Chapter 1 - The gift box
The box Sabine kicked across the yacht deck was still wrapped in silver paper.
One corner was crushed.
Blue ribbon soaked from seawater someone had tracked onto the deck.
Ellie stared at it as though that mattered more than the red mark on her elbow.
“Daddy.”
“I’m here.”
My name is Donovan Moretti.
For most of my adult life, people had used words like:
Dangerous.
Connected.
Untouchable.
Powerful.
None of those words mattered when my eight-year-old daughter looked up at me and asked:
“Am I in trouble?”
“No.”
“Because I dropped the present?”
“No.”
“Because I talked back?”
“No.”
I crouched.
“You did nothing that gave Sabine the right to put her hands on you.”
Ellie nodded.
Then looked toward Sabine.
I had already struck her.
That part was mine.
Ellie was safe behind me when I did it.
No immediate attack.
No self-defense excuse.
Anger.
I would deal with that later.
Right then, Sabine had said something more dangerous than any threat against me.
“Your daughter will find out who her real father is.”
I looked directly at her.
“Say that name.”
Sabine smiled.
“Dr. Nathaniel Reed.”
Ellie looked at me.
“Who?”
I did not answer immediately.
May you like
Because Nathaniel Reed was a real person.
And Sabine had just proved she possessed information she was never supposed to have.
