Boston, 1879. Phoebe Van Bergen has poured everything into the Van Bergen Women’s Hospital—her inheritance, her defiance, her desperate need to be more than society’s gilded ornament. Within its cramped wards, she matters.

Here, she is not the obedient fiancée of a man whose charm masks something darker. Here, she can breathe.

Then Dr. Douglas McLennan arrives from Scotland—brilliant, abrasive, and haunted by a loss so devastating he’s vowed never to love again. He dismisses Phoebe as a privileged do-gooder. She thinks him insufferably arrogant. Neither expects their clashes to become the most honest conversations of their lives.

But Phoebe is keeping secrets that could destroy her. And when Douglas becomes the one person who knows the truth—the shame she carries, the violence she’s survived—she knows he’s seen her at her most broken, and she might lose him forever.

When Phoebe finally breaks free of her engagement and travels to Scotland for a medical symposium, she never expects Douglas to be on the same journey—or for a catastrophic disaster on the Tay Bridge to strip away everything but what matters most. Faced with death, they must finally confront the question they’ve been running from: Is the risk of heartbreak worth the chance at being truly known?

A sweeping tale of passion, redemption, and the power of second chances, perfect for fans of Olivia Hawker, Amy Harmon and Kristin Hannah.