“Thank you!” Mary felt a rush of gratitude.
“That’s a relief!” Anthony said, grinning.
Mary noticed Judy hesitate, but didn’t know why. “Judy, what’s up?
Bennie smiled slyly. “I’ll tell you what’s up, Mary. Judy is joining the partnership. If it’s okay with you.”
Judy’s head whirled around. “Bennie, are you serious? You would still make me a partner?”
“Absolutely!” Bennie patted her on the back. “It’s the right result. Let’s do it!”
“OF COURSE, YOU GIRLS ARE A TEAM! ALL OF YOU’S!”
Mary didn’t get it, happily confused. “Awesome! But when did this happen?”
Bennie looked vaguely sheepish. “When you told me you were leaving the firm, I didn’t want to lose Carrier, so I offered her a partnership to keep her. She told me she had to make up her mind, but now it’s easy. It’ll be the three of us.”
“The three of us!” Judy repeated, excited. “Yay!”
“The three of us!” Mary laughed, delighted.
Bennie joined her, laughing. “This will be an adventure!”
Declan rolled his eyes. “That it will.”
Just then the door opened, and Simon entered the crowded room with a broad grin. “Mary, you’re up and at ’em! You look great!”
“I am, I feel great. We’re about to hear when I get to go home. How’s Rachel?”
“She’s doing well, and so is my father. The Tonys and my cousins have everybody covered, so I could come over and see how you are.”
“Did the new donor come through?” Mary asked, sensing that his mood was too good for it to be otherwise.
“As a matter of fact, yes. It’s official now. Rachel is back on the countdown.” Simon grinned, and so did everybody else, but a funny undercurrent left Mary feeling as if they knew something she didn’t.
“What’s going on?” Mary scanned their faces and they started looking at each other and smiling. “You guys are the worst poker faces in the world.”
Simon answered, “Mary, ask who the donor is.”
“Who?” Mary asked, mystified.
“Bennie.” Simon gestured at Bennie, who waved him off, flushing.
“Really?” Mary gasped, touched. “Bennie, I can’t believe you! That’s amazing! When did that happen?”
Bennie shrugged it off. “I did the cheek swab and I was a match. Please don’t make it a big thing.”
Anthony looked over with a smile. “It is a big thing! It’s a wonderful thing to do.”
Declan put his arm around Bennie. “He’s right, babe. Now your secret’s out. You really do have a heart.”
“And more importantly, marrow,” Judy interjected.
There was a knock on the door and they all looked over to see Dr. Drinkwater stick his bald head in the door. He was short, chubby, and African-American, with a good sense of humor. “Whoa, do you have room for me in there? It doesn’t look that way.”
“Come on in,” Mary answered, and everybody moved aside as Dr. Drinkwater approached the bed with a warm smile.
“How are you feeling, Mary?”
“Good, thanks. Am I going home today?”
“I’d like to take a few minutes to examine you, then ask a few questions.” Dr. Drinkwater hesitated, glancing around. “Would you rather do that in private?”
Mary smiled. “No, don’t worry about it. Everybody here is family.”
“Everybody?” Dr. Drinkwater asked, his dark eyes bright with amusement behind his tortoiseshell glasses.
“Everybody,” they all answered in unison, then started laughing.
“EVEN YOU, DOC!”
Everybody laughed again, including Dr. Drinkwater, who turned to Mary, getting down to business. “So how’s the headache?”
“Comes and goes. Less often than before.”
“How’s the pain, scale of one to ten?”
“One.”
“Any dizziness?”
“No.”
“Nausea?”
“All gone. Can I leave today?”
“Yes, and your discharge papers will explain your wound care. You got twelve staples back there, so follow the directions.”
“Okay.” Mary smiled, happy to be leaving. They’d shaved a bald spot into the back of her head, but she had a new perspective on the importance of hair. She almost thought her head bandages looked cute, like that injured emoji.
“If you experience nausea, vomiting, seizures, loss of consciousness, or any change in mental status, go to the ER right away.”
“Will do.”
“Take it easy for the next two weeks. No reading, no TV. No work, no excessive exercise.”
“Not a problem.”
“In addition, you’ll have to return for a follow-up CT scan in two weeks, and don’t worry, it won’t affect the baby. None of the tests we ran will affect the baby.”
Mary must have heard him wrong. “What baby?”
Anthony looked over. “What baby?”
“MARE, DID HE SAY ‘BABY’?”
Dr. Drinkwater looked from Anthony to Mary, with a smile. “Oh my. Did you not know, Mary? You’re pregnant.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Here’s where I get to say thank you to those experts who helped me with this book, which contains information beyond my ken.
The ethical quandary at the heart of this book is actually a cutting-edge question in legal ethics. I didn’t intend it that way, it just happened, which doesn’t sound impressive but is absolutely true. As soon as I thought of the question and didn’t know the answer, I consulted one of the foremost experts in legal ethics in the country, who just happened to be an old friend of mine, Lawrence Fox, Esq.
Larry heads the Ethics Bureau at Yale Law School, and as soon as I posed my question to him, he said that would make an excellent question for the class, and to make a long story short, I ended up on a conference call with twenty legal geniuses at Yale Law, who undertook this legal issue as part of their course. I won’t tell you how they all came out, because there is a clear divide of authority that I exploited ruthlessly for this novel, but suffice it to say that I think they all deserve an A+. I thank them here for their support, especially to Larry, who gave me the benefit of his scholarly wisdom as well as his decades of practice as a Philadelphia lawyer, and that’s saying something. If you are interested in legal ethics, you should read his wonderful and enlightening book, Red Flags: A Lawyer’s Handbook on Legal Ethics.
