Hard Edges
Mira Chen has spent her career measuring load-bearing walls, calculating tolerances, and trusting nothing she can't verify with hard data. So when the Cliffside Hotel's owner, Cornelius Blackwood, hires her firm to evaluate the legendary coastal property's structural integrity, she expects a routine inspection, not a family on the verge of collapse. The Blackwoods have guarded the cliffside landmark for generations, and with Cornelius suddenly deceased, the burden falls on Sebastian, the reluctant heir who has spent years abroad avoiding the family's grip. Mira finds herself drawn into a web of inheritance disputes, old letters, and whispered accusations involving Genevieve and Iris Ashford, two sisters with their own claims on the property and its buried history. As winter storms batter the New England coast, Mira uncovers evidence of decades-old shortcuts in the original engineering, work connected to the MIT structural engineers who designed the original build. Margaret Huang, the sharp-eyed concierge who knows every guest and secret the hotel has ever sheltered, becomes an unexpected ally, while the charming Drew Lancaster and the watchful Marcus Webb force Mira to question everyone's motives. Every revelation pulls Mira closer to Sebastian and closer to a truth that could bring down a dynasty. She can file her report, walk away, and let the Blackwoods bury their secrets with the building. Or she can stay, fight for the hotel, and risk letting her own carefully constructed defenses come down with it. The question is whether she'll still be standing when the last wall gives way.