The Missing Piece - Catherine Miller Page 0,105
would die at twenty-seven, he treats every day like it’s his last.
As fate throws Emma and Nathan together, everything is about to change.
Emma has never been kissed, or tasted champagne, or travelled abroad. Nathan has never fallen in love, worn odd socks, or grown a sunflower from a seed.
Emma and Nathan vow never to waste an hour, knowing that goodbye could come all too soon. But as they lose their hearts to one another against all the odds, have they found each other too late?
An utterly heartbreaking yet ultimately uplifting novel about the redemptive power of love and how the end isn’t the end at all... Fans of Jojo Moyes, Jodi Picoult and Diane Chamberlain will lose their hearts to Catherine Miller’s stunning story.
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Acknowledgements
This book wouldn’t be what it is without having asked some people for help in their field of expertise. Firstly, I would like to thank my friend, Dr Will Nicolson MBChB, PhD, MRCP, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. He has provided invaluable help with Keisha’s job and her PhD study to make this as accurate as possible. For anyone who wanted to know, here is the outline of Keisha’s study that Dr Nicolson came up with, that I’m sure, if it were real, would make it to the British Medical Journal:
Title:
Mechanistic insights into the pathogenesis of takotsubo cardiomyopathy: the synergistic role of nitric oxide
Summary:
Background:
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, colloquially known as broken heart syndrome, has a clear stress trigger in around seventy per cent of cases. However, the mechanism by which the stress causes the characteristic cardiac features of apical ballooning and ST elevation remains unknown.
Studies have indicated a pivotal role for a surge in catecholamines and have demonstrated higher circulating levels of catecholamine in patients acutely presenting with takotsubo cardiomyopathy. But stress is a frequent part of the human condition and it remains unclear why a particular individual on a particular day is susceptible to developing the myocardial inflammation and associated oedema termed takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
Nitric oxide has a key role in causing the vasodilation of blood vessels and recent studies have shown that dysregulation of nitric oxide exacerbates heart failure and arrhythmogenesis.
Hypothesis:
Dysregulation of nitric oxide explains the susceptibility of an individual to a surge in catecholamines causing takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
As you can see, Will went above and beyond, creating the study that would see Keisha requiring candidates to drink beetroot juice. I’ve weaved this into the story as much as possible and I have every faith that Keisha would go on to do her study in full. If not, as this is as authentic as it gets, it may well be Will and his colleagues doing so. Any mistakes in the translation of facts to fiction are mine.
On the genealogy side of things, I need to thank my uncle, Malcolm Austen. In the story, Tess refers to her uncle as the ‘genealogy specialist’ and it is in fact something that I have grown up with. For as long as I can remember Uncle Malcolm has had a keen interest in family history and is the current chairman of the Oxfordshire Family History Society, amongst other family-history groups. His knowledge has filtered through over the years so I know some of the technicalities involved with searching family history and worked out how to fit it within the plot. Of course, having an expert uncle did mean I was also able to clarify I had these things correct, even if they are unlikely.
I don’t normally base my characters or story on real people or places, but in this story, the allotment is based on my grandad’s and the home is the one he and my nan lived in all their lives. Because it was my way of bringing them together while they were apart, those places were in my head as I wrote the story. I’d like to thank all of my family for all the happy memories we’ve had there and hope they continue in future years.
I finished this book just ahead of what would become a particularly hard period of time for all of us. Covid-19 was unexpected. For every book I’ve written I’ve always meant to say a thank you to some of the healthcare workers involved with looking after me and my chronic eye condition. I’d like to extend a thank you to Mr Nigel Hall and the staff at the Southampton Eye Unit who have been looking after my eyes since I was twenty-one. I’d like to thank my GP, Dr Boddeke, and all the staff at Cheviot Road Surgery. I’d also like to extend a special thank you to all the staff working on F8 at Southampton General Hospital, caring for the Covid-19 patients during this time. They ensured messages could get through when we weren’t able to visit my nan during her final hours. Never have I been more thankful for the kindness of strangers.
This book, as always, has had lots of support from friends and family. The revisions would not have happened without my girls, Amber and Eden, my partner, Ben, and my mum, and not forgetting Tara the dog. I’d also like to thank some of my extended family and friends: Brian, Sarah and Shane, Uncle Malcolm and Auntie Lesley, Rosie and Jen, Emily and Kaiden, Vee, Don, Ryan and Angela, Sarah, Stacey, Kat and Chrissie. I’d also like to extend that thanks to some of the writing organisations I’m involved with: the RNA Southern Chapter group, the RNA, the SoA and, of course, my fabulous bunch of writing friends: The Romaniacs.
I’d like to thank my agent, Hattie Grünewald, for always steering me in the right direction and my editor, Christina Demosthenous, for doing the same. They are a dream team along with all the supportive staff at Bookouture and The Blair Partnership. Thank you for helping me run with my ideas and seeing them through to the final version.
Lastly, a thank you to you, the reader. It is such a blessing knowing that so many are enjoying the stories I write and I really hope you’ve enjoyed The Missing Piece as much as I’ve loved writing it.
Published by Bookouture in 2020
An imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
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Copyright © Catherine Miller, 2020
Catherine Miller has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-83888-988-3
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.