Melinda’s POV
I told myself she was lying.
That Vanessa, with her venom and her designer malice, had spun a story just convincing enough to burrow into my mind and rot it from the inside out.
But the problem with lies…
Is that they only work if part of them is true.
That night in Vegas, I’d been running.
From Andrew. From shame. From the press hounding me about a scandal I hadn’t caused.
I booked a hotel without thinking.
Except I had thought.
Too much.
And when I saw him at the bar…
I did pause.
Just for a second.
James O’Connor.
I’d seen his face in a profile once. Forbes. Or maybe Fortune.
I remember the headline: “The Reluctant Billionaire: How O’Connor Built a Kingdom Without a Crown.”
I didn’t walk over to him that night because I wanted his money.
But maybe…
Maybe
