I was woken by the rising Grecian sun shining brightly onto my face. Rolling over, I realised that I had managed to fall asleep in my clothes, something I had not done since I was a little boy. I sat up tentatively, feeling a familiar straining sensation in my chest. I chastised myself for resting, as by now, at Atlantis, my plan would be in full swing. Marina would be telephoning the girls to tell them that I had died of a heart attack.

Kreeg was supposed to have taken my life.

But here I was. Breathing. I knew I needed to get in touch with Georg as quickly as possible. I hauled myself to my feet, exited my cabin, and began climbing the main set of stairs. I walked out onto the deck, but saw no sign of my adversary.

‘Kreeg?’ I called out. ‘Hello?’ I walked from the bow to the stern, and as I did so, took in the glorious sun which hovered over the horizon. Eventually, I came to the gangplank that connected the Titan to the Olympus. Satisfied he was not on board my boat, I crawled across, despite the growing pain in my chest.

‘Hello, Kreeg? It’s Atlas. Hello?’

There was no sign of him. I made my way down into the bowels of the yacht, continuing to call his name. I searched cabins, offices, staff quarters and the galley – all of which were empty. Finally, I climbed up to the bridge, from where the yacht is captained. As I scanned the room, something caught my eye. Placed atop the control panel was a familiar leather pouch. I made my way over. Next to the pouch was a white envelope, addressed to Atlas.

I loosened the drawstrings attached to the pouch, and to my genuine surprise, the diamond was still inside. With more than a hint of trepidation, I opened the envelope, which contained a card from Kreeg’s writing desk.

YOU WIN, ATLAS. I AM GONE, GIVEN TO THE OCEAN. IT IS FINALLY OVER.

I slowly placed the card in my breast pocket, and hung the diamond around my neck. Having just undertaken a thorough search of the Olympus, I knew Kreeg was not on the yacht. Given to the ocean . . . Had he thrown himself overboard? I made my way onto the bridge deck and looked down at the sea. But I saw no body, nor anything that looked out of the ordinary. Was this a ploy?

I sensed not.

Kreeg had left the diamond. If he had fled, he would have surely taken it with him.

‘Goodbye, Kreeg. I hope that you find peace, despite it all,’ I whispered.

What was I to do now? Obviously, it was my duty to contact the Hellenic Coastguard. However, I couldn’t risk them finding me here with a gun somewhere on board. As panic rose inside of me, I concocted a compromise. Returning to the control panel, I punched in the appropriate frequency on the radio.

‘Coastguard, this is the motoryacht Olympus. Our position is latitude 37.4 north and longitude 25.3 east. We have a suspected man overboard. Over.’

There was a brief pause before the reply came. ‘Motoryacht Olympus, message received, confirm location as Delos?’

‘Confirmed,’ I replied.

‘Do you have eyes on the man overboard?’

‘Negative. The yacht is one passenger down.’

‘Confirmed, Olympus. Assistance is on its way,’ the voice buzzed.

I returned the radio to its mount and made my way back to the Titan as quickly as possible, taking the gangplank with me. I could not risk the authorities believing another boat had been present. Once securely back aboard my own vessel, I hurried to the bow and hauled the anchor. The exertion was proving to be a great strain on my heart, which was now aching in my chest. Nonetheless, I did my best to hastily move myself up to the Titan’s bridge, where I started the engines and began the process of swinging the yacht around to face the open ocean. Unexpectedly, I heard the honk of a horn coming from the starboard side. I put the throttles to idle, and rushed to the window. To my horror, I saw a small catamaran, full of young people, doing its very best to get out of my way. I waved a hand in apology, but couldn’t afford to waste any time. I engaged the Titan’s engines once more. The catamaran moved out of my way, no doubt cursing the evil superyacht for having no respect for fellow seafarers.

As the Titan headed for open waters, I wondered where I should take her now. I needed somewhere quiet to moor whilst I regrouped and came up with a new plan. Sadly, a multimillion-pound superyacht does not allow for inconspicuous getaways. As I was deep in thought, the radio crackled.

‘Calling the Titan. Titan, are you receiving?’

My blood ran cold. How had the coastguard known my yacht was in the vicinity? I wondered whether I should simply cut the engines and jump overboard as Kreeg had done.

‘Calling the Titan. This is the motoryacht Neptune. Please come in.’

‘Neptune . . .’ I whispered to myself. ‘Who are you?’

