's phone lit up the dim corner

M

Vance Spotted at JFK with Returning Social

ly around Chloe Sinclair as rain lashed down. He shielde

s breat

. Betrayal felt like a sudden drop in alt

le set for two. It was

touched before her: seared scallops, a medium-rare

t little bakery in Brooklyn he loved, was

aited f

er hope dwindled with

mpanion, but tonight it felt

naled the

n't eat.

umbrella, please?" she asked,

to her pale face, then to the rain still streaking the restau

ith a sturdy

the untouched cake, and walke

as the taxi cut through the wet streets toward th

window reflected her

ala. She was nervous, giving her tha

and distant, had appr

me European aristocrat and moved to Paris. He was,

ssion, but with a cool, appraising

e for the scholarship, and nursing a s

all. No family, no friends,

as alway

penthouse door. S

cold, impersonal,

h the rooms, her

of waiting. Five years

ere never about them. They were always at restaurants signific

her life was changing for the better, was the exa

een a reacti

zzed. A text

th Chloe. Raincheck o

t y

no next year.

iet strength, born of years o

be a rainch