The serene, post-storm calm of the morning was shattered by the shrill ringing of Victor’s phone at 7:00 AM.

Clara woke up tangled in the expensive Egyptian cotton sheets, the heavy weight of Victor’s arm draped securely over her waist. The memory of the previous night rushed back in a wave of hea

The site of the future Oasis project was a sprawling, ten-acre expanse of cleared earth in the heart of Manhattan’s financial district. By eleven-thirty that morning, it had been transformed into an arena of corporate theater. Massive white pavilions snapped in the brisk autumn wind, sheltering rows

The silence in the pavilion was absolute. Even the brisk autumn wind seemed to hold its breath. Hundreds of eyes darted back and forth between the pale, sweating man at the podium and the woman in the crimson suit standing at the microphone.

"Clara," Julian croaked, his voice barely picking up on