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

“Then I wish you all the best, Alicia.”


He could see from her stunned expression that she had played her trump card—his love for her—and lost. She hadn’t counted on that. Perhaps neither had he. On his deathbed, he imagined that her face, with its large, sad eyes, would be the last thing he’d see. But for now, he walked away from that face, did not turn back to meet it. Instead, he crossed another threshold and quietly closed the door. 27


Winter diminished and with it, Se?or’s health. Although truth be told, he had been dying for a long time, everyone at Bethzatha whispered, if he weren’t already dead in a manner of speaking. Jade learned to cope with these close calls by sending poor Miguel as a go-between or by not responding at all.


Then one morning early in the spring, the phone rang at five A.M. It never rang at five before, and Jade knew that this was it.


Chapter 53