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Four

In his West Street penthouse, Jaeger rolled out of his e at the Hudson River through the massive s that were a key feature of the apart for one person, but he liked returning to light and space and quiet after his trips abroad

A lot of light, space and quiet, Jaeger thought Thanks, Uncle Connor

Connor had left everything he owned to his four adopted children, including property and equal shares in Ballantyne International, with its many subsidiaries, the most important of which were the exclusive jewelry stores around the world Their childhood home, a brownstone on the Upper East Side, was also jointly owned by the four of them, but he and Beckett retained their own residences Beckett had offered his place to fa the city for a er’s aparter didn’t mind It wasn’t like he didn’t have the room

He liked this apartner perfection asted on him He was hardly here, and it felt sterile and cold He preferred Piper’s relaxed bohe art and the ordinary household ite people used the space, lived and loved there An open book, a corked wine bottle, e, a playpen in the corner

God, she had a kid

He’d er wondered who Ty’s father was and whether he was in the picture Were they together when he and Piper had dinner in Milan? Piper didn’t see he could be when he made assumptions

He’d thought Jess would live past six weeks, never iined she’d be a victim of sudden infant death syndrorieve and they’d find their way back to each other

And he’d never believed that he could forget a chunk of his life

God, he’d been so lucky What if he’d forgotten more? What if he’d had no memories of his parents, his childhood, Connor God, noabout his amnesia, panic bubbled and boiled It was a couple of er, it was sy that went away

Like his parents, Jess, Connorthose memories were inaccessible

His body had healed quickly, but hisrisk, particularly in his personal life No relationships, no kids, no connections He was never going to bring so away the people he loved

Few people knehat it felt like when grief plunged its icy hand into your rib cage and ripped out your heart He couldn’t even call it pain; it went beyond that He’d had his heart replaced with an organ puony all at the saradually faded, but he reain

Besides, even if he desired to revisit that madness—he didn’t; he’d rather have been stabbed in the eye with a red-hot poker—the nature of his work made it difficult to sustain a relationship He dropped in and out of New York like a yo-yo, and his schedule could turn on a dime If he received a tip from any of his numerous contacts around the world, he was on the next plane out, hoping to be the first to do the deal He had no illusions about the loyalty of his contacts—they passed the saave hiher commission than his competitors did

International geer cut throats,and persistent He liked his life, liked the opportunity to see places few people did, to es where tiave hi a deal

He’d never, not for a single second, thought he’d find the sa Piper, someone he’d met before but whom he couldn’t remember, a woman with a kid