Chapter 1
A BILLIONAIRE CAME HOME EARLY—AND FOUND HIS 6-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER EATING FROM THE DOG’S BOWL. 💔
Sophie was kneeling on the kitchen floor, scooping dry cereal from the stainless-steel dish with trembling fingers.
Her face was streaked with tears.
“Daddy… she said this is all I’m allowed to eat.”
Richard Sterling stopped in the doorway.
His fiancée, Vanessa, immediately stood up from the breakfast table.
“Oh, please,” she said. “She threw her dinner on the floor. I was teaching her not to waste food.”
Richard stared at her.
“She’s six.”
Then Sophie reached beneath the dog bowl.
“I hid this so she couldn’t take it.”
She handed him a folded photograph.
Vanessa’s face went completely pale.
“Where did you get that?”
Richard opened it.
The picture showed Vanessa standing beside his late wife outside a private medical clinic.
On the back was a date.
Three days before his wife died.
And underneath it, in his wife’s handwriting:
If Vanessa ever comes near Sophie, call Daniel.
Richard looked up slowly.
“Who is Daniel?”
Vanessa lunged for the photograph.
“Give me that.”
But Sophie grabbed her father’s sleeve.
“There’s another picture in her locked drawer.”
Vanessa stopped moving.
May you like
And Richard suddenly realized this wasn’t about punishing his daughter.
Vanessa had been trying to frighten Sophie into keeping quiet.
