She Sent Him a Bouquet on Our Anniversary

Claire Bennett, once an award-winning photographer, has been married to cardiothoracic surgeon Adrian Cole for five years. For the sake of their marriage, Claire closed her photography studio, gave up a job opportunity in New York, and became a full-time wife. On their fifth wedding anniversary, she receives a bouquet of black calla lilies and assumes it is from her husband. But when she opens the card, she discovers that the flowers were actually sent to Adrian by his female colleague, Vanessa, thanking him for personally contacting his former mentor, Dr. Harris, to arrange for the Oklahoma City Heart Center to urgently admit her aunt, and for using his connections to coordinate a medical helicopter transfer. Three years earlier, Claire’s father had also suffered an aortic dissection and urgently needed to be transferred to another hospital. Claire had begged Adrian in tears to contact Dr. Harris and help secure an air transfer, but Adrian insisted that everything had to go through the hospital’s official transfer center and refused to use his personal connections. Her father ultimately died during ground transport. Only then does Claire finally understand the truth: Adrian was never unable to use his connections—he simply had never been willing to use them for her. She decides to divorce him. Soon afterward, Claire unexpectedly discovers that she is pregnant. Overwhelmed and hopeless, she briefly schedules a consultation related to ending the pregnancy, but changes her mind at the last moment. After Vanessa learns about the pregnancy, she crosses the line and tries to interfere. During an argument, Claire is accidentally injured and loses the baby. Later, because of Vanessa’s personal bias, treatment for Claire’s abnormal bleeding is delayed, nearly costing Claire her life. Even then, Adrian instinctively continues to defend Vanessa. Completely disillusioned, Claire leaves Boston, picks up her camera again, and sets out along Route 66. As she fulfills her father’s