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she knew why she’d shut down. Why she hadn’t let anyone in

or anyone close.

I never let anyone in. I never let anyone close.

She knew it. The truth of it hollowed her out. She was an

empty vessel. She had spent her life building her father’s

empire, continuing to grow his fortune and amass wealth.

Building. Always building. Creating solid structures, things of

beauty, things of wonder. All the while she was empty. She

made herself the business. Graduated from high school early

and went to college and graduated there in record time too.

She had friends. She knew she did. But not really. Not the

true kind of friends that are ever there for you or share in your

secrets. She’d had lovers, but not really lovers. The

relationships were about sex, nothing more.

Giana swayed on her feet. That headline had triggered the

memory of her sister, and it triggered a thousand others. Her

life filtered back to her slowly, not in a rush, but like a tap

being turned on and filling up a bucket drop by drop. She

stood there, one hand gripping the edge of her desk. It all came

back, like lifting the curtain on her past. Her heart was a stone.

An aching, horrible stone. She didn’t allow people to get close

because she didn’t want them to see that she was ruined under

that veneer of shiny power and control. That she was,

ultimately, empty. Nothing. That she’d been nothing since she

as fourteen years old.

And that woman in her bed upstairs…

Whoever she was, they hadn’t had a relationship.

Giana had never felt so reckless or out of control. She

blazed through the house, storming upstairs and throwing open

her bedroom door so hard that it thundered against the