Chapter 1 - ECHOES IN THE MARBLE
Adrian Belmont, owner of a luxury hotel empire across the East Coast, returns to his flagship Manhattan property only to find his callous operations director, Jason Mercer, attempting to violently eject an impoverished, trembling elderly man from the lobby. Defying Jason’s threats, a single-mother housekeeper named Lucy Serrano kneels on the marble floor to offer the stranger water. Adrian intervenes, silences his director, and orders a luxury suite and medical care for the senior, who calls himself Thomas. But as Adrian steadies the frail man, a vintage silver watch slips past the frayed sleeve. On the back are engraved the words: FOR DAD. ALWAYS TOGETHER. Adrian realizes the vagrant is his long-lost father, whom he believed had cruelly abandoned him sixteen years ago after his mother’s death. With tear-filled eyes, Thomas hands Adrian a worn envelope containing legal documents that prove he never left by choice—someone powerful engineered his disappearance.
