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

You will not see him again,the voice said, the voice that had guided him ever since he could remember, the voice that had told him to get out on 9/11 and that was with him still, the fixed star on the vast ocean of his life.


Tell him,the voice said. But he couldn’t. He was afraid his heart would break. For a long time, they sat in silence on the porch, watching the fireflies pinprick the darkness. Finally, it was time for Lleyton to go, and Jade wrapped him in a bear hug. Then he held his head in his hands and kissed him on the forehead.


“E-mail when you can,” Jade said. “If you ever need anything, anything at all.”


Say it, the voice said. You won’t be getting this chance again


“Lleyton, you have been as much a brother to me as Ash ever was.”


There was, of course, a silver lining in this gathering storm, Jade thought. Belle would be devastated. And if anyone ever needed a lesson in loss, she did.


Chapter 52