Chapter 1

      Justin Morrison ran through the hallways of the hospital, nearly tipping over a gurney at the nursing station, narrowly missing an orderly and then actually tripping over a wheelchair someone had left in the hallway.

      He scrambled to get back on his feet, his heart beating a frantic tattoo against his ribs. He had to get to her. After everything, he couldn’t lose her.

      His cousin’s words on the phone still rattled around his brain. She’s in the hospital. You need to come quickly. He took the stairs two at a time to the fourth floor, where they’d directed him at the main reception desk. Oh God, please let her be okay. Please, please, please let her be okay. His grandma Lucy was the only person on this planet who understood him. Well, next to his best friend, Alexandra, whom he affectionately called Alex. But Grandma Lucy, she was his heart. She was the sole reason he was where he was today, even when no one had believed in him.

      Growing up, she’d been his rock. She’d scolded him when she felt it necessary, hugged him when he needed it and always told it to him straight. She was outrageous and said the most inappropriate things. But man, she was fantastic.

      Grandma Lucy had been the one to tell him to stop trying to seek his father’s approval and follow his own path. She was the sole reason that any banks would even talk to him when he wanted to build a boutique hotel.

      His family was known for their hotels the world over. But investors didn’t want to finance the first solo venture from the prodigal son. So his grandmother had made sure that several banks knew that while his would be a separate business, he was backed by the matriarch of the family.

      As family went, the only one he ever counted on was his grandmother. The rest of his relatives, he could take or leave. His mother hadn’t come from money and had left him with his father when he was eight because the old man could provide a more stable environment for him. Most of his family never approved of her. As an adult, he could see how being around the Morrisons had been very difficult for her. But as a child, he’d just missed her. She’d died in a car accident just six months after she’d left. A part of him had never recovered. As for his father, well, Jack Morrison wasn’t exactly warm. But up until the reading of the will, Justin would have said they got along well. Boy, were you wrong.

      He and