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 air conditioning on the eleventh floor was taking summer personally. He told her he had a tin of biscuits from his mother sitting in the drawer of his office desk and had not found the heart to open it. He asked her to send him a poet who had written about biscuits.

He came to the studio one Saturday and listened while she read a page of Adam’s continue reading …