Chapter 1 - The Champagne Glass Hit the Stone
Maisie’s scream cut through the outdoor dinner before Reid even understood where it came from.
“DADDY!”
He turned.
His daughter was already inside the shallow decorative fountain.
So was Callie.
Both were soaked completely through. Callie’s sapphire-pink satin gown clung heavily to her body as she held six-year-old Maisie against her chest. Water streamed from Callie’s dark hair. Maisie was sobbing hard enough that her small shoulders shook.
Several formally dressed guests stood frozen beneath the warm string lights.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Except Gavin.
He stood a few paces from the fountain, perfectly dry in his ivory tuxedo jacket, one hand wrapped around a champagne glass.
And he was smiling.
Not nervously.
Not apologetically.
Smugly.
“They need to be taught their place.”
Reid stopped dead.
For half a heartbeat, he looked from his wife to his daughter, as though his mind could not reconcile the beautiful estate dinner with the sight in front of him.
Then his expression changed.
“What the hell happened here?!”
He strode straight into the fountain.
Water darkened his trousers immediately, then climbed over his shoes as he crossed to Maisie. He reached down and lifted her firmly from Callie’s arms.
Maisie wrapped herself around him.
Reid held her against his chest while Callie stood beside them trembling, arms folded tightly around herself.
“Maisie.”
His voice softened.
“I’ve got you.”
The little girl pulled her face from his shoulder.
Then she looked past him.
Her arm rose.
One small finger pointed directly at Gavin.
“Daddy... he did the same thing to Mommy.”
Reid stopped moving.
Callie closed her eyes.
The guests suddenly seemed farther away.
Reid turned slowly.
Gavin’s smile was still there.
But weaker.
Reid stared at him with a different expression now.
Not simply anger.
Recognition.
“So, you’re the one she talked about?”
The words landed harder than shouting would have.
Gavin’s fingers loosened.
The champagne glass slipped from his hand.
It hit the stone.
CRASH.
Crystal scattered across the pavement.
Gavin did not bend to retrieve it.
He did not deny anything.
He simply stared at Reid.
And for the first time that evening, the confidence disappeared from his face.
Maisie kept pointing.
Callie looked from Gavin to Reid, her expression no longer only frightened.
It was exhausted.
As though a secret she had been carrying for months had finally been spoken by the one person nobody expected to understand it.
Reid tightened his hold around his daughter.
He looked once at Callie.
Then back at Gavin.
May you like
And Gavin knew immediately that the fountain was no longer the problem.
It was the memory Maisie had just connected to it.
