Chapter 1
Donato did not let anyone retrieve the birthday present until Ava was safe.
That surprised Luca.
It surprised Selena more.
The box was still visible beneath the rippling surface of the shallow end, slowly darkening as water soaked through the wrapping paper.
“Get it!” Selena snapped at one of the pool attendants.
Donato turned.
“No.”
Selena froze.
He had Ava wrapped in two thick towels now. Her birthday crown was gone. Wet hair clung to her cheeks.
Ava’s whole body trembled.
Donato crouched.
“Look at me.”
She did.
“Anything hurt?”
“My knee.”
He checked it.
A small red mark.
Nothing that explained the terror in her face.
“Did you hit your head?”
She shook it.
“Okay.”
His physician was already being called.
His attorney came next.
Not a capo.
Not somebody carrying a gun.
An attorney.
Because Donato knew exactly what the poolhouse cameras had recorded.
Selena pushing a three-year-old into water.
Luca attacking him afterward.
And Donato responding with violence of his own.
The line about the gift being worth more than their lives had also been captured.
He could hear future prosecutors making use of it already.
So when one of his bodyguards quietly asked:
“What do you want done with them?”
Donato answered:
“Nothing.”
The man looked surprised.
Donato nodded toward Selena and Luca.
“They stay where security can see them until police arrive. Nobody touches them.”
Selena’s face changed.
“Police?”
“You shoved my daughter into a pool.”
“It was shallow.”
“She’s three.”
“She can swim.”
Ava immediately shook her head against Donato’s shoulder.
“No, Daddy.”
Donato looked at Selena.
“You knew she couldn’t.”
Silence.
That mattered.
The estate physician examined Ava before emergency services transported her for a fuller evaluation.
She was frightened, bruised, and cold.
No major physical injury.
Donato finally allowed the gift to be retrieved.
A pool attendant used the skimmer.
The soaked box came apart almost immediately.
Inside was a smaller lacquered wooden case.
Water-resistant.
Not waterproof.
Donato opened it carefully.
Ava watched from the doorway.
Inside lay a small gold locket on a velvet cushion.
And beneath it, wrapped in tissue, a child-sized bracelet made from tiny gold links.
Selena stared at them.
Donato noticed.
The locket had belonged to Ava’s mother, Isabella.
She had died eighteen months earlier after a sudden illness.
The bracelet had been Isabella’s when she was a child.
Donato had spent months having it restored so Ava could wear it safely.
The gift was not worth a fortune.
That was never what he meant.
It was worth something money could not replace.
Ava looked at the wet tissue paper.
“Mommy’s?”
Donato’s throat tightened.
“Yes.”
Selena turned away.
Too quickly.
May you like
And for the first time, Donato understood that her fear at the pool had not started when he threatened her.
It had started when she realized the gift survived.
