She wore a white coat.
Her hair was tied in a neat bun.
For some reason, her face seemed familiar.
"Who is she?" I asked.
Dr. Harris hesitated.
"I need to check something."
He opened his laptop.
After several minutes, he turned the screen toward me.
The woman in the photograph was identified as Dr. Margaret Ellis.
A research coordinator.
She had supervised patient recruitment for Project Lumen.
I stared at her picture.
Then I felt a sudden chill.
I had seen that woman before.
Not twenty years ago.
Recently.
At my daughter's school.
***
My daughter, Lily, was eight.
She loved drawing flowers and collecting unusual stones.
She had my dark hair and Nigel's gray eyes.
Three weeks before my surgery, she'd told me that a doctor had visited her school to conduct vision screenings.
At the time, I thought nothing of it.
Schools arranged health checks all the time.
