Chapter 1 - The Slap on His Birthday
Brandon Reeves slapped his father so hard that the wrapped birthday gift slid across the coffee table.
Franklin’s head snapped to the right.
His swollen eye throbbed.
The healing cut near his eyebrow pulled tight.
He caught the table with one hand and remained standing.
Across the room, Amber sat on the pale sofa with her legs crossed, holding a glass of wine.
She smiled.
Not nervously.
Not in shock.
She smiled as though she had been waiting to see it happen.
Brandon stood behind his father, breathing hard in his pale-blue shirt.
“Know your place.”
Franklin slowly turned back toward him.
It was his sixty-eighth birthday.
He had arrived at the River Oaks house carrying an antique wristwatch wrapped in brown paper.
The watch had belonged to Brandon’s grandfather.
Franklin had planned to give it to his son after dinner.
Instead, he had found strangers drinking champagne in the living room.
Brandon’s friends.
Amber’s relatives.
People Franklin had never met, standing beneath the paintings he had purchased and beside the fireplace he had paid to restore.
No one had wished him a happy birthday.
Amber had looked at his dark henley shirt and facial injuries with disgust.
“We’re having people over,” she said. “You should’ve called.”
Franklin had asked why the locks had been changed.
Brandon responded by telling him that older people often became confused about property.
Then Franklin noticed his own photographs were gone.
His late wife’s portrait had been removed from the hallway.
His study had been turned into Amber’s dressing room.
When he asked for his house key back, Brandon laughed.
“You don’t live here anymore.”
Franklin reminded him that no transfer had ever been completed.
That was when Brandon struck him.
Now Brandon grabbed a fistful of his father’s shirt and tried to drag him toward the unseen front entrance.
Franklin calmly removed his son’s hand.
“Take your hand off me.”
Brandon stared at him, shocked that the older man had not fallen.
Amber raised her wine glass.
“It’s our house.”
Franklin looked at her.
Then he looked at the brown-paper gift.
Beneath it, the corner of a dark leather folder was visible.
He removed one brass key from his ring and placed it on top.
Amber’s smile weakened.
Brandon noticed.
“You gave it to me,” he said.
Franklin reached into his pocket and placed his phone beside the folder.
Then he opened the leather cover just enough to reveal the blurred outline of a property document.
“I let you live here.”
Brandon’s face changed.
“What did you do?”
A firm knock sounded from the front door.
Franklin’s phone vibrated once.
He looked at his son with cold certainty.
May you like
“The new owner is here.”
👉 Brandon had spent three years treating Franklin’s home like his kingdom—but he had never seen the document beneath the gift.
