Chapter 1 - THE HAND THAT STRUCK HIM
Vanessa Cole slapped the old janitor before he could finish handing her purse back.
The sound cracked across the entrance of the Halcyon Grand.
Walter Reed staggered half a step on the pale stone, one hand rising instinctively to his cheek.
He had done nothing except pick up the deep-burgundy purse that had slipped from Vanessa’s arm when she stepped out of the black SUV.
“Get your filthy hands off my bag!”
Two bellmen looked over.
A couple waiting for a valet stopped talking.
Walter straightened slowly.
“I was only picking it up for you, ma’am.”
Vanessa ripped the purse from his hand.
“People like you touch expensive things and suddenly think they belong to you.”
Walter’s expression barely changed.
“Being poor doesn’t make someone a thief.”
Vanessa laughed.
“You probably make in a year what this bag cost me.”
Then she saw Daniel Reed walking through the revolving doors.
Everything about her changed.
Her shoulders dropped.
Her mouth trembled.
She hurried toward him.
“Daniel, thank God.”
He stopped.
“That janitor tried to steal my purse.”
Walter said nothing.
Vanessa turned toward him with open disgust.
“Now it’s probably contaminated with poverty.”
Daniel’s eyes moved from Vanessa to the red mark spreading across Walter’s cheek.
He walked past her.
“Walter.”
Vanessa frowned.
Daniel touched two fingers gently beneath the older man’s cheekbone.
“You okay?”
“I’ve been hit harder by cabinet doors.”
“Dad.”
Vanessa went completely still.
Daniel turned toward her.
“Do you even know who you just humiliated?”
She stared between them.
Walter placed one hand on Daniel’s shoulder.
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“He’s my father.”
Vanessa’s face lost its color.
The valet stand seemed suddenly very far away.
“I—I didn’t know.”
Walter looked at the purse pressed against her chest.
“No,” he said quietly. “You didn’t.”
Daniel turned on her.
“You hit a sixty-nine-year-old man because he touched your purse.”
“I thought he was stealing it.”
“You watched him pick it up off the ground.”
Vanessa looked around and realized people had seen.
That frightened her more than Walter did.
“Daniel, can we please go inside?”
Walter picked up the cleaning cloth he had dropped.
“No need to make a scene over me.”
Daniel looked at him sharply.
“You’re not the one making it.”
Walter bent for the small maintenance cart beside the wall.
A thick manila envelope sat on its lower shelf.
Daniel noticed his own company’s name printed across the corner.
REED HOSPITALITY DEVELOPMENT.
“What’s that?”
Walter’s hand stopped.
For the first time, the older man looked uncomfortable.
“Something I was going to give you after the gala.”
Vanessa looked at the envelope.
Her panic returned.
Walter noticed.
So did Daniel.
“What’s in it?” Daniel asked.
May you like
Walter looked directly at Vanessa.
“Ask your fiancée why people from your company have been calling my neighbors every day for six weeks.”
