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CHAPTER ONE

THE doctor was leaving the Castillo d’Oro when the sound of a helicopter low overhead stopped hi his eyes froure disembarked

The figure, inisable even at a distance, appeared to see hi the doctor’s side before the helicopter had lifted off again He had covered the hundred race that in the medic’s envious opinion would not have looked out of place on an athletic track

‘How are you, Luiz?’

The question was strictly rhetorical

There were few people who looked as little in need of his care as Luiz Felipe Santoro Despite his exertion, the hand extended to the doctor was cool and dry, and its owner, not even breathing hard, presented his usual immaculate appearance complete with formal tailored suit and sober silk tie

The doctor always found the vitality this youngand today was no exception

It was hard to guess looking at him now that Luiz Santoro had once been a delicate child who had sufferedasthma

His delicate constitution combined with an adventurous—some called it reckless—personalityLuiz for many bumps and bruises, and on one occasion a broken limb

It seemed likely to the doctor that it was that streak of adventure that his parents, before they had left hirandmother, had tried unsuccessfully to quash that randmother, ‘the only member of this family I can stomach’

That, of course, was on the occasions her favourite grandson hadn’t incited her wrath by refusing to juh one of her hoops, but then when the two people involved were strong-minded individuals, both incapable of compromise, there were bound to be sparks

It struck the doctor as ironic really that the only member of the family that neither wanted nor needed the fortune the rest of his family eyed so covetously was likely to inherit Luiz, with his steel-trap mind and competitive streak, had made his first million before he enty-one and was already incredibly wealthy in his own right

‘I’m surprised to see you Your office told ’