The Innovator

THE INNOVATOR WATERFYRE RISING 3 NADIA HAN CONTENTS BLURB Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Chapter 69 Chapter 70 Chapter 71 Chapter 72 Chapter 73 Chapter 74 Epilogue Acknowledgments About the Author For those with the “fyre” to open their hearts. . . . “You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.” ― Rumi COPYRIGHT The Innovator Copyright © 2023 by Nadia Han Cover Art Copyright: Nadia Han Editor: Anna Nesbitt Copy Editor: Lindsay York at LY Publishing Proofreaders: Violet Rae and Melissa Tarrington All rights reserved. Published by Prose & Concepts LLC. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher. For information: Prose & Concepts LLC 210 Park Avenue, Suite #280 Worcester, MA 01609 www.proseandconcepts.com This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places, names, and events are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to events, locations, or persons alive or otherwise, is entirely coincidental. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Control Number: 2023933375 First edition Ebook ISBN: 978-1-952820-42-7 First edition Paperback ISBN: 978-1-952820-43-4 Special edition Paperback ISBN: 978-1-952820-44-1 BLURB She is the irritation that turns his heart inside out. Sharp, gorgeous, and skeptical, Grayson Wu is a top-notch architect who has built impenetrable walls around his unstable heart due to a betrayal he can’t soon forget. When an irritatingly beautiful woman threatens his foundation, he struggles to let her break down his barrier. To resurrect his soul. To reconstruct his heart. To reset his life. Determined, elegant, and versatile, Natalie Chapelle has courageously taken a city job well below her pay grade to save her family’s legacy. Though adaptable, she finds it hard to work with the arrogant and innovative designer who makes her want and hate him at the same time. When the tension between them snaps, she is tossed into his complex world, revealing more than she expected. A man with more depth than the sea. A mind more brilliant than the sun. A lover more skillful than a surgeon. As their romance builds, danger and dark secrets unfold that drive Grayson to sacrifice his heart in order to save the woman he loves. PROLOGUE GRAYSON Mom dropped me off at school, but I snuck back home after she left for work. I was now in my backyard, hiding in my tree house because I didn’t want to risk Mom suddenly stopping by at home and finding me. She was probably busy working with Uncle Derek today, but it was better safe than sorry. They worked together at Wu Real Estate Solutions. I’d be grounded if she found me here instead of at school. Hopefully, my sister Audri wouldn’t be looking for me at the end of school. I’d tell her I had gone to some club afterschool and come home later. Nerves played in my stomach like a slinky that wouldn’t stop. How could I concentrate on schoolwork after witnessing that murder last week with my friends? We would’ve died if that man with the slash across his face hadn’t told us to run and keep our mouths shut. He was part of the gang—or mafia—but he let us go. It didn’t matter. I just wanted to get away from that church. It had been our regular meeting place to discuss our WaterFyre Rising video game, but now it was a crime scene. Remi had a better view of the murder, but I saw enough and heard the gun pop several times. He gave us a second chance to live that day, and my heart hammered as though it had just happened. Using my backpack as my pillow, I lay down on the floor of my tree house. Uncle Derek helped me build it. If Dad had been alive, he would have taught me. How were my friends coping? They’d been scared too. We’d all captured something on our drones and saved it to a flash drive. The man with the scar told us to keep our mouths shut, or they’d kill us and our families. We believed him. We would have died if someone else had caught us. That person might not have had the decency to give us a second chance. My stomach twisted at the thought. I’d never seen anyone murdered. A car pulled into the driveway, and I peeked out from the window, which overlooked the driveway and garage. Uncle Derek got out of the car and walked around to the backyard. Shit. He wouldn’t come up to the tree house. I was the only one who used it. My friends often hung out here too. Audri did a few times, but Uncle Derek didn’t. I didn’t dare move, not wanting him to find me skipping school. I didn’t think I could lie if he caught me. His voice brought on a protectiveness that only parents could offer. Uncle Derek had been the father figure for me ever since my dad died. Sharing my fears with an adult would help ease it, but I didn’t want to get him killed by some gang. So