At just twenty-four, Maeve Hayward is already a formidable business tycoon. Beneath her cold, resilient exterior, however, lies a desperate longing to be loved. One night, after being drugged by a business rival, she pins eighteen-year-old waiter Anders against the wall and makes him an offer: “Five hundred thousand dollars. Spend the night with me.” Born into poverty, Anders confirms that her proposition has been recorded before accepting. The rival’s men find nothing when they arrive, while passion unfolds in the room next door.
Once sober, Maeve cannot forget that night. She seeks Anders out again and again, eventually making him her kept lover and paying his way through college. Their agreement is simple: they will remain secret lovers for four years and never make their relationship public. What begins as a transaction gradually becomes mutual dependence, yet neither of them is willing to say the word love.
During Anders’s senior year, Maeve’s plane crashes, and the news reports that she has died. Two years later, Anders has become a rising star at one of America’s most prestigious law firms, driven by a single purpose: to climb high enough to find her. Meanwhile, he uncovers a long-buried secret suggesting that he and Simon, the only son of a wealthy family, may have been switched at birth.
