Timothy hugged Amy tight, enjoying the delight with which his daughter greeted him. 

It was one of the joys of his life to come home and see Amy running over the grass to greet him. Timothy knew parents weren’t supposed to have favourites, but it just seemed that Amy and he had a special wavelength. She loved sports as he did and they would happily spend hours playing catch, or taking it in turns to shoot for goal.

 

 

If only everything in life were so simple. Somehow his life had gone awry and now it seemed beyond repair. He remembered back to his university days when life seemed to be stretching out before him, there had seemed so much hope and endless possibilities.

 

 

Now he was trapped. He had married the woman he loved and yet he had cheated on her. She didn’t know yet, but the evidence of his adultery was living in his brother’s house. He fathered a little girl with his sister in law. But that hadn’t been the start; Antonio was where it all began.

 

He had been so naïve, reading people had never been his forte, but he had misjudged Antonio completely. Before he had realised he was in over his head, he had been aiding and abetting crooks. There was no way out now. They knew where he lived and knew about his family. He had to keep playing their game, for now at least.

 

Timothy’s twin sons were growing fast. Timothy felt very proud of the Wintersmith name and wanted it to continue, so he determined on making one of his two boys his heir. Almost from the moment they were born he had chosen Byron. Byron had the startling Wintersmith eyes that Timothy instinctively linked to success. As he grew up seemed to look much more like his father than Bailey.

 

Timothy did his best to leave his work behind when he came home, making a mental effort to forget all the day’s events and focus on being a father. He was mostly successful, although there were times when he was very grumpy or even angry and no one would know why. On the whole the children were growing up happily. Amy and Abigail were both working hard at their school work and achieving good grades.

So much so that they were offered the chance to go to the local private school. A meal with the headmaster sealed the deal and the girls looked very smart in their new uniforms.

 

They spent a lot of time hanging out together and had gotten in the habit of fishing in the small pond at the back of the house. The pond seemed to contain as much rubbish as fish, much to the little girls’ annoyance.

 

Timothy looked on his family with pride, glad that none of them had the slightest idea of the trouble he had landed them in. Recently he had begun to formulate a plan, a way to escape Antonio’s clutches. It would cost him everything, he knew that and yet he loved his family enough to give up anything for them, even if it mean’t sacrificing himself. The time wasn’t yet ripe, but the day would soon come when he would have his revenge.