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

pad of her opposite finger, a small private habit her mother used to say made her hands look like she was counting beads. She stared at the dark pattern on the rug and told herself this was manageable.

Then the piano began.

The first chord landed.

And suddenly, her father’s hands were inside it.

It was a Bartók lullaby.

A small one.

The one her father, a continue reading …