Chapter 1 - The Card in My ApronI almost threw the business card away.
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Not because I was ungrateful, and not because Alexander Carter had been rude. He had not raised his voice. He had not looked down on me the way some rich people did when they realized my uniform smelled like soup, coffee, and fryer oil. In fact, that was what unsettled me most.
He had looked at me like I mattered.
The next morning, I stood in the tiny kitchen of my apartment with his card balanced beside a chipped coffee mug. My roommate, Tanya, leaned against the refrigerator, eating cereal straight from the box.
“Call him,” she said.
“I don’t even know what he wants.”
“He’s a billionaire. Whatever he wants, it probably comes with air-conditioning.”
I gave her a look.
She shrugged. “Emily, your electric bill is in your apron pocket like a hostage note. Call the man.”
I stared at the name printed in black ink.
Alexander Carter. Carter Holdings.
The number beneath it looked too clean to belong in my life.
Finally, my fingers moved before my courage could run away. I dialed.