Everyone laughed when they sent an eighty-year-old man and his eighteen-year-old wife off to spend their wedding night together. “Let’s see if Grandpa can make it until morning,” one relative joked through a burst of laughter. He didn’t respond. He simply picked up his old briefcase and closed the door. When six relatives opened it the next morning, they stopped laughing when they discovered what he had been protecting all night.

“The most important factor is not simply that you carry Walter’s legal protection,” Samuel told her directly.

“The main takeaway is that the predators who targeted you because they thought nobody would fight for you now understand that powerful people are watching their every single move.”

Chloe looked over at Walter, who was settling back into the wooden chair placed directly in front of the locked entrance door.

“My dad knew you would go to these extreme lengths to protect me, didn’t he?” Chloe asked softly.

“Your father knew that I would keep my promise no matter what happened,” Walter answered.