Chapter 4 - THE DEPARTURE
I walked out of the house without looking back. I strapped Lily into her car seat in the back of my SUV with meticulous care. She was completely silent, her small hands clutching the hem of her yellow dress.
“Daddy?” she whispered as I started the engine. “Are we going home?”
“First, we are going to a special doctor, sweetheart,” I said, looking at her bruised face in the rearview mirror. “Just to make sure you’re okay. Then, we are going home. And nobody will ever, ever hurt you again.”
I drove straight to the best private pediatrician in Austin, a man whose clinic I had personally funded. Dr. Aris examined Lily with heartbreaking gentleness. He photographed the handprint on her face and the finger-shaped bruises blooming on her arms. He documented everything in a secure, legally airtight medical report.
“This is assault, Daniel,” Dr. Aris said quietly outside the examination room. “If you don’t report this, as a mandated reporter, I have to.”
“I want you to,” I replied coldly. “I want every legal avenue pursued. But hold the filing until Monday at 9:00 AM. I need twenty-four hours to prepare the ground.”
That night, after I bathed Lily, read her three stories, and sat in the rocking chair by her bed until she fell into a fitful sleep, I went to my home office. The walls were lined with monitors. I poured myself a single glass of scotch, sat at the mahogany desk, and made three phone calls.
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The first was to my lead corporate attorney. The second was to my private investigator. The third was to an old associate in Chicago—a man who specialized in dismantling lives without breaking a single law.
The war had begun.
