Chapters (45)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Pulse
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY–ONE
- TWENTY–TWO
- TWENTY–THREE
- TWENTY–FOUR
- TWENTY–FIVE
- TWENTY–SIX
- TWENTY–SEVEN
- TWENTY–EIGHT
- TWENTY–NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY–ONE
- THIRTY–TWO
- THIRTY–THREE
- THIRTY–FOUR
- THIRTY–FIVE
- THIRTY–SIX
- THIRTY–SEVEN
- THIRTY–EIGHT
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- RESOURCES
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
Like her mom was doing right now, her freckled cheeks growing as red as her hair. Maddie wrapped her hand around her four-leaf clover and turned away. Her third-generation Irish mother and first-generation Chinese father meant the Finnerty-Li household was not devoid of superstition. Maddie didn’t believe in most of them, but finding the four-leaf clover the same day her brother was born made this one an exception. Maddie’s mom was the one who told her what each leaf represented. She’d let her nine-year-old daughter sit on the side of her hospital bed and set little Daniel in her arms. Even then he had a puff of red hair, taking after their mother and the complete opposite of Maddie, whose black shoulder-length hair and dark eyes were all her dad’s.
Hazel eyes and round face strained from her long labor, Maddie’s mom had smiled as bright as an August day when Maddie pulled Daniel close to her and showed her mother the clover.
“Faith, hope, love, and luck,” her mother had said. “That’s what each leaf represents.”
“One for each of us,” Maddie’s dad, Jon, added as he stood on the other side of the bed. “For our family.”
Maddie had believed it then.
“Profit share” and “my business” and “not in my lifetime” and more words Maddie didn’t want Danny to hear came out of her mother’s mouth. An eight-year-old should be protected from all this. He still believed in family. Or, at least, Maddie hoped he did.
Her mother snatched one of Danny’s muffins and almost tripped over her son’s luggage, momentarily surprised by the buzz of the dryer. She looked at Maddie, tipped her head to the laundry room, and continued up the stairs.
How am I even related to her?
Another vibration in Maddie’s pocket, and she whipped out her phone to tell this Lucy person to give it a rest and saw that it wasn’t this Lucy person but a notice to check in for her flight. California was so far away—from all of this. A wave of relief rippled through Maddie. And then she turned and saw the pout on her brother’s face, this one very, very real, and all Maddie felt was guilt.
She pushed through it all, looked at her brother, and smiled.
THREE
GOING PUBLIC • When a private company sells shares to public investors for the first time
APPLAUSE HUNG IN THE air from the previous scene, and the soft notes of the solo began. Delia Meyer crossed her fingers. They immediately slid apart from sweat. Darkness shrouded the stage, and then, Delia sucked in a breath and flipped the switch.