Lightning

Lightning, published in 1995, follows Alexandra "Alex" Parker, a partner at a New York law firm, and her husband Sam, a venture capitalist. With their daughter Annabelle they look like a perfect family, and they decide to try for a second child. When Alex has difficulty conceiving and begins fertility treatment, a check-up turns up a cancerous breast tumour.

As Alex undergoes chemotherapy, Sam — apparently unable to cope with his wife's illness — begins an affair with a younger woman, Daphne, and Annabelle is shuttled between her parents. Alex finds unexpected support elsewhere, and a relationship with Brock.

Then disaster strikes a second time: Sam and his partners are indicted for fraud and embezzlement, and the life Alex thought she was fighting to keep is dismantled from another direction entirely.