Erin had a habit of getting up early. On Monday, she woke up at dawn and, knowing she wouldn't get back to sleep, let her thoughts wander.

He had grown accustomed to living and working in London, even though his job was only temporary. Until last month, he had been living with his father in the house where he had spent his entire life, located in the small town of Croom Babbington, Gloucestershire.

Her parents divorced when Erin was five; her mother, Nina, had grown tired of being a housewife and left. Shortly after the divorce, she fell back into the marriage trap and remarried, but the romance didn't last long, and after two years, she divorced her second husband.

"Never again!" her mother had sworn.

Nina had kept her oath, although that did not prevent her from having numerous admirers.

Despite the divorce, Erin always thought of her mother with great affection. She knew she hadn't abandoned her, but that her marriage had simply failed. She had also visited her every two or three months since moving to Bershire.

Erin, on the other hand, had never returned his visits even once. First, because her father wouldn't have allowed it; despite
In the seventeen years since the divorce, she still hadn't forgiven Nina and feared that her daughter would become, as she said, a woman as rebellious as her mother. And secondly, because the vain Nina didn't want anyone in her circle of friends to know she had a daughter, especially now that she had grown into a beautiful young woman with golden hair, violet-blue eyes, and a stunning figure.

Erin had learned not to hold a grudge against her for that, though she regretted not having the chance to visit her: life was never dull when Nina was around.

Despite everything, Erin knew that her admiration for her mother was partly due to her father's strictness. Leslie Tunnicliffe was a wonderful man who had always supported her and on whom she could always count, but he was also conservative and somewhat repressive, so she soon came to the conclusion that there had to be more to life than getting up every morning to do a secretarial job with no future.

Paradoxically, he was the one who had suggested the idea of her studying business while gaining experience as a secretary. Erin remembered it very well because he had suggested it to her one of those Sundays when Nina would stop by to see her. In reality, the young woman didn't need to work; her father had inherited a small fortune, which he had later increased with his skill in investing in stocks and property. But when Erin returned from lunch with her mother, he encouraged her to pursue professional training because, in his view, work would keep her busy and away from a dissipated life.

Obediently, Erin followed the advice. She studied, worked hard, and finally landed her first, immensely boring job. But it had already been six months since she'd left to go work for Mark Prentice.

If you had asked him about it, he wouldn't have been able to say which of the two occupations was more boring. However, his life
began to change shortly after she accepted the new job: Mark asked her out, which surprised her a little; until then she had thought he was seeing someone else, but it became clear that she had been wrong.

Erin had been out with several men before, but her father had always insisted that any male friend come to her house to find her, which naturally meant a thorough interrogation beforehand, a thorough interrogation afterward, and a long, detailed explanation of what she had done and where she had been.

She knew her father behaved this way because he loved her and because he was afraid she would become a...