phantom heat of his

estate. The cold, damp air was a shock after the stuffy ballroom. She pulled

wait: 45+ minutes. No

e in the middle of a thun

aiting cars and spotted the Pruitts' Bentley. She pull

at was alr

g and warm, a smug li

Margaret looked out, her ex

he said flatly. "You'll have t

ow slid

aying a fine mist of dirty water onto

p chill having nothing to do with the weather. It was the chilling realiz

she couldn't do it. She couldn't let her best friend see her like this-pathetic, abandon

purred silently at the curb. Sterling held an umbrella as Julian emerge

l, sir," Sterling said, sliding into t

through the darkness and the driving rain. As it swept past the ma

shoulders hunched against the win

n set of her jaw, the defiant tilt of her chin, even as the wind whipped h

red the torn dress from this morning

"Find out who was in charge of the Pruitts' tr

Shall I arrange a car to take Miss Pruitt back to Manhattan?" The question

ting a move. Breaking his own rigid rule of non-interference was not something he did lightly. But the image of her, standing alone in

and exterior lights began to switch off, one by one, plunging the grounds into darkn

, crashed her car, got disowned by her family, and publicly humiliated

g, impossible walk down the winding driveway in her h

silent stop directly in fron

heart leaping i

wn. Sterling leaned out, hol

word. He simply

s card. The one from the Rolls-Roy

g piece of the puzzl

n in the Rolls-Royce. The ma

all Julian

-