her composure a mask of ice. She turned

oice was firm, leaving

ager intercepted them, her expression cautious. "M

to her, it was just fabric now. Worthless. She had thrown it there herself. "No," she said, her tone freezing t

ere stunned into silence, t

ven swept out of the store and

of New York traffic. Paige sat in t

. "Paige," she finally said, her voice dangerously q

moments later, she had an answer. "He's at S

ore. She closed her eyes, but the slight tremor in

on Central Park West. She told Pa

cking reminders of the wedding that would never happen. Floral arr

traight to the bar, poured herself a glass

a welcome fire, igniting

his fortune from nothing and would later tear her family apart; her stepmother, Brenda Merrill, the woman who had been her father's secret for two decades; her stepsister, Jessi Me

her's memorial, claiming she'd bought them herself. Her father giving Jessi the study abroad opportunity

, her father's mistress, had officially moved into their home and replaced her mother's place at the fa

ed up most of her grandfather's business, cut off their supply chains, and bought out their clients. A few months later, her grandfather had collapsed from rage and illness-and the textile business he had built with his own hands crum

cancer, advanced by the time they found it. Six months later, she passed away, her hand

he had stared at the coffin and made a

squeezing until she could barely breathe. She realized then that he

want compensation. S

d Hartwell's number again. This w

in that hospital bed: pale, fragile, a boy so breakable that she had felt something crack open in her chest. S

nitor flatlined and the doctors ran in. She had brewed his herbal tonics, cooked his medicinal meals, ad

with a wedding invitat

hat are you calling me again for? Haven't you said enough?" He pa

water. "The shares you offered wouldn't

What do you want, then? You

e saint, to sit by her bedside and hold her hand until the end? Fine. You can buy

ad silent, save for the faint, rh

y roared. "Do you have any

another woman and made me a laughingstock for all of New York society. Did yo

ment the market opens. The board will question your judgment. Sign the controlling interest over to me. We'll say it was your grand gesture to appease y

trike at his two greatest love

ragged. He was weighing his

your signature on my desk tomorrow at nine a.m. Otherwise, the morning papers won't be printing a story about the gre

threate

dropping to a silken whispe

up the ph

sofa and walked back to the va

with a text mess

d a single

o hand over fifty-one perc