Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO OWNED THE GROUND BENEATH HIS FEET
The resort manager's name was Daniel Reyes.
He was fifty-two, had worked on Halcyon Cay for seventeen years, and had once helped my father carry emergency water supplies through a tropical storm when the island had been little more than a collection of abandoned buildings.
Daniel knew what Grant didn't.
The island had never belonged to my husband.
Not one acre.
Not one palm tree.
Not one grain of white sand.
My father, Thomas Whitaker, had purchased Halcyon Cay twenty-three years earlier through the Whitaker Coastal Preservation Trust. He developed the resort on a limited portion of the island, while placing the surrounding mangroves, nesting beaches, and freshwater reserves under permanent conservation protections.
When he died, the trust's controlling authority passed to me.
Grant's company, Caldwell Hospitality Group, held a management contract.
A profitable contract.
An exclusive contract.
May you like
But still a contract.
And that contract contained a clause my husband had once laughed at.