I took out my binoculars and scanned my port, starboard and bow. I saw nothing, so I briefly left the bridge to observe the aft deck. Sure enough, there was a white speck behind me. Lifting my binoculars, I identified it as a small Sunseeker yacht, which appeared to be heading towards me at some speed.

Returning to the bridge, I pushed the Titan’s throttles to maximum, knowing the Benetti’s awesome power would be no match for the vessel that was following me. But who were they?

‘I say again, Titan, come in. The Neptune has precious cargo aboard!’

‘Precious cargo?’ I asked myself.

‘To confirm,’ the radio buzzed, ‘we have your daughter, Ally, on board. She wonders if you’d like to stop for tea?’

I nearly fell where I stood. Ally? What the hell is she doing here? No, no, no, no . . . Everything I had worked so hard to plan was coming apart at the seams. ‘Come on old girl,’ I whispered, encouraging the Titan to speed me away.

The radio buzzed once more. ‘Pa? It’s Ally! We can see you! Do you fancy an Aegean rendezvous? Over.’

Ally’s voice proved to be both a tonic and a poison. It gave me such comfort to hear her, but deep pain knowing that I could not reply.

My pocket vibrated, and I removed my mobile phone. The screen displayed an unknown number. Knowing that, in all probability, the call was from Ally aboard the Neptune, I ignored it. Sure enough, a few moments later, the phone rang again, telling me that I had a voicemail. I hurriedly answered the call and heard my daughter’s voice once more.

‘Hey, Pa! it’s Ally here. Listen, you won’t believe this, but I’m right behind you. I’m just with a . . . friend . . . and I wondered if you fancied stopping. Maybe we could get together for lunch? Anyway, let me know what you think. I love you. Bye.’

‘I love you too, Ally,’ I whispered.

I ended the call, my eyes filled with tears. In truth, there was nothing I longed to do more than stop the Titan, give Ally the most enormous hug, and tell her everything. But I knew in my heart of hearts how foolish it would be. I had expected that I would die today, and Kreeg would live. Now the opposite was true. To protect my daughters, they had to believe I’d perished. If Zed ever got wind of my presence today . . . I shuddered to think what the consequences might be for my girls.

Having put the throttle to the metal for the best part of an hour, Ally’s Sunseeker was well out of sight. Reducing the Benetti’s throttle, I took my phone back out of my pocket, and rang the one man I was able to trust. Who I had always been able to trust – Georg Hoffman.

‘Atlas?!’ he answered breathlessly. ‘You’re alive?’

‘Yes, Georg. I am alive. And as you know, that is a huge problem.’

‘What is Kreeg’s status?’

‘Deceased. We need to move to plan B. Immediately.’

‘Understood, Atlas.’

My girls. This is where my story truly ends. With the help of Georg, Ma, Claudia, Hans Gaia and many of my ‘team’, the Titan was returned to Nice. You were informed of my heart attack, my private funeral, and given your letters, alongside your coordinates on the armillary sphere.

No doubt, your burning question is, ‘But where did you go, Pa?’

I returned to the island of Delos, to live out my final days in peace amidst the beauty of the Grecian coast. With Georg’s assistance, I purchased a small, whitewashed house with magnificent views of the sea, and waited for my time to come. Know that, unquestionably, my final days were filled with happy memories of our lives together on the magical shores of Atlantis.

Now you know everything.

The story of Atlas.

The story of Pa Salt.

The story of you.

The greatest gifts of my extended time on earth have been the communications I have received from Georg, detailing your progress as you have each gone on your own adventure to learn about your birth families. Know this: I could not be prouder of you. Although none of you carry my own blood, I am humbled that you have inherited my passion for travel, my spirit of adventure, and above all, my deep love for humanity and a belief in its innate goodness. I am so very sorry that I have had to deceive you. Knowing the full circumstances of my situation, as you now do, I believe that you will grant me grace.

I hope, above all else, that Georg has managed to find the missing sister. I know he has worked tirelessly to track her down after I was able to provide him with the name of Argideen House, and a drawing of the ring I once gave to her mother.

I have a feeling, however, that he is going to need your help. When you find her, my girls, show her kindness. Tell her how much I love her. How much I longed to find her. That I never gave up. Tell her how humbled I am to be her father, as I am to be yours.

There is nothing left for me to say that has not already been said. But know that you all made my life worth living. Even though I have endured tragedy and pain, you each gave me more hope and happiness than you could ever possibly know. If reading my story has taught you anything, I hope it is to heed the advice which I imparted to you throughout your lives:

Seize the day!

Live for the moment!

Relish every second of life – even its most difficult moments.

With love,

Your Pa (Salt) x