The sky was still gray when Hannah Fitzgerald slipped the envelope into the mailbox. Chicago's morning carried a damp chill. At the corner, the bakery had just rolled up its metal shutter, and the air smelled of dough that had not quite finished baking.

She stood in front of the mailbox and looked at the envelope one more time. In her neatest handwriting, she had written the address of the medical school's financial office. There was nothing else on it. No sender's name. No return address. Nothing. She had done it this way for four years, dropping each envelope into the mouth of a bottomless well and never hearing an echo.

The 1,200 Brazilian reals had taken her three consecutive night shifts to save. The pay from her nursing school placement was pitiful, so she also tutored three children on weekends, teaching math and science. The hourly rate was low, but the work was steady.

The night before, she had sat at the wobbly kitchen table with a calculator, subtracting her father's medication, Owen's art supplies, and that month's electricity and water bills, one expense after another. What remained came to exactly this amount. She counted it three times, and the total never changed. Then she folded the money into the envelope, licked the flap, and pressed it shut.

She could have transferred the money from her bank account. It would have been faster, and harder to trace. But she liked sending the letters. She liked imagining the envelope resting in some cubby at the medical school's mailroom, being opened by a bespectacled administrator, recorded, and entered under Caleb Albright's name. One more number would appear beside it, and he would have no trouble registering for the next semester.

No one knew who the money came from. Caleb didn't know either. He assumed it was a school grant or a donation from some anonymous alumnus. Once, at a family gathering, he had mentioned how lucky he was to have found a benefactor. Hannah had sat across from him, lowering her head over her soup, and said nothing.

She didn't need him to thank her. She only needed to see him standing where he had dreamed of standing since childhood, wearing a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck. Then she could tell herself, You did it.

Marissa Albright had told her about Caleb's ring over the phone. It was Thursday evening. Hannah had just finished a day shift and was sitting on a plastic bench at the bus stop when her phone rang. Marissa's name lit up the screen.

Marissa was Caleb's mother, and she had always been kind to Hannah—so kind that sometimes Hannah thought there was something unreadable in the way Marissa looked at her. Guilt, perhaps. Or pity.

"He's been acting strange lately," Marissa said in a lowered voice. The hum of a kitchen exhaust fan vibrated in the background. "Last week he asked me what kind of flowers you liked best."

Hannah's grip tightened around the phone. "What kind?"

"I said daisies. He wrote it down in a notebook. I saw him."

Headlights appeared in the distance. Hannah stood, her heart pounding hard enough to bruise her throat. She tried to keep her voice even. "Maybe he was just asking."

"Just asking?" Marissa gave a little laugh, and heat rushed into Hannah's face. "Hannah, I've raised him for twenty-eight years. When has he ever asked anything casually? He compares three brands before he buys toothpaste."

The bus pulled in and opened its doors. Hannah climbed aboard and took a window seat. Streetlights slid past in succession, her reflection appearing and disappearing in the glass. Marissa was still talking about Sunday's family gathering, coconut cake, and how good Hannah looked in her blue dress. Hannah answered each point automatically. After she hung up, she rested her forehead against the window. The glass was cold. Her face was burning.

She spent two days getting ready for Sunday. She went through her closet three times before settling on the dark blue dress. She had washed it three times, but it still held its shape: fitted at the waist, with a hem falling just above her knees. She was trying on her fourth pair of shoes when Owen leaned against the doorframe, turning a pencil between his fingers.

"Who are you going to see?" he asked.

"It's a family gathering. You know that."

"You're wearing that to a family gathering?" His voice carried its usual lazy teasing edge, but Hannah could hear the concern underneath. "The last time you wore that dress was to your nursing school graduation."

Hannah glanced at him through the mirror. "You don't get to decide what I wear."

"I'm not deciding anything. I'm wondering whether you're going to see someone."

"Shut up, Owen."

Owen lifted both hands in surrender, though the smile stayed on his mouth. He turned back toward the living room and tossed over his shoulder, "Wear that lipstick. The one I gave you for your birthday last year. The color looks good on you."

Hannah studied her face in the mirror and drew a deep breath. She did put on the lipstick. Brick red—nothing too bold, but it brought out her complexion. The woman in the mirror was twenty-three. There were no fine lines at the corners of her eyes yet, but faint shadows lay beneath them, the residue of too many nights without enough sleep.

She practiced a casual, effortless smile at her reflection, then picked up her bag and left.

