Chapter 1

Ava Monroe packed one suitcase.

She left her family' s big house in New England before dawn.

No note, no goodbye.

Her family had money, old money, and a name known in politics.

Ava wanted something else, something real.

She found a small apartment in a city far away, a place where no one knew the Monroe name.

She got a job at a coffee shop, serving lattes to people who didn't care about her last name.

It felt good.

One night, after her shift, she went to a small bar down the street.

The music was loud, a man singing with a worn-out guitar.

He called himself Ethan.

He said he played gigs when he could, and bartended to pay rent.

His clothes were old, his smile easy.

Ava liked his eyes, they seemed honest.

She started going to the bar often.

They talked for hours.

Ethan told her about his dreams of making it big with his music.

Ava told him she was just a girl trying to find her way.

She didn' t mention the Monroe fortune or the political dinners.

He wouldn' t understand, she thought.

She fell for him, hard and fast.

Her family called, her mother' s voice tight with disapproval.

"Ava, this foolishness has to end. Come home."

"I am home," Ava said, and hung up.

Her grandmother, Senator Eleanor Vance, sent a carefully worded email.

It spoke of responsibility, of legacy.

Ava deleted it.

She chose Ethan.

She chose this new life.

Her family cut her off from her trust fund.

The money stopped.

Ava didn't care. She had Ethan.

She believed he was her escape, her real love.

She gave him everything she had, which wasn't much in money, but everything in heart.

He seemed to love her too.

He wrote songs for her, sang them in the dim light of the bar.

Ava felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

She was so wrong.