Chapter 1 - The Rainy ApologyVictoria Sinclair was worth three billion dollars, and on a cold, rain-soaked Friday evening in Portland, she was sitting alone at a table meant for two, watching the door of Carver’s like she still believed someone worth her time might walk through it.
She should have left after fifteen minutes. That was what a practical woman would have done. That was what a woman who ran Sinclair Capital Group, who negotiated acquisitions before breakfast and made grown men in tailored suits rethink their entire careers with one raised eyebrow, should have done. Victoria did not wait for people who wasted her time.
And yet she stayed.
At 7:21, nineteen minutes after she arrived and twelve minutes after Daniel Parker should have been seated across from her, the door opened. The man who walked in was not what she expected. He was tall, over six feet, with dark hair made unruly by rain and a simple jacket. In one hand, he held grocery-store daisies wrapped in crinkled plastic, slightly lopsided. He scanned the restaurant with the wary expression of a man who had agreed to do something he already regretted.
He crossed the dining room and stopped at her table. "Victoria Sinclair?"
"Yes."
"I’m not Daniel," he said immediately, without charm or polish. "I’m his brother, Ethan Parker. Daniel is sick with a fever of a hundred and two. He asked me to come explain in person rather than cancel last minute." He looked down at the daisies. "These are from a corner shop. They’re not great. I’m sorry about that too."
Victoria looked at him, then at the cheap flowers, then back at him. "Sit down."
"I was going to apologize and go," Ethan said.
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"I drove forty minutes in the rain for this dinner," Victoria countered smoothly. "You can at least sit down."
Ethan Parker sat across from a woman worth three billion dollars, having absolutely no idea who she was beyond her name—and that simple ignorance was the first real gift anyone had given her in years.
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