I was still wiping tables when he slid a single dollar across the tray like it was a joke. “That’s all you’re worth,” the billionaire smirked. My mom actually laughed—“Maybe school wasn’t so hard after all, huh?” The whole restaurant joined in, a chorus of humiliation I couldn’t escape. Months later, in a lawyer’s office, I stared at the envelope in my hands. “If you open this,” he warned, “the town changes forever.” I did—and my blood ran cold.
My name’s Ethan Parker, and until last year I thought the worst thing that could happen to a person was being poor in a town that worshipped money. I was twenty-four, working double shifts at Harbor & Pine, the nicest restaurant in our small coastal city of Briar Cove. The kind of place where tourists…