Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO WAS AFRAID OF A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL
Gordon Pryce had faced armed men without blinking. I'd watched him negotiate with killers, threaten corrupt politicians, and walk calmly through situations that would have terrified ordinary people.
But standing beneath my ballroom chandeliers, my oldest friend looked frightened of a seven-year-old girl.
And that frightened me more than anything else.
"Lily," Maria whispered, reaching for her daughter's hand. "We need to go."
The little girl frowned.
"But Mama, we haven't finished dancing."
"Sweetheart, please."
I watched Maria's eyes move toward Gordon.
He was already approaching.
"Daniel," he said, forcing his familiar smile. "Quite a touching performance. The guests loved it."
His gaze dropped toward the brass key resting in my palm.
"What's that?"
"Something Lily dropped."
"Let me see."
He extended his hand.
I closed my fingers around the key.
"No."
The word was quiet, but Gordon stopped.
For twenty years, he'd been the one man I rarely questioned. He knew my weaknesses, my business arrangements, even the combinations to certain safes.
He'd practically run my empire while I recovered from the crash.
Now, for the first time, I wanted him nowhere near me.
Gordon crouched beside Lily.
"Hello, little star. You've gotten big."
Lily stepped behind her mother.
"I remember you."
Maria went rigid.
Gordon's smile weakened.
"Do you?"
Lily nodded.
"You came to our apartment when Papa went away. Mama cried after you left."
The silence between us became unbearable.
I looked at Gordon.
"You knew this child?"
"Daniel, I oversee hundreds of employees. Naturally, I checked on the mechanic's family after what happened."
"Then why didn't you tell me his widow was working in my house?"
He straightened.
"Because I thought you'd find it upsetting."
That answer might once have satisfied me.
Not anymore.
Across the ballroom, Charles Beaumont watched us over the rim of his champagne glass. Eleanor Whitfield stood beside him, speaking urgently into his ear.
When Charles noticed me watching, he turned away.
I slipped the key into my jacket.
"Maria, you and Lily are my guests tonight."
Maria shook her head immediately.
"Sir, I appreciate your kindness, but—"
"You're not in trouble."
Gordon placed a hand on my wheelchair.
"Daniel, perhaps we should discuss this privately."
I looked at his hand.
"Take it off."
His expression changed.
For a moment, I saw something underneath the polished loyalty I'd trusted for two decades.
Resentment.
Then it disappeared.
"Of course."
I called for Adele Torres, my head of security.
Adele was forty-two, former military, and the younger sister of Rafael Torres, one of the bodyguards who had died in my SUV.
Unlike Gordon, she'd never pretended my accident was something we should forget.
"Adele, please escort Maria and Lily to the family sitting room. Nobody approaches them without my permission."
Gordon spoke sharply.
"That's unnecessary."
Adele looked at him.
"Mr. Harrison gave me an instruction."
Gordon stepped aside.
But Maria didn't move.
Instead, she looked at me with the expression of someone standing at the edge of a dangerous decision.
"Mr. Harrison," she whispered, "there's something you should know."
Gordon's voice hardened.
"Maria."
She flinched.
I raised my hand.
"Let her speak."
Maria swallowed.
"Tomas didn't just lose his job before he died. He came home one night with blood on his shirt. He told me he'd discovered something terrible at the garage."
"What did he discover?"
"He wouldn't say. He only told me to take Lily away if anything happened to him."
Gordon laughed uneasily.
"Daniel, the woman is grieving. Her husband was involved in the sabotage. The police established—"
"The police never spoke to me properly," Maria interrupted.
Everyone fell silent.
For the first time, she looked directly at Gordon.
"You made sure of that."
His face hardened.
I leaned forward.
"Maria. Tell me everything."
She glanced toward Lily.
"Not in front of my daughter."
I turned to Adele.
"Take Lily to Mrs. Ellis in the kitchen. Tell her I said Lily can have whatever dessert she wants."
Lily brightened.
"Even chocolate cake?"
"Especially chocolate cake."
She kissed her mother's cheek before following Adele.
When the door closed, Maria began trembling.
"Mr. Harrison, the police said Tomas sabotaged your car and died while trying to escape afterward."
"I know."
"That's not what happened."
She reached inside her uniform and pulled out a faded photograph.
Tomas stood beside a younger Lily, smiling in front of a small birthday cake.
On the back was a date.
Two days before my crash.
Maria pointed to it.
"That was his last birthday with us. Later that night, two men took him away. The next afternoon, someone at the morgue quietly told me his body had already arrived."
My hands tightened around the wheelchair arms.
"But the official report said he died after my accident."
"I know."
Her voice broke.
"Someone changed the date."
Gordon took one step backward.
Maria looked at him.
Then she spoke the words that made my entire world shift.
May you like
"Mr. Harrison, my husband was already dead two days before someone sabotaged your brakes."
And for the first time, I realized that the person who'd destroyed my life might have been standing beside my hospital bed, pretending to save it.
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