Javier’s phone slipped from his hand and hit the hardwood floor.

For the first time, the family realized that the “stranger” they had humiliated could destroy the deal they had spent years trying to secure.

And that was only the beginning.

# Part 2

Within ten minutes, Sofia had forty-seven missed calls.

Twenty-six were from Javier.

Not one of them had called while she was actually walking through the storm.

Sofia was sitting in a warm diner off the highway, drinking coffee, when Javier burst through the door soaked and breathing hard.

“You need to talk to your mom right now!”

Sofia looked at him.

“Is that really the first thing you’re going to say to me?”

“That contract was massive for us, Sofia! Tell her it was all a misunderstanding!”

“When your mother left me standing in the rain, why didn’t you get out of the car?”

Javier clenched his jaw.

“I didn’t want to make a scene in front of my mom.”

“And now?”

“Now we’re talking about my family’s entire financial future!”

Sofia gave a quiet, humorless laugh.

He hadn’t come back because he cared that she was stranded.

He had come back because the contract was gone.

Even so, she agreed to return to the manor.

When they arrived, more than twenty relatives were waiting anxiously in the grand living room.

Teresa hurried forward wearing an artificial smile.