Chapter 1

At the class reunion, during a game of truth or dare, former prom queen Lena Whitmore had too much to drink.

Someone asked her what the most rotten thing she'd ever done was.

She pointed at me in the corner, laughing so hard she nearly doubled over.

Lena said, "Once, while a certain someone was in the shower, I grabbed his phone, deleted the desperate texts from his broke girlfriend, and wrote back telling her to get lost!

"You should've seen it. That poor loser stood out in the pouring rain waiting all night. I still crack up thinking about it."

The whole room burst into laughter.

Only the man at the head of the table stayed silent, crushing the wineglass in his hand with a sharp crack.

Blood ran down his fingers, mixed with red wine.

He stared at me, his bloodshot eyes filled with murderous intent.

I calmly held out a napkin. "Mr. Hale, you should wipe that off. It's dirty."

Some things, once dirty, could never be washed clean again.

Ashford's most exclusive private club had been booked out for the night.

Word was, some rising star from the venture capital world, worth over thirty million dollars, had returned to the country and wanted to flash it around in front of his old classmates.

When the manager handed me the gold-embossed wine list, there was a flicker of something like pity in his eyes.

"Nora Vance, about that room tonight," he said. "If you don't want to take it, I can send someone else."

I looked down and smoothed out my ill-fitting server's uniform, offering a faint smile.

"It's fine, Mr. Reed. That's the highest-spending room we've got, and I get a decent commission for opening bottles. You know I need the money," I said.

He sighed and said nothing more, just gave my shoulder a light pat.

When I pushed open the door of Room V888 with the decanter in hand, a wave of heat rolled out to meet me, thick with expensive perfume and cigar smoke.

It was the smell of money burning.

On the leather sofa in the center of the room sat Ethan Hale, the man I hadn't seen in seven years.

He had changed a lot.

The boy from my memory, the one in the faded school uniform with the cool, stubborn eyes, was gone.

In his place sat a corporate powerhouse who radiated authority from head to toe.

His head was tilted, listening to whoever was talking beside him, a careless smirk resting at the corner of his mouth.

And the woman leaning against him was the very same prom queen who had stolen him from me all those years ago.

Lena was in a white Chanel couture dress tonight, and the diamond necklace at her throat threw off dazzling flashes under the lights.

She swirled a wine glass in her hand, looking every inch the proud swan.

"Oh, Ethan came back mainly because of me," Lena said. "He's shifting the company's focus back here too. We're getting engaged, after all."

A chorus of flattery went up around her.

"Prom queen and class valedictorian, a match made in heaven." one guest said.

"Mr. Hale is on the cover of every business magazine these days," another chimed in. "Lena, you lucked out."

"That's what you call sweet payoff after hard times," someone else added. "Not like certain people who dumped him for money back then. Bet she's kicking herself now."

The remark landed heavily, and the air in the room froze for a beat.

Every pair of eyes turned in unison toward me, standing in the corner opening the wine.

Like a puppet on autopilot, I ran the foil cutter around the neck, screwed in the corkscrew, and eased out the cork.

"Bordeaux Left Bank," I said. "Best after twenty minutes of decanting."

I poured the decanted wine into the crystal glass in front of Ethan, my movements textbook perfect.

Ethan finally raised his head.

I wondered, 'What kind of look was that?'

Contempt. Disgust. Hatred. And a flicker of scorn buried deep behind his eyes.

He didn't take the glass. He left me holding it out.

My wrist ached from holding the tray so long, and it trembled slightly.

"Nora?" he said at last, his voice low and rough.

"I heard you dropped out of college. What happened? That rich boy of yours get bored and toss you out? And now you're waiting tables in a place like this?" Ethan sneered.

The room went dead quiet. Everyone was waiting for the show.

Lena covered her mouth in mock shock and stared at me. "Oh my God, it really is Nora. Why are you... why are you dressed like that?

"If you're short on cash, tell me. I know you dumped Ethan for money back then, but we're old classmates. I can definitely find you a cleaning job somewhere."

She leaned hard on the words dumped Ethan for money.