Chapter 2
 
 Christina
 
 Christina Hilford wished she could will things into working out. She’d
 
 come all the way from New York just over three weeks ago. She’d been so
 
 excited to get to Austin at first. She thought being headhunted was proof of
 
 her personal success. Of course, her dad wasn’t in agreement, but when was
 
 something she’d ever done anything that was good enough for him?
 
 Right. That would be never.
 
 As a head of a big company, success seemed to follow him around.
 
 It was slightly depressing how everything he touched almost literally turned
 
 to gold. The press loved her father. Christina’s two brothers worshipped the
 
 man. She’d always wanted to make her dad proud of her, but apparently
 
 moving to Austin to join the new branch of a decidedly up— and coming
 
 new company wasn’t exactly the route to fatherly acceptance.
 
 Christina had been doing the same kind of work in New York, with
 
 an even larger, more established venture capitalist group. She’d given up
 
 everything to make the move. Her apartment in New York, her friends, her
 
 family— although they had never been close anyway. She really, really
 
 wanted it to work out.
 
 Christina closed her eyes in the middle of organizing a stack of files in
 
 her office. Everyone got an office here. The place was classy. No cubicles
 
 for the Stellar Fund Venture Capitalist Group.
 
 She laid out a stack of new proposals. They were all good. She’d
 
 interviewed ea
 
 ch and every single applicant herself. Now came the hard
 
 part— going through and deciding who to pass up the ladder for funding
 
 and making the harder call on who would get denied.
 
 She didn’t like crushing people’s dreams. That wasn’t why she’d made
 
 the move to Austin. She had loved her old job. She had loved living in New
 
 York. She enjoyed the fast-paced lifestyle, the way the city never seemed