“Please,” she said softly, “don’t fire me for bringing personal problems into this.” And that single sentence went through Corbin like a blade, because he understood what it revealed: that this woman, facing a hardship he had needed a laptop and a notepad even to comprehend, was standing in her own home with a millionaire at her door, and the thing she feared most in the world was not his pity or his judgment but the loss of the job that was barely keeping her child fed.

“I am not here to fire you,” he said, and he meant it with a firmness that surprised them both.

And before he could explain the groceries, heavy footsteps came up the stairwell behind him.

Chapter 6 — The Attorney at the Door

“Corbin.

I strongly advise you to step away and leave this building right now.”

He turned to find Marshall Crane, the veteran chief legal counsel of Stanford Development, stepping onto the landing, two corporate security men close behind him.

“Marshall,” Corbin said, frowning, “how on earth did you know I was coming here tonight?”