Love cannot be controlled, said the godfather, and so I handed him over to my sister.

My sister Chloe was blind with love. She sat on a plane for thirty straight hours just to celebrate the birthday of the boyfriend she'd kept overseas for three years.

She looked at me, a martyr's glow in her eyes.

"Elena, you don't understand. Every year, the one who gets to spend his birthday with him is never me."

"This time, I want to stand beside him myself."

I sighed and let it go.

When my fiancé, Don Julian, heard, he gave a cold little snort on the other end of the line.

"She flew halfway around the world just to throw a man a birthday party? Has she lost her mind?"