Heartbreaker By Profession

Foreword

Heartbreaker By Profession

Nabi Chung

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The first time Kimberly VanStromme knew that her life was going somewhere good was during her third year of college when her Ethics in Politics professor, Dr. Cottine, told Kimberly that she saw something in her.

Something. Dr. Cottine didn't say what, but from the tone of her voice and the expression on her face, Kimberly knew it had to be something good.

Dr. Cottine, a professor known throughout Brown University for being unnecessarily cold towards her students had sought Kimberly out and offered to mentor her. Dr. Cottine, a professor that, in all her years teaching, hadn't been described as anything other than a "bitter old bitch" – despite her being far from old – had shown Kimberly her soft side, her motherly side. Dr. Cottine, a notoriously reserved woman, had helped mold Kimberly into the perfect political scientist – an ethical one.

All of Dr. Cottine's help led to the second time that Kimberly VanStromme knew her life was going somewhere good, and that was during the spring semester of her final year at Brown when she got accepted to Stanford University's political science graduate program.

Stanford University. Fucking crazy, right?

Dr. Cottine had convinced Kimberly to apply even though Kimberly was sure her application wouldn't even get a second look. Dr. Cottine had all but sent out the application herself, and months later, when that deciding letter came back in the mail, Kimberly realized just how great of an addition Dr. Cottine had been in her life.

Kimberly finished her two year master's program at Stanford and received her degree at the age of twenty-four, continuing on into the doctorate program to receive her PhD. And that winter of her first year at doctorate school, soon after turning twenty-five, Kimberly found a part-time job with the state government office, working as a legislative affairs intern, which leads into the third and final time that Kimberly VanStromme just knew her life was going somewhere good.

When she walked into the office of the California Department of Justice, and found out that the state – specifically Santa Clara County, the one she was in – was being sued for human rights violations, and her superiors had decided to have her shadow the case and study the legislature.

Kimberly knew that this was big because she was finally getting the chance to do something worthwhile with her skills and time, but if you know Kimberly VanStromme, then you know that her life is anything but straightforward. So of course, there had to be some sort of curveball, and that curveball came in the form of Julian Carter, the prosecuting lawyer who just happened to be her old love, a heartbreaker by profession.

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IMPORTANT: THIS IS A SAMPLE. I WILL SAY IT AGAIN, THIS IS A SAMPLE, IT IS ONLY 3-4 CHAPTERS LONG SO AT THE END OF IT PLEASE DO NOT SAY YOU WEREN'T TOLD. If you want to know more about the 'why' please go read the afterword I've posted to Under His Roof. The TL;DR version of it though is that my work was stolen, it was a very long, GRUELING process to get the situation rectified, and I really don't want it to happen again. After the sample of HBP is over, I ~may~ post some teasers/one-shots, but if I did it would be much later on. So if you want to continue the book after the sample, it is available on radish and you can read it there now (which I 100% recommend that you do bc this book gets quite.....intense...)

Thank you all so much for the love & support you've given me:'-)

<3

-nabi