Jade Cabral strides into the 21st century as a golden guy. Brilliant and beautiful, with a California cool and a Harvard education, he is poised for wealth and success in New York’s Financial District.<br><br>But Jade harbors a secret flaw, a thirst for revenge against Se?or Rodriguez, the California landowner who deprived his father – Se?or’s out-of-wedlock son, John Virgil -- of his family’s rightful inheritance and place in the world. Jade thinks if he succeeds in New York, he can make up for every loss and humiliation his family has endured at the hands of Se?or. That searing quest leads him into the arms of Nan Spencer, a lovely, fragile socialite, and to the top of the financial world, the Twin Towers, on September 11, 2001.

Seamless Sky

As he had in school, Jade tried to chart the tricky course between affability and insularity. And, as it had been in school, it was an effort doomed to failure. The majority of his co-workers mistook his self-possession for aloofness and his acts of kindness for an emotional openness that he lacked. Once again, he decided it didn’t matter. There were a couple of people he respected and liked. It was enough that they returned that affection.


The rest he tried to keep cheerfully at bay. It wasn’t easy. Though Jade had caught the admiring eye of old man Brynner, who still ran the firm, and his eldest son, J.J. Jr., his immediate superior, Kenneth Ransom, was the ultimate ball-buster, a junk-grade Agamemnon who lived only to build his own career on the backs of others, and, it seemed, make Jade ‘s life miserable.


Chapter 11