Prologue

Once upon a time there was a young boy who lived in a penthouse that overlooked Central Park. While it may have seemed to an outsider’s eye that he had everything he could ever want, he was missing the one thing a young boy needed—his parent’s love.

Then something incredible happened, something truly extraordinary—he caught the eye of a beautiful girl who said she thought him to be handsome and smart. Only later was it revealed that she was using him to make another jealous. When the charade was up, she shunned him, unbelieving that he could ever think a girl like her could like a boy like him.

Years later, the girl, a woman now, saw him again and tried to apologize, but it was too late, for he had grown up to become guarded and grumpy.

Ashamed and believing that he was not worthy of love, he concealed himself and spent his days in his office, at his penthouse, or on a work trip that always seemed to last far too long for his liking.

As the years passed, he continued to lose hope in love and happiness. For who could ever learn to love a man like him?