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

“I hear she changed her name years ago after hearing that Eric Clapton song,” his sister told him later that night in a flood of conspiratorial sibling conversation, which came naturally to her, “although I can’t imagine Eric Clapton or any man being attracted to her, with that cold, prissy Irish Catholic nun attitude. Of course, Lleyton adores her, so I’ll just have to make the best of it, I guess.”


In a flash, Jade saw it all clearly—his sister planned on marrying Lleyton, scion of one of the richest, most well-connected families in the state. And, together with his equally controlling mother, she would turn this perfectly nice boy—whose curling blond hair, large gray eyes and bow-shaped mouth reminded Jade of the green bronze bust of an unknown Greek youth that still kept poignant vigil on his mother’s writing table—into a political or corporate robot.


Chapter 35