I didn’t feel the rain, didn’t notice my soggy jacket or my socks slipping in my oxfords. I didn’t feel the spring chill or mind my pruny hands in my pocket. Didn’t think twice about my briefcase or the meeting I was about to walk into, which would be brutal and crucial and something I should have been preparing for.

But the only thing on my mind was Maisie.

A half hour later, I was mostly dry and trotting out of the station. Every train stop had brought me closer to today’s problems in increments, leaving Maisie and our encounter sadly behind me.

Tonight. You’ll see her tonight.

I’d have already texted her if I’d had service. Now that I was off the train, I had to get to the Logan building as quickly as possible. There wasn’t even time to answer but one of our attorney’s texts to let him know I was close. Ben was an old friend, and though I was grateful for his help, I wished I hadn’t had to call on it.

I pushed into the building, the sweeping foyer bustling and echoing with noise and movement as people came in and out. Ben shot off the bench like it’d caught fire when he saw me.

“I’m sorry,” I said as our paths merged on our track to the elevators. “I was held up by the rain.”

“Well, Bower Bouquets is already upstairs, and they’re not happy to have been kept waiting.”

“Like I give a goddamn what Evelyn Bower wants,” I snarled.

The story was a long and winding one, and it began and ended with my mother. Mrs. Bennet was known for many things, but being a savvy businesswoman wasn’t one of them. When our family’s flower shop fell into decline, she’d taken on a contract with Bower Bouquets selling wholesale flowers from our greenhouse.

When I’d learned just how bad things were, I’d bought the flower shop and taken on the contracts. All of my siblings had come home to help turn things around, me at the financial helm.

Except my mother kept the contract with Bower from me. And when we breeched it, I had no idea.

When we were served with a lawsuit, we were all unprepared.

We’d been engaged in silent warfare with Bower for generations, but where Longbourne’s business waned, Bower flourished. Evelyn loved to make a fool of my mother, and this contract was just a new and cruel way for her to do it.

That, and potentially put us out of business for good.

Ben and I didn’t speak as we rode the packed elevator to the eighty-fourth floor, and by the time the doors opened, I was prepared for battle. Bower might have pulled one over on my mother, but those days were done.