Snowfall On An Empty Grave

Synopsis

The night before the wedding, Ian Hayes finds his little bird, Nora Lane, the one he keeps in a gilded cage, flew the coop. His best friend, Frank Lane, throws an arm around his shoulder with a devilish grin on his face. "Dude, Lydia's like a golden retriever. She'd forgive you for anything. You could fake your own death to get out of this wedding, and she'd still welcome you back with open arms." "Besides," he whispers, "she's still waiting for you to foot the bill for her mom's medical treatments, right?" From the other side of the door, I hear Ian sneer. He is hooked. A few days later, Ian stages his own death and is halfway across the world, kissing Nora under the shimmering dance of the Northern Lights in Iceland. And me? I am curled up in the arms of his uncle, Stephen Hayes, whispering sweet nothings as I persuade him to sign the paperwork that will officially declare Ian dead, wiping his existence from every government record. While his precious Nora was pulling Ian into a little chapel, ready to elope, Frank, the very same friend who has cooked up this whole scheme, is desperately trying to get on my good side by hiring eighteen male models to wait on my mother hand and foot. At the end of their whirlwind romance tour, as Ian holds Nora in his arms, thinking this mad escape has all been worth it, I am busy partnering with his biggest rival to orchestrate a hostile takeover of the clean energy company he has poured his soul into building. Eventually, the novelty wears off. Ian is done playing house. He cuts Nora a fat check, a little something for her time, and comes crawling back home, expecting me to be there to pick up the pieces. Only then does he discover that his fortune has been liquidated, his assets seized, and, thanks to the death certificate, he is now a ghost, a man who, on paper, doesn't exist at all.