Relieved that no one had noticed that she’d been crying her heart out for most of the night, Katy made her way to one of the cubicles and used the intercom to call the patient through.

He was remarkably cheerful for someone who’d waited so long and she examined his injured ankle and sent him along for an X-ray.

‘You couldn’t weight bear after the accident, so we need to check it,’ she told him, glancing up as Charlotte popped her head round the curtain, her face white.

‘I need you in Resus.’

‘On my way.’ Katy stood up and gave her patient an apologetic smile. ‘I’m so sorry. We’re very busy today. Follow the red line to X-ray and then I’ll see you when you come back.’

Wondering what was responsible for the tension she’d read in Charlotte’s face, she made her way to Resus and stopped dead with shock when she saw her mother standing in the doorway.

‘Mum? What are you doing here?’

Jago and Charlotte were already in action, and her eyes swivelled to the patient on the trolley who was being attached to a heart monitor.

‘Dad?’ Her voice was a croak and she felt a chill run through her body.

Jago’s eyes collided with hers briefly and then he turned his attention back to her father as he put a line in and started an infusion. ‘You don’t have to be here, Katy,’ he said roughly. ‘Take your mother to the relatives’ room.’

Her mother straightened her shoulders. ‘I’m not leaving him,’ she said stiffly, and Katy walked into the room, letting the door swing closed behind her.

She hurried up to the trolley, her brain working in slow motion. ‘What happened?’

Her father was pale and sweaty, gasping for breath as he lay on the trolley.

‘We were at home and he suddenly clutched his chest and complained of pains,’ her mother said shakily, her eyes on Jago. ‘I—I think another doctor should see him!’

‘Mum!’ Katy was aghast and she looked at Jago with mortification, but Jago didn’t react, all his attention concentrated on her father.

‘I’m fully aware that Mr Rodriguez hates your father,’ her mother said dully, ‘and I have to admit he has reason. Why would he want to help him?’

Intercepting Charlotte’s startled glance, Katy slipped an arm round her mother. ‘Jago’s a brilliant doctor, Mum,’ she said quietly. ‘The best. Who Dad is, or what he’s done, doesn’t matter at the moment.’

There wasn’t anyone else she’d want caring for a member of her family.

Feeling strangely disconnected, Katy watched as Jago examined her father, checking his peripheral pulses to exclude aortic dissection and checking his legs for any evidence of clots in the veins.

‘Katy, either help me out here or get me another doctor,’ Jago growled suddenly, and Katy leapt into action.

‘What do you want me to do?’ She wasn’t capable of thinking straight but she could follow orders.

‘Take blood for U and Es, glucose, CK, FBC, and we may as well check his cholesterol as well.’ He glanced up. ‘Charlotte, get him attached to a pulse oximeter. I want to monitor his oxygen saturation. And get a radiographer up here. I want a portable chest X-ray.’