Chapter 3

The calm was shattered on a very ordinary day.

Human Resources brought in a new intern, Isabella Vance—everyone called her Bella. On her very first day, she wore a Chanel jacket, carried a Louis Vuitton Neverfull tote, and had her long blonde hair carefully styled into lazy waves.

At eleven in the morning in the break room, as I waited for the coffee machine to finish its extraction, I heard Bella talking on the phone in a voice that was deliberately raised yet feigning casualness:

"Oh, the house in the Hamptons? Daddy said we're renovating the pool this summer... By the way, for the Paris trip next week, help me contact the private shopper at Dior, I want to see the Haute Couture collection..."

A few colleagues exchanged glances. The moment Bella hung up, someone immediately sidled up to her: "Bella, did you just mention the Hamptons?"

Bella smiled shyly and tucked her hair behind her ear: "Mmm, my family has a little house there. We go occasionally in the summer."

"Which part? Southampton? East Hampton?"

"Near the Stirling Manor area," Bella took a sip of the green tea in her hand. "My grandfather and the Stirling family are old friends."

My coffee nearly spilled.

At lunch, Bella was surrounded by a group of colleagues in the corner of the cafeteria. She was swiping through photos on her phone: "This was taken last summer on Long Island."

I pretended to walk by and glanced over. That single glance nearly made my breath hitch—the background of the photo was indeed my family's estate, the rose garden where I ran and played as a child, and my grandfather's favorite white Victorian gazebo.

"Oh my god, that really is the Stirling Manor!" exclaimed Emily, another intern. "I saw a feature on it in *Architectural Digest* last year!"

Bella's smile deepened. "Yeah, I used to play there all the time as a kid." She lowered her voice, and those around her immediately leaned in closer. "But please don't treat me as anyone special. We're all working in the same department now; we're all colleagues."

From that day on, Bella became the star of the office.