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

who frightens you, and the line is smaller because of her.”

Kora rubbed out the wrong correction.

She wrote the line back.

“You read upside down very well,” she said.

“I had eighteen months of practice as a teenager. I will not tell you that story on this occasion.”

“On a future occasion?”

“On a future occasion.”

That same evening, Kora walked toward the continue reading …