Cassia

Cassia Brooks works nights. She knows the sound of a bad call from six streets away and she has never once needed a doctor to tell her when she is right. Until Hollis Adeyemi-Briggs shows up at her hospital with new protocols, a Nairobi accent, and fifty-two years of being right about everything. She files a complaint against him in her first week. He accepts it with the expression of a man who is used to this. They should hate each other. They do. Then a bus comes apart on the A13 and Cassia, off shift, in her own clothes, does not leave the resus floor for fourteen hours. Neither does he. Everyone on night shift has already bet on them. Hollis's ex-wife still calls at three in the morning. His daughter has opinions. The inquiry panel wants someone's head. Cassia has been underestimated by men like Hollis for her entire career. She is not planning to start making exceptions now.