you all!

      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘WHAT do you mean, he wants me to stop my research on the coma recovery assessment project?’ Allegra Tallis asked the nursing sister on duty in Intensive Care. ‘That’s outrageous. The CEO gave me his full support, I’ve got ethics approval and I’ve got funding!’

      Louise Banning gave her a sympathetic look. ‘I know all that but Dr Addison is the new Director of ICTU and A and E now, and what he says goes.’

      ‘Not if I can help it,’ Allegra growled. ‘I’m not giving up months of research to satisfy some control freak’s demands to run a tight ship. Who does he think he is anyway? He might be the new director but if he thinks he can tell me what to—’

      ‘Dr Tallis?’ A deep male voice spoke from just behind her. ‘We haven’t had the opportunity to meet since I arrived. I’d like to speak to you in my office—now, if you don’t mind.’

      Allegra swung around to see a tall dark-haired man in his early thirties towering over her, the deep brown intensity of his eyes as they connected with hers making her throat move up and down involuntarily in a tiny swallow.

      ‘Oh … Dr Addison. Well, I’m just seeing a patient right now …’ she said.

      His gaze hardened as one dark brow lifted in an arc of derision. ‘Sister Banning is your patient, is she?’

      Allegra tightened her mouth. ‘No, of course not—I mean in the unit. I can see you in about five minutes.’

      ‘Make if four,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a crammed schedule this morning.’ He continued on this way, his starched white coat brushing against her arm as he went past.

      Louise’s brows rose expressively once he was out of their hearing. ‘Not the best first meeting, I would say.’

      ‘No.’ Allegra frowned crossly. ‘Well, I’ve been on night shift for the last week. I wasn’t here for his welcome thingy.’ She twisted her mouth and added, ‘God, what a pompous idiot.’

      ‘Yes, but a rather good-looking idiot, don’t you think?’

      She gave a little snort. ‘If you have a thing for the tall, dark, brooding type.’

      ‘You never know—he might improve on acquaintance,’ Louise said. ‘He’s got a very good reputation. He’s been headhunted especially for the post so he can’t be all that difficult to work with.’

      ‘Yeah, well, I still think Dougal Brenton should have got the job,’ Allegra said. ‘He’s been at Melbourne Memorial for years, and instead they bring in someone just because he’s worked overseas in a war zone.’

      Louise glanced at her watch. ‘Could be this will be a war zone if you don’t keep your appointment with him,’ she said. ‘I’ll keep on eye on things here. You’d better go.’

      ‘Thanks, I won’t be long.’

      Dr Joel Addison’s office was in the middle of the multi-million-dollar newly built intensive care and trauma unit, providing the city of Melbourne with a state-of-the-art trauma and acute care centre—in fact, the largest in the country. With twenty-six ICU beds, a burns unit, a ten-bed trauma receiving area and two fully equipped operating rooms all in the same complex, it offered a breadth of care in one site that was second to none.

      Allegra gave the director’s door a quick hard knock and waited for the command to come in. When he gave it in a blunt one-word response, she opened the door to find him seated behind his desk with a large pile of paperwork spread out before him.

      He rose as she came in, his height seeming all the more intimidating in the confines of his office.

      He