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“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.”- Emily Dickinson
How fitting that my horoscope should quote my favorite poet on today of all days. And that particular quote, too—about hope.
God, do I truly need hope.
Perhaps the universe stepped in when it saw how disjointed I was and provided me with a message I needed to hear.
It’s Saturday.D-Day.
I’m at the Langford Hotel for my engagement party.
My guests of thirty people, which includes Nathan and his family, are gathered in the grand hall waiting for me.
Madison is finishing my makeup. We’re in one of the French Provincial-inspired boudoirs, where I’m sitting in front of a vintage dressing table, staring mindlessly at my reflection in its gold-rimmed mirror.
We have twenty minutes before we have to join everyone.
Madison has done a great job with my makeup. She's chosen smoky colors for my eyes and neutral tones on my cheeks and lips. My hair is rolled into a neat chignon, and I’m wearing a soft camel-colored dress.
I look beautiful, but inside, I feel like shit.
I’ve carried hope in my heart all day like a secret locked away in a treasure chest buried beneath the sea, but now that my engagement is upon me, I’m ahotmess.
Madison is talking about something, but my mind has tuned her out so it can jump back on the train carrying all my worries.
Those worries existed long before my encounter with Knight Grayson, but like an idiot, I added him to the load.
Over the last few days, I’ve fluttered from obsessing over all the wild things I did with him, to worrying about what will happen following my engagement to Nathan.
Admittedly, I’ve been thinking aboutKnighta hell of a lot more than Nathan.
That night, the moment I got home, I jumped onto Google to check out what the World Wide Web had to tell me about the man.
Knight is a thirty-year-old business magnate and property investor. He graduated from Princeton with honors and finished his MBA at Harvard. By the time he was twenty-five, he was already appearing on various renowned lists for his wealth, skills, and prestige. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index andForbes'sReal Time Billionaires list, his current estimated net worth is 20 billion US dollars.
The two people ahead of him on both lists are his father and grandfather. The two people after him are his brothers, Jericho and Bastian.
Bastian Grayson is Knight’s half-brother, whose mother is Sloane Belafonte—as in the diamond company Belafonte.
There was nothing online about Knight’s mother. I figured she was purposely left out, and there was an obvious story there they didn’t want to share with the world.
Littering the blogs and articles cascaded over Google was coverage of the event Elena hinted at back at No. 11. It was an extravagant yacht party Knight hosted for the Hawks, New York’s NHL team. His best friend, Luc, is one of the team’s defensemen.
The press went wild because of the throng of celebs and royalty who attended. It was like a mini version of the Emmys.
On Knight’s arm was one of the princesses of Monaco, who could easily have been a Victoria’s Secret model. She was exactly the kind of woman you’d expect to find on Knight Grayson’s arm.
The combination of seeingherand everything I read about Knight bamboozled me, making me wonder why the hell he’d even looked in my direction.
It doesn’t make sense.
Then there were his famous last words.
The next time we meet may be different. We don’t know yet if we’ll be friends or foes.
Those ominous words have crashed around in my mind like a ship on rough waters, trapped in a tempest. Each day that has passed since has seen me looking out for something to happen. Or to see him again.
As there’s been no sighting of the gorgeous billionaire, part of me wonders if I'm being paranoid. But I don’t think so.
