Chapter 8 - A New Dawn
Six months later, the autumn leaves across the hills of our estate turned into brilliant displays of amber, crimson, and gold.
The air was crisp and smelled of woodsmoke and damp earth.
I stood on the wide stone back patio, holding a steaming mug of black coffee, watching the morning fog lift slowly off the surface of the private lake behind the manor.
Down by the shoreline, two golden retrievers were bounding through the tall grass, barking happily as they chased a bright red rubber ball.
Running right behind them, laughing with an unbridled, joyful freedom that still sometimes made my chest tighten with emotion, were Lily and Owen.
They were wearing matching woolen sweaters that Mrs. Gable had knitted for them, their cheeks flushed pink from the morning chill. Owen tossed the ball toward the water, cheering wildly as both dogs scrambled after it. Lily turned around, spotted me standing on the patio, and waved her tiny hands wildly in the air.
“Daddy!” she called out across the lawn, her voice ringing clear and bright against the morning sky. “Come down here! The leaves are changing!”
I paused for a second, letting the word sink into my bones.
Daddy.
For thirty-five years, I had been Ryker Steel—the untouchable, the feared, the lone wolf of the corporate and tactical underworld. I had believed that power was the only shield against a hostile world.
I had been wrong.
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Love was the only shield that mattered.
I set my coffee mug down on the stone table, smiled, and stepped off the patio, walking down across the soft green grass toward the lake, heading straight into the bright, unbreakable future where the shadows of the past could never reach us again.
