With my fingertips resting against the icy floor-to-ceiling glass of my sixty-fifth-floor penthouse office, I watched violet twilight engulf the streets below. The Opeline rose beneath my handcrafted Italian loafers, its dark tower descending toward the harbor waters. The immense black tower was an architectural landmark. Every inch of its imported limestone exterior, every hand-cut crystal suspended in the atrium, and every thread of eight-hundred-count Egyptian cotton in its four hundred luxury suites was indisputably mine. StudyChemistry Yet a sleek smartphone vibrated on the broad surface of my black marble desk. The glowing message reminded me that, to my own relatives, I remained the unwanted stray they had thrown into the winter cold ten years earlier.

Deed of Trust…” Richard read aloud, his voice cracking into a high, horrified squeak. “Default notice… Notice of Trustee’s Sale… Oakridge Manor?”

He turned toward Eleanor, his eyes blazing with disbelief.

“Eleanor,” Richard roared, the sheer volume of his voice making the crystal glasses on the table ring like warning bells. “What is this? What is this notice from the bank?”

StudyChemistry

Harper fell silent, looking up from the floor with wide, incredibly guilty eyes. Connor sank deeper into his chair, as though wishing it would swallow him.

“I’ll tell

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