By the time she reached the Albright house, a grill had already been set up in the yard. Caleb wore a white T-shirt and jeans washed pale with age. His hair was a little longer than the last time she'd seen him, and a small lock had fallen across his forehead, stuck to his skin with sweat.

He was bent over the grill, turning the meat. The smell of charcoal mingled with the rich, charred scent of fat in the heavy afternoon air. When he looked up and saw Hannah, he smiled.

"Hannah."

Her name always sounded different in his mouth, weighted with something she could never quite name. As if something had been hidden beneath the syllables. Just when she thought her fingers had found it, it slipped beyond her reach.

"Need a hand?" She walked over.

"No, sit down." He nodded toward a plastic chair. "You're the guest today."

Guest.

Hannah paused. She had eaten in this yard countless times, washed countless dishes for Marissa, gone into Caleb's room, tidied his desk, and typed up his papers. Guest. Coming from him, the word was a grain of sand inside her shoe—small, but impossible to ignore.

She let it go and sat in the plastic chair. More people began arriving. Caleb's father, Michael Albright, carried a case of beer out of the house and packed it into an ice bucket. Marissa moved back and forth between the kitchen and the yard, flour and grease staining her apron. Several times Hannah got up to help, and each time Marissa pressed her back into her chair.

"You just sit today," Marissa said. Her gaze lingered on Hannah's face for two seconds. "You look beautiful."

Hannah lowered her head, warmth creeping into her ears. She lifted her cup and drank, trying to settle into the ordinary feeling of a Sunday afternoon. Meat sizzled on the grill. Bottle caps popped free one after another. Someone told a joke. Someone laughed. Everything was normal.

Until the white SUV stopped at the gate.

When Claire Grayson stepped out, the sun was directly behind her, edging her in gold. She wore a long beige dress in a light fabric that rippled around her legs as she walked. Her hair was gathered into a loose braid over her right shoulder, and seven or eight slender gold bangles were stacked around her wrist, chiming softly with every movement.

She carried a paper bag stamped with the logo of a dessert shop Hannah had never seen. The lettering was French.

"Sorry I'm late." Claire's voice was bright, like glass tapping against glass, every syllable rounded and full. "Traffic was awful."

"Claire!" Marissa came out of the kitchen without even removing her apron and opened her arms. Michael stood too, kissed Claire on both cheeks, and took the paper bag from her.

Hannah remained in her chair, her fingers wrapped around her cup as she watched. Claire was Caleb's cousin. She had lived in Chicago for a few years as a child, then moved to Paris with her parents and came back once or twice a year.

Hannah had seen her plenty of times. It was always the same. Claire swept in like a gust of wind, bringing perfume and French phrases with her, and drew everyone's attention. Hannah sat quietly in a corner and finished her water.

But today was different. Caleb set down the grill tongs and walked over to Claire. He kissed her cheek, naturally, as if he had done it a hundred times. Then he stepped back and smiled at her.

"You've lost weight," he said. "Is the food in Paris no good?"

"The food in Paris is too good." Claire tipped her head. "That's why I walk twenty thousand steps every day."

Everyone laughed. Michael laughed. Marissa laughed. Claire laughed. Caleb laughed. Hannah laughed too. She had no idea what she was laughing at, but the shape of her smile stayed in place. When she set down her cup, she realized her fingers had gone stiff.

At lunch, Claire sat beside Caleb. The long table had been pieced together and covered with a plastic tablecloth, every inch crowded with food. Hannah sat at the far end, four people between her and Caleb, but she could hear their conversation clearly. Paris. Medical school. Some museum whose name she didn't know. Some restaurant whose name she didn't know either.

Whenever Claire spoke, she turned her head slightly toward Caleb. He cut his meat, answered now and then, and laughed now and then. Hannah prodded the rice on her plate with her fork, separating the grains into a little mound, flattening it, and building it again.

Marissa sat across from her and looked her way several times. There was something in her eyes Hannah couldn't read. It brought back a memory from four years ago, when Caleb had first been accepted to medical school. Marissa had held Hannah's hand in the kitchen, her lips moving as if she meant to say something. In the end, she had said only, "You're such a good girl." Hannah hadn't thought much of it then. Now, remembering, she wondered whether those words had carried a weight she had failed to hear.

"Hannah," Michael called suddenly. His voice wasn't loud, but everyone at the table heard him. "I hear you're working as a nanny now?"

