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

twenty-five years old. And the only thing in my life in seven years that has not been about that fact has been the inside of a 1988 first edition, and a Bartók lullaby on a cassette, and a corner table at a restaurant where the owner calls me Liam and not sir. I did not want to lose that.”

Kora breathed.

“I’m not angry,” she said. “I’m disoriented. The continue reading …