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

“Oh, hush up,” Belle hissed. “You’re always going on about being a guardian. Well, this is something a guardian would do. You know, being a parent requires sacrifice.”


Jade shot her a look: “Something you know so much about. Gee, Belle, is this a case of the pot calling the cappuccino machine selfish?”


Belle exhaled sharply and shook her head.


“And speaking of sacrifice, when will you be starting your part-time hosting duties at The Pelican?”


The Pelican was the classiest of the three restaurants at the Inn at Bethzatha. Belle had managed to convert the past summer’s miserable experience as a part-time waitress—in which she accidentally scalded one patron and spilled a plate of the restaurant’s trademark lobster ravioli with the pink cream sauce on another—into the hostessing gig, thereby learning something valuable in the process: Being spectacularly bad at something was the same as being spectacularly good. Either way, you got another, better job.


Chapter 41