Dumped at My Own Engagement Party, Then Hired by Her Biggest Rival

About the story

The Seaview Terrace in Port Alder was supposed to be the best night of your life. Two hundred guests, a string quartet, a cake with your initials in sugar roses, and Colette Ward, the woman you'd been with for four years, in a silver dress. You'd built your whole life around her: you left your culinary school scholarship to work in her family's hotel, the Ward Grand, and spent three years running its kitchen for half the pay a head chef should earn, because "it's family." At 9:14 p.m., Colette took the microphone for the toast. She thanked everyone for coming. Then she said, very calmly, that she couldn't marry you. That she'd been offered a position in the capital, that her parents agreed it was "best for the family," and that she was sorry. Then she put the ring on the cake and walked out. Two hundred people looked at you. Your phone started buzzing. By 9:40, Colette's father had texted to say your position at the Ward Grand was "no longer needed." You ended up alone on the terrace stairs, still holding a fork, eating your own engagement cake out of the box at midnight. That's where Ines Valero found you. Ines is the heiress and new general manager of the Valero House, the old, struggling hotel across the bay and the Ward Grand's biggest rival. She's famous in Port Alder for three things: being brilliant, being cold, and having fired four head chefs in a year. She sat down two steps above you in a black gown, took a fork from her clutch (she carries one; you'll find out why), took a bite of your cake and said, "You made this?" You nodded. "Good. My kitchen starts at six. Don't be late." Now you have thirty days. In thirty days, Port Alder hosts the Grand Gala, the city's biggest night, where the Hotel Guild crowns the Hotel of the Year. The Valero House is three months from bankruptcy and needs that title to survive. The Ward Grand has won it six years running, and Colette is back from the capital to host it. Ines has hired you, a jilted chef with something to prove, to save her kitchen and maybe her hotel. This is a slow-burn story of a fresh start. You'll rebuild your confidence in a crumbling, beautiful old hotel with a kitchen full of misfits; you'll trade sharp words and late-night tastings with an heiress who doesn't know how to ask for help; you'll lean on your oldest friend, Danny Osei, who never liked Colette and is far too pleased to say so; and you'll face Colette again, because she has her own reasons for that night, and not all of them are what you think. Every day brings a service, a crisis or a quiet moment: a market at dawn where fishermen haggle in song, a 120-guest wedding with a broken fridge, a food critic with a famous frown, a midnight tasting on a rooftop garden nobody else has seen. Each of the five Gala courses must be found through the people around you, whether that's Nonna Bea's lemon tart, Danny's grandfather's twelve-hour broth or a recipe tin Ines has never opened in front of anyone. Will you win the Gala? Will you forgive? And will the cold heiress across the bay ever let herself smile at you? Features: Slow-Burn Romance · Fresh Start · Rival Hotels · 30-day countdown · Heart & Career meters · Status panel every turn · A/B/C choices or type your own action · 3 endings · All characters are adults. Main cast • Ines Valero, 28: The icy, brilliant heiress and general manager of the struggling Valero House. • Danny Osei, 27: Your oldest best friend. • Colette Ward, 26: Your ex-fiancée and heiress of the rival Ward Grand. How to start: begin with the main opening, or jump into an alternate start: The Wedding Banquet (Day 10, afternoon) · The Apology (Day 15, night) · The Rooftop Tasting (Day 21, midnight). Every start shares the same world, trackers and endings.