"Yes." She looked up.

"Is it hard?"

"Not too bad. The children are well behaved."

Michael nodded and took a drink of beer. "Caleb was a handful when he was little." He smiled with the wistful pleasure of a middle-aged man recalling the past. "Marissa raised him on her own. It nearly wore her out. Once you have children of your own, you'll understand—"

"Dad." Caleb cut him off.

The table went quiet for two seconds. Someone put down a fork. Someone else lifted a glass. Hannah felt every ear turn toward them, waiting. Claire lowered her head to drink, the rim of her glass hiding half her face. Marissa stared at the food on her plate.

Then Caleb stood.

Hannah saw his hand move inside his trouser pocket. Her heartbeat shot into her throat and lodged there, too high to swallow and too deep to escape. She watched him go around the table, past Michael, past Marissa, toward Claire.

He dropped to one knee. His knee touched the dirt beneath the plastic tablecloth with a soft, muffled thud. Then he drew out a small navy-blue box and opened it. The diamond caught the afternoon light. It wasn't large, but the cut was fine.

"Claire," Caleb said, his voice steady. "Will you marry me?"

A ringing filled Hannah's ears. It drowned out everything else—the wind, the cicadas, the dying coals on the grill, even the sound of her own heart. Claire covered her mouth with one hand, her eyes widening before she broke into a smile. She nodded and said yes, of course yes, and asked whether he had lost his mind.

Caleb rose, slipped the ring onto her left hand, and bent to kiss her.

Everyone applauded. Michael got to his feet, clapping. Marissa stood too. Someone whistled. Hannah stood as well. Her hands moved. She felt her palms meeting again and again, making a sound, but she had no idea where the sound came from or where it went.

She stared at Claire's ring finger, at the diamond fitted perfectly around it. She thought of what Marissa had said the week before: He asked me what flowers you liked. She thought of Owen's question: Who are you wearing that dress to see? She thought of herself practicing that smile in the mirror.

"Hannah?" Marissa's voice came from far away, as if through water. "You look pale. Are you all right?"

"I'm going to the bathroom."

She stood, and the chair legs screeched across the ground. She crossed the yard, the kitchen, and the hallway she had walked down countless times. She pushed open the bathroom door, closed it, and locked it. Then she leaned against the wood, tipped her head back, and forced her eyes wide. A narrow crack ran across the ceiling. She fixed her gaze on it and counted her breaths.

Don't cry. Not here. Don't cry over a man who had never belonged to you.

She went to the sink, turned on the faucet, and splashed a handful of cold water over her face. It ran from her chin and darkened the neckline of her blue dress. In the mirror, her brick-red lipstick had begun to wear away, and the shadows beneath her eyes looked darker. She stared at that face and told herself, You knew. You always knew. You just didn't want to know.

She shut off the water, pressed two paper towels to her face, touched up her lipstick, and opened the door.

Marissa was standing in the hallway.

One hand twisted the edge of her apron, her knuckles white. Her lips moved as if she meant to speak, then closed again. There was something in her eyes Hannah had never seen before—something held down for so long it was nearly spilling over. Like a glass filled to the brim while someone kept pouring, its surface stretched into a trembling curve that could break at any moment.

"Hannah," Marissa said, her voice so low it was almost breath. "I—I know—"

"Marissa!" Michael called from the yard, his voice buoyant with drink. "Are we cutting the cake? Claire's waiting!"

Marissa's shoulders jerked. She glanced toward the end of the hall, then turned back to Hannah. Her lips moved again. Hannah saw the tip of her tongue press against the roof of her mouth. The word had reached her teeth. It was about to come out.

"It's nothing," Marissa said at last, as if forcing something heavy back down her throat. "Go on. I'll cut the cake."

She turned and walked away faster than usual. Hannah watched her disappear around the corner and imagined something caught in Marissa's throat, lodged there for four years. Today it had almost surfaced, only to be swallowed again.

When Hannah returned to the yard, Claire was surrounded by relatives, holding up her ring for everyone to admire. Caleb stood beside her with one hand resting on her waist. When he saw Hannah, he smiled. It was no different from his usual smile—relaxed and friendly, the smile he might give an old acquaintance.

"Hannah, come here," Claire called. Her tone was as light as if she were beckoning an ordinary guest. "Take a look at my ring. Caleb says you have a good eye, so I want the truth."

