Where Moonlight Leads

When Serena Hawke transfers to Ashmere University, she wagers that she can take Damian Cross from Rowan Hawke within a month. Rowan dismisses the bet, but Damian's attention begins to drift: he tracks Serena's scores, praises her reasoning, saves her a seat, and fills his phone with her notes. On Rowan's birthday he never arrives, and Rowan finds Serena's arms around his neck in the arena lounge.

Damian shields Serena, calling her a good person, and threatens to cancel his engagement to Rowan and marry Serena instead. Rowan tells him to cancel it, then calls her grandfather, Charles Watney, who promises that Whitmore Holdings will one day be hers. Returning to Hawke Estate to pack, she finds Serena in her pajamas and her belongings dumped on the floor, and the framed photograph of her mother gone.

Damian pins Rowan when she tries to call for help, and Serena claims the frame was thrown out with the trash. Rowan runs for the county landfill alone, determined to bring her mother's photograph home.