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

very little flexibility.

She asked Kora to stop encouraging him.

“I have not encouraged him,” Kora said.

“You have not had to. He is encouraged by the existence of an alternative.”

“So I am an alternative?”

“You are the inside of a sentence he has been writing in his head for eight weeks. And the company is paying for the inside of the sentence.”

Kora found continue reading …