Another group who deserves major thanks here is the incredible group of physicians, nurses, and staff at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, whom I admire so much that I dedicated the book to them. I knew that I couldn’t write this novel without their medical expertise, and I wanted to honor what is a difficult experience for the families of critically ill children.
So I contacted Amy Burkholder, who runs communications for CHOP, and she put me in touch with the amazing Stephanie Fooks-Parker, Anne Wohlschlaeger, Megan Atkinson, and Patricia Hankins. This powerhouse hosted my assistant/best friend, Laura Leonard, and me for an entire day at CHOP, giving us a careful tour of the Blood & Marrow Transplant Unit and giving us the same orientation that a parent whose child was about to receive a bone marrow transplant would be given. We learned more than I could have hoped, and we even met Dr. Stephan Grupp, director of CHOP’s Cancer Immunotherapy Program, an amazing doctor who’s using his considerable superpowers to try to save the lives of children every day.
Thank you to everyone at CHOP for everything they do for children all around the world. I saw firsthand how much they care about their young patients, and I am deeply grateful to them for taking the time to explain their work to me, down to the smallest detail. And my hat is off to the parents and siblings with family members being treated at CHOP. You exemplify strength, devotion, and the true meaning of love.
For criminal law answers, thanks so much and a great big hug to my dear friend, the brilliant public servant Nicholas Casenta, E
sq., chief of the Chester County District Attorney’s Office. Thank you (again) to Detective Thomas Gaul of the Homicide Division of the Philadelphia Police Department.
Thank you to my genius editor, Jennifer Enderlin, who is also the senior vice president and publisher of St. Martin’s Press, yet she still finds the time to improve every one of my manuscripts, including this one. Thank you so much, Coach Jen! And big love and thanks to everyone at St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan, starting with the terrific John Sargent, Don Weisberg, and Sally Richardson, plus Jeff Dodes, Lisa Senz, Brian Heller, Jeff Capshew, Brant Janeway, Erica Martirano, Jordan Hanley, Tom Thompson, John Karle, Sara Goodman, Samantha Davis, Anne-Marie Tallberg, Kerry Nordling, Elizabeth Wildman, Caitlin Dareff, Talia Sheer, Kim Ludlum, and all the wonderful sales reps. Big thanks to Michael Storrings, for outstanding cover design for the series. Also thanks to Mary Beth Roche, Laura Wilson, Samantha Edelson, and the great people in audiobooks. I love and appreciate all of you!
Thanks and love to my agent, Robert Gottlieb of Trident Media Group, whose dedication guided this novel into publication, and to Nicole Robson, Emily Ross, and Trident’s digital media team, who help me get the word out on social media.
Many thanks and much love and hugs to the amazing Laura Leonard. She’s invaluable in every way, every day, and has been for over twenty years. Laura, I love you! Thanks, too, to the great Nan Daley and to George Davidson, for doing everything else, so that I can be free to write!
Finally, thank you to my amazing daughter, Francesca, for all the support, laughter, and love.
Also by Lisa Scottoline
Rosato & DiNunzio Novels
Damaged
Corrupted
Betrayed
Accused
Rosato & Associates Novels
Think Twice
Lady Killer
Killer Smile
Dead Ringer
Courting Trouble
The Vendetta Defense
Moment of Truth
Mistaken Identity
Rough Justice
Legal Tender
Everywhere That Mary Went
Other Novels
One Perfect Lie
Most Wanted
Every Fifteen Minutes
Keep Quiet
Don’t Go
Come Home
Save Me
Look Again
Daddy’s Girl
Dirty Blonde
Devil’s Corner
Running from the Law
Final Appeal
Nonfiction (with Francesca Serritella)
I Need a Lifeguard Everywhere but the Pool
I’ve Got Sand in All the Wrong Places
Does This Beach Make Me Look Fat?
Have a Nice Guilt Trip
Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim
Best Friends, Occasional Enemies
My Nest Isn’t Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space
Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LISA SCOTTOLINE is a New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning author of twenty-nine novels. She has 30 million copies of her books in print in the United States, she has been published in thirty-five countries, and her thrillers have been optioned for television and film. Lisa also writes a weekly column with her daughter, Francesca Serritella, for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and those stories have been adapted into a series of bestselling memoirs, the first of which is entitled Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog. Lisa lives on a Pennsylvania farm with an array of disobedient pets. Visit www.scottoline.com or follow Lisa on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at @LisaScottoline, or sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Acknowledgments
Also by Lisa Scottoline
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
EXPOSED. Copyright © 2017 by Smart Blonde, LLC. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Rob Grom
Cover photographs: woman © Mohamad Itani / Arcangel; stairs with women © Tom Merton / Getty Images
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Scottoline, Lisa, author.
Title: Exposed / Lisa Scottoline.
Description: First edition. | New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2017. | Series: A Rosato & Dinunzio novel; 5
Identifiers: LCCN 2017016193 | ISBN 9781250099716 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250151032 (signed edition) | ISBN 9781250099730 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Rosato & Associates (Imaginary organization)—Fiction. | Women lawyers—Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths. | GSAFD: Mystery fiction. | Legal stories.
Classification: LCC PS3569.C725 E95 2017 | DDC 813/.54—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017016193
eISBN 9781250099730
Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at
[email protected] First Edition: August 2017
Lisa Scottoline, Exposed
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