Hannah walked over and glanced down at the diamond. It wasn't large, but the cut was fine, scattering tiny sparks in the sunlight. Caleb must have spent a long time choosing it. She remembered how he compared three brands even when he bought toothpaste.

"It's beautiful," she said. Her voice was astonishingly steady, so steady that it surprised her. "Congratulations."

"Thank you." Claire took her hand. Claire's hand was warm, her palm soft, her nails neatly filed into rounded tips. Hannah's hand was cold, her knuckles rough, her nails clipped short and flat because nursing class required it.

Hannah made an excuse and left. Night had begun to fall. The lights in the yard had not yet been switched on, and dusk gathered from every direction, washing people's faces in gray-blue. She walked home along the street she had traveled countless times. One by one, the streetlights came on. Insects circled the bulbs, their wings striking the glass with tiny, brittle sounds.

She had gone perhaps two hundred yards when she heard the click and rattle of a bicycle chain behind her.

"Hannah."

It was Owen. He caught up on his battered bicycle and stopped with one foot on the ground, the front wheel veering sideways. He was breathing hard, a sheen of sweat across his forehead.

"I saw everything."

"Saw what?"

"Whatever you saw, I saw it too."

Hannah said nothing and kept walking. Owen pushed the bicycle beside her. The chain clicked in a steady rhythm, like a metronome.

"That ring," Owen said. "He bought it three weeks ago."

Hannah's steps faltered.

"How do you know?"

"Claire told me. She knew two weeks ago." His voice was flat, as if he were reciting a list of figures. "She asked me when I thought Caleb would propose."

Hannah stopped and looked at him. The streetlight struck his face from the side, leaving half of it bright and half in shadow. He was two years younger than she was, but at that moment he looked much older.

"She knew two weeks ago."

"Yeah."

"So I wore this dress today, put on these shoes that rubbed my feet raw, and sat there waiting for a—"

She couldn't finish. Something blocked her throat. It wasn't tears. It was heavier than tears.

"Sis." Owen leaned the bicycle against the curb and stepped in front of her. He was half a head taller. When he lowered his gaze to meet hers, his eyes were black and deep, reflecting the streetlight. "You paid his tuition for four years. You used your nursing school money to buy his books. You tutored three kids so you could cover his lab fees. You told me you weren't tired. You told me you wanted to."

"Owen—"

"Do you still want to?"

Hannah opened her mouth. No sound came out. Her lips moved once, then closed.

Owen took her hand. His palm was hot, hardened by the calluses he had developed from years of holding a pen.

"Tonight, you either forget him," Owen said, each word deliberate, "or I help you forget him."

Hannah looked at her brother. At last her eyes filled, a thin sheen gathering over her lashes. She drew in a breath and forced the tears back.

"How do I forget?"

Owen studied her for several seconds. His expression was serious. He wasn't joking.

"Come with me."

"Where?"

"A nightclub."

"What?"

"You heard me." Owen let go of her hand, pulled out his phone, and summoned a car, his fingers moving quickly across the screen. "Tonight you're going to do something you haven't done in twenty-three years."

"What?"

"Not care about tomorrow."

The car arrived quickly. Owen opened the door and ushered her into the back seat before climbing in beside her. He gave the driver an address, then leaned back and fell silent. Hannah watched the streetlights slip past the window one after another. The air conditioning raised gooseflesh along her arms.

She was still clutching the paper towel she had brought from the Albright house. It had been crushed into a hard little ball, like a pebble.

"Owen."

"Yeah?"

"I don't have any money."

"I'm paying."

"You just lost your job."

"Which means I still have a little severance left." Owen turned to her, the corner of his mouth lifting. That smile reminded Hannah of childhood, of the same smile he wore whenever he gave her the last piece of chocolate. "Spending it on you is better than spending it on rent."

Hannah said nothing else. She rested her head against the window. The glass was cold, trembling faintly with the movement of the car. The radio played an old song in Portuguese. She couldn't make out the words, but the melody kept repeating, as if someone were saying in her ear, Go on. Go on.

Slowly, her hand loosened on her knee. The crumpled paper towel rolled from her palm and dropped into the crease of the seat, wedged beside a rusted one-cent coin and an expired bus pass.

She did not pick it up. The car kept moving, and the streetlights outside grew closer together, brighter and brighter.

One Night Stand The Billionaire's Twin Heirs — Chapter 2 | The Stranger

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