Jack pressed the button for the fourteenth floor, swiped his damp palms on his dress slacks, and took a steadying breath as the doors whooshed closed and the elevator began its ascent to Erica’s high-rise condo.

He hadn’t been this nervous since his first job interview at sixteen, when his dream of buying a used car rested on whether he could convince old man Harper he was up to long days of hefting and toting fifty- and hundred-pound bags of feed.

Only today the stakes were far higher.

Whatever happened in the next few minutes would have a huge impact on his relationship with his daughter going forward. First impressions mattered.

Big time.

The elevator doors slid open, and his pulse skittered.

This was it.

He stepped into the wide hallway, deserted on this Monday night, and took a quick inventory while he adjusted his sport coat. Wainscoting, plush runner over hardwood floors, tall window at each end fronted by a marble table holding a fresh-flower arrangement.

Erica had done all right for herself—unlike Natalie, who’d known even during that long-ago summer that she was fated to toil as a waitress all her life. That’s why she’d urged him to go back to college rather than spend his working years laboring as a landscaper.

But Christi had been his top priority in those days.

Until she wasn’t.

He jammed his hands into his pockets and mashed his lips together.

If nothing else, her betrayal had forced him to rethink his life. Only after he’d discovered her true character had he returned to college, determined to find a career no one would ever sneer at again. It had been the kick in the pants he’d needed to get past his grief and find his true calling.

Yet successful as he’d been in both careers, his heart had never quite recovered from her duplicity.

The elevator doors closed behind him, and he moved forward . . . slowing as he approached Erica’s unit.

But delaying the inevitable wasn’t going to change it. They were waiting for him inside. And perhaps, after the first few awkward minutes, this wouldn’t be as hard as he feared.

Holding tight to that encouraging thought, he continued to Erica’s condo and pressed the bell.

Ten seconds later, the door opened.

Though the midfortyish woman who answered was a stranger, her kinship with Natalie was apparent. The sisters shared the same high cheekbones and amber eyes. But unlike her younger sibling, Erica had acquired the kind of polish success wrought—classy clothes, a self-confident bearing, and a practiced smile designed to put business associates and clients at ease.

“Jack. Welcome.” She extended her hand.

“Thank you.” He returned her firm shake.

“Please come in.” She moved back, and he crossed the threshold, giving the room to the right of the foyer a sweep.

Hannah was nowhere in sight.