Chapter 1 - THE TEN-THOUSAND-DOLLAR KISS
Diane Harper had spent two years learning how much pride a person could swallow when bills were waiting.
At twenty-six, she worked mornings at a café, evenings at private events, attended nursing classes three nights a week, and raised her ten-year-old sister, Sadi, after their parents died in a highway crash.
Money disappeared before Diane earned it.
Rent was three months late.
Sadi needed dental treatment after classmates began teasing her about her teeth.
The refrigerator was nearly empty.
So when Diane accepted a premium-rate shift at a charity gala inside the Grand Aurelia Hotel, she expected nothing more than another exhausting night serving people who could spend her yearly income on jewelry.
Then Catherine Voss noticed her.
Catherine was wealthy, beautiful, furious, and determined to humiliate Ravi Greedy, a powerful man who had publicly rejected her after months of unwanted attention.
She offered Diane $10,000 for one simple act.
Walk across the ballroom.
Kiss Ravi.
Leave.
Diane knew something felt wrong, but $10,000 meant rent, food, Sadi's after-school program, and most of the dental treatment.
She accepted.
The instant Diane kissed Ravi, the ballroom fell silent.
Only afterward did she learn why.
Ravi wasn't merely an investor.
He controlled a criminal empire powerful enough to make politicians lower their voices and wealthy men move out of his path.
Instead of punishing Diane, however, Ravi forced Catherine to pay the remaining $5,000.
Then Diane mentioned why she needed the money.
Her ten-year-old sister.
Sadi.
Ravi's expression changed.
He showed Diane an old photograph containing a little girl Diane immediately recognized as Sadi.
Then he revealed something even worse.
Diane's parents had not died in an ordinary accident.
The crash that killed them had been intended for Ravi.
Before Diane could understand what that meant, Ravi's security team reported that someone had entered her apartment.
Sadi was home.
Ravi immediately mobilized his men.
And as Diane raced from the ballroom beside the stranger she had kissed for money, Ravi gave her the truth that turned fear into terror.
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They had to reach Sadi before the people who killed Diane's parents did.
Because somehow, after ten years of secrets, somebody had been waiting for Diane Harper and Ravi Greedy to finally meet.
