Chapter 4 - The Echoes of Daniel Reed
The fourteen-day emergency period passed in a blur of domestic upheaval that completely reshaped Nathan Fisher’s existence.
He transferred seventy percent of his daily workload to his executive board, taking an unprecedented leave of absence that shocked the financial world. The media began to whisper. Photographs of the mysterious billionaire shopping for pediatric clothes and pushing a high-end stroller in Central Park began appearing on tabloid covers.
Nathan ignored them all. His world had shrunk to three things: Rowan’s feeding schedules, Maisie’s bedtime stories, and securing their legal guardianship.
Maisie was slowly beginning to blossom. With regular meals, warm baths, and a sense of safety, her pale cheeks gained color. Nathan hired Dr. Elena Rostova, a renowned child psychologist, who worked with Maisie three times a week through art therapy. Maisie’s drawings, which had initially consisted of stark black boxes and grey rain, gradually began to include yellow suns, green trees, and three figures holding hands.
However, on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in early November, the fragile peace was shattered.
Nathan was in his study reviewing court petitions with his chief legal counsel, Marcus Vance, when Clara entered without knocking. Her face was unusually pale.
“Nathan,” she said, her voice tense. “There’s a man downstairs in the lobby. Security is holding him, but he’s causing a massive scene. He brought two tabloid reporters with him.”
Nathan stood up. “Who is it?”
“He claims to be Daniel Reed,” Clara said. “The father.”
Nathan’s pulse spiked with cold fury. He turned to Marcus. “Come with me.”
In the ground-floor marble lobby of the Fisher Tower, a tall, gaunt man with greasy dark hair, sunken eyes, and an unkempt beard was shouting at the private security guards. He wore a frayed denim jacket that reeked of stale alcohol and cheap cigarettes.
“That billionaire stole my kids!” Daniel Reed roared, pointing wildly at a camera phone held by a young tabloid journalist. “He took advantage of my grief! My wife died, I went to look for work, and when I came back, this rich bastard used his money to snatch my daughter and my newborn son!”
Building residents and office workers gathered at a distance, murmuring and recording the scene with their phones.
Nathan stepped out of the private elevator bank, his posture commanding and rigid. The security guards immediately formed a protective wall around him.
Daniel Reed spotted Nathan and sneered, stepping forward. “There he is! The baby snatcher!”
“Mr. Reed,” Nathan said, his voice terrifyingly calm, vibrating with suppressed anger. “You abandoned your four-year-old daughter and a three-day-old infant in an unheated apartment without food or water. You left them to freeze in Westfield Square while you disappeared for nearly three weeks.”
“I was looking for help!” Daniel lied, his voice cracking with artificial emotion. “I got mugged! I was in the hospital! You had no right to take them!”
Marcus Vance stepped forward, pulling a crisp legal folder from his briefcase. “Mr. Reed, I am Nathan Fisher’s legal counsel. If you were in a hospital, perhaps you can explain why police records indicate you were arrested two nights ago in a gambling den three miles from Westfield Square?”
Daniel’s face flushed red, his bluster wavering for a fraction of a second before he hardened his expression. “I don't care about your lawyer talk! They are my blood! You want them? It’s gonna cost you. A man who lost his family deserves compensation for his pain!”
There it was. The truth laid bare. Daniel Reed didn't want his children; he wanted a payout from a billionaire.
Nathan walked right up to Daniel, stopping mere inches from the reeking man. Despite being half a head shorter, Nathan’s cold, unyielding presence forced Daniel to step back.
“Listen to me very carefully, Daniel,” Nathan whispered, his voice low enough that only the father could hear. “You will not receive a single cent from me. If you ever come near Maisie or Rowan again, I will throw the full weight of my legal and financial resources behind every criminal charge that can be filed against you—child abandonment, felony endangerment, and fraud. You will spend the next twenty years in a state penitentiary.”
Daniel swallowed hard, fear finally breaking through his greedy facade. He glanced at the cameras, then back at Nathan’s icy grey eyes.
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“You think you can just buy my family?” Daniel spat, though his voice had lost its roar.
“I am not buying anyone,” Nathan said clearly, turning so his voice carried across the lobby. “I am protecting them from the monster who left them to die.”
