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MJ Henry

MJ Henry's Books(3)

Beneath the Caviar Sky

Beneath the Caviar Sky

Billionaires
5.0
Before the Fall Griffin Vale never wanted the wine business. He respected it, sure. Grew up breathing in the barrel-soaked air of fermenting cellars and shaking hands with tycoons in tailored suits before he could spell Bordeaux. But his real love? Architecture. Spaces. Silence. He had an eye for beauty most billionaires ignored-the crooked beams of old barns, the way light poured through cracked windowpanes. He wanted to restore things, not sell them. But legacy doesn't care about dreams. His father, Thomas Vale, the larger-than-life titan of Vale Vineyards, had always said, "A Vale leads. A Vale does not walk away." So Griffin stayed. Showed up at boardrooms. Designed a few tasting rooms on the side. Smiled for the cameras. Dated women who fit the brand. Laughed at jokes he didn't find funny. And then it all collapsed. Fraud. Embezzlement. Stock manipulation. Words that painted headlines in gold and blood. His father arrested, the company in freefall. Investors turned predators. The press camped outside his penthouse. And Griffin? Griffin vanished. He took his grandfather's old truck and drove until the cell towers faded and the roads turned to dust. He didn't want to clear his name. He didn't care who thought he was guilty. He just wanted to forget. The Vineyard Riverbend was the kind of place that didn't make it on tourist maps. A family-run vineyard clinging to the last edge of harvest season, its tasting room barely functioning, its staff down to three. Thalia was its heart-unpaid manager, grape whisperer, and single mother all rolled into one. She hadn't planned on hiring anyone else. But when she found him-"Chris"-sitting on the edge of the loading dock, sipping gas station coffee and asking for work, something in her said yes. He was too clean. Too careful. But his eyes were quiet. And he said please. She put him on vine duty. Watched him fumble with shears and blisters. Smirked when he cursed under his breath. But day after day, he showed up. Never late. Never loud. And never asked for more than what she gave. Thalia didn't need another complication. She had enough-an autistic son who spoke with his eyes more than words, a mortgage two months late, and the memory of her father's vineyard dying beneath the weight of unpaid taxes. But Chris wasn't a man looking to be needed. He just needed to be. And somehow, in the way he held silence like a prayer, she found room to breathe. What He Didn't Know Thalia's vineyard sat on land once owned by Reyes Cellars-her father's dream. A vineyard that once competed with the likes of Vale. But twenty years ago, when a brutal drought hit and investors pulled out, her father was forced to sell. To the Vales. The sale broke him. The land was his soul, and when it was gone, so was his joy. Thalia watched him wither, bottle by bottle, until there was nothing left but debts and a bitter name. She swore she'd never trust a Vale again. And now, unknowingly, she was feeding one. Letting him walk her rows. Letting him into her son's world. Into her own. If she knew-if she found out who Chris really was-there would be no forgiveness. No future. But love doesn't wait for the perfect truth. It rises like steam from morning soil, unexpected and slow. And by the time it's visible, it's already soaked through the skin. The Breaking Point When the truth finally cracks open-when Chris becomes Griffin Vale again-it's not the betrayal that cuts deepest. It's the shame in his own voice when he says, "I didn't come here to lie. I came here because this is the first place I've ever felt real." Thalia doesn't scream. Doesn't cry. She just stares, like she's watching something precious rot in her hands. And her son-her quiet, sweet Mateo-who had just started calling Chris "Tío," won't look at him at all. Trust, once broken, doesn't rebuild with apologies. It rebuilds with action. With hands in the dirt. With late harvests and second chances. With showing up. And Griffin? For the first time in his life, he's willing to fight for something that can't be bought. Even if it means walking away from the empire he was born to save. Side Stories & Emotional Layers Mateo Reyes, Thalia's son, doesn't speak much. But he paints. His world is made of color and shadow, of silence and shape. Chris-Griffin-doesn't try to fix him. He just listens. Offers brushes. Buys better paints with the last of his hidden savings. It's through Mateo's art that Thalia sees who Chris really is-not the billionaire heir, but the man willing to sit still long enough for a child to trust him. Then there's Rosa, Thalia's grandmother, who suspects the truth before anyone else. Her eyes are sharp, her tongue sharper, but she holds secrets like vines hold memory. She tells Thalia that love doesn't come clean. It comes messy. Tangled. The way roots grow underground before they bloom. Even Diego, the town's gruff mechanic, has a part to play. He once lost his own family to a corporate buyout. He warns Chris: "If you want redempt