THE EMPTY CHAIR AT HER SISTER’S WEDDING WAS SUPPOSED TO PROVE HER FIANCÉ HAD LEFT HER—BUT WHEN A QUIET STRANGER SAT BESIDE HER, KORA NEVER IMAGINED HE OWNED THE HOTEL, OR THAT HIS FAMILY WAS ALREADY PLANNING THE MARRIAGE THAT COULD DESTROY THEM BOTH

the wrong one.”

“The wrong one?”

Kora pressed her thumbnail again.

“It was both of us,” she said. “My sister asked. I would not have.”

He said nothing.

He did not lean in.

He did not look at her the way some men look at women sitting alone at weddings, like loneliness is an invitation. He simply turned the wine glass back to where it had been and listened continue reading …