Chapter 1 - THE GIRL IN THE RAIN
On a freezing October afternoon in Chicago, eight-year-old Tessa Voss enters the world-renowned, ultra-exclusive restaurant Maddox soaked in rain. Carrying a faded pink backpack and a plastic container of homemade macaroni and cheese, she boldly asks for the vacant line cook position, declaring she needs the job because her mother is sick and running out of time. When the restaurant’s billionaire owner and culinary perfectionist, Warren Maddox, comes out to address the commotion, he is struck by her quiet dignity and piercing gaze. He crouches down to speak with her, only to be struck by shock when the child reveals her identity: her last name is Voss, and her mother is Selene—the only woman Warren ever loved, who vanished eight years ago without a trace.
