Holding the Dream by Nora Roberts

The narrative focuses on the professional and personal life of Kate Powell, a highly driven accountant striving to differentiate herself from her deceased father, who was a known thief. Her meticulously planned career is thrown into turmoil when she is wrongly accused of embezzlement at her CPA firm, causing her significant emotional and physical distress. Supported by her loving adoptive Templeton family, including her lawyer cousin Josh, Kate is pressured to work temporarily at the family's antique shop, Pretenses, while she navigates the legal fallout. The protective hotel executive Byron De Witt consistently interferes, believing in her innocence and using his influence to accelerate the investigation, eventually identifying her dishonest colleague, Roger Thornhill, as the true culprit. Ultimately, Kate rejects the partnership offered by her old firm, choosing happiness and a different path at Pretenses, and finally lowers her emotional barriers to accept Byron's commitment to her.