Chapter 1
At my dad’s sixtieth birthday party, Jake Morrison flat-out ignored me and insisted he had to go pick up his intern.
His bullshit excuse?
“She’s just a girl with a sprained ankle-she can’t get around easily.”
Then he brings her straight back to our freaking house.
My son immediately gets obsessed with her shiny new gaming console, and before I know it, he’s calling me the evil mom and telling me to GET OUT.
Fine. They want me gone? Done.
But barely a week later, both my husband and son are crying their eyes out, begging me to come home ASAP.
My dad was back in the country for the first time in ages, and it just happened to be his sixtieth birthday.
“Jake, come on-give your father-in-law another toast!”
My mom was all smiles, nudging Jake Morrison with her elbow.
We were a few drinks in by now, and dad’s face had that happy, healthy glow. He raised his glass with a huge grin, even the wrinkles around his eyes seemed to smooth out.
You could tell he was having the time of his life.
That’s when Jake’s phone started buzzing like crazy on the table.
ake immediately looked down at the screen, and his face went dark as a storm cloud.
‘I need to take this call.”
He totally ignored my dad’s raised glass and bolted straight out of the private dining room with his phone, even had the nerve to close the door behind
My heart dropped like a stone.
Dad’s face went from happy to totally confused.
Through the frosted glass, I could only make out Jake’s blurry figure-he was turned to the side, clearly trying to keep his voice down.
That sneaky, careful way he was standing made my grip tighten around my juice glass.
A few minutes later, he pushed the door open.
“Claire, I gotta head out.”
The smile on my mom’s face just froze.
“It’s Rachel Kim, the new intern at our firm. She just…”
He paused.
“She called saying the rain made the roads slippery and she twisted her ankle pretty bad. She’s stuck there alone and can barely move from the pain.
The private room went dead silent, and everyone’s eyes were glued to us.
I took a deep breath, trying to keep my voice steady.
Chapter 1
“Can’t you get one of the guys from work to help her? Or she could call an ambulance? Today is dad’s birthday.”
“She’s just a young girl in a strange place, and she’s MY assistant. If I don’t go, who will?”
His voice got louder, like I’d just suggested something completely unreasonable.
I stared at him, feeling like I was looking at a total stranger.
“Jake, all our family is here. Can’t whatever this is wait until after dad’s birthday dinner?”
“Claire Winters!”
He practically screamed my name, his face full of disappointment and anger.
‘You’re a woman too! How can you be so damn cold-hearted? She’s just a helpless girl all alone-how pathetic is that? Can’t you show some basic numan decency?”
stared at his face, all red and worked up, then looked over at dad sitting at the head of the table-his face had gone stone cold. All the blood in my body rushed straight to my head.
But Jake didn’t even look at me again, didn’t even glance back.
He just spun around, grabbed an umbrella from the entrance, and stormed toward the door without a backward look.
Jake!” I couldn’t help but jump to my feet.
LAM.
‘he door got slammed so hard it shook.
he whole private room fell into dead silence.
