Chapter 1: The Child in the Snow
At Richard Bellacorte’s birthday dinner at a Colorado mountain lodge, three-year-old Noah was barefoot, wearing torn dirty clothes, and holding a handmade wooden airplane wrapped as a gift for his grandfather.
Claudia forced the child through the open terrace doors into the snow and threw his small birthday present after him, calling it too cheap to belong near Richard’s table.
Richard arrived moments later.
He quickly wrapped Noah in his own overcoat, carried him back inside, and picked up the wooden airplane.
Instead of helping his son, Mark brushed off what had happened as nothing more than a small punishment.
When Mark and Claudia both tried to step in again, Richard stopped them.
Then he turned toward the frightened couple and made it clear that their idea of a “small punishment” was about to be returned to them.
But how long had Noah been living in torn clothes while his father and stepmother enjoyed the Bellacorte family’s wealth?
Why was Mark protecting Claudia instead of his own child?
And why had both of them become so desperate to keep a three-year-old’s handmade birthday gift away from Richard?
The little airplane looked worthless.
Their reaction to it suggested otherwise.
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What will Richard discover about Noah’s little airplane—and why is Claudia so afraid?
Comment “NEXT” for Part 2.
