Chapter 1
The lightweight plastic plate flew across the dinner table before anyone could react.
It struck 2-year-old Ellie lightly on the forehead.
She froze for half a second—
then burst into terrified sobs.
Her father, Ryan, was still standing there, furious because she had knocked over his drink.
“I told her to stop crying!”
Emily immediately pulled Ellie from the high chair and held her against her chest.
“She’s TWO!”
Ryan stepped closer.
“Don’t tell me how to discipline my own daughter.”
Ellie clung to her mother’s shirt.
“Mommy… no Daddy.”
Emily’s face hardened.
She handed Ellie safely to her older sister.
Then she climbed onto the edge of the dining table and kicked Ryan hard in the shoulder, sending him stumbling backward into a chair.
“Stay away from my daughter.”
Ryan stared at her in shock.
Emily jumped down and stood between him and Ellie.
“I don’t need a father like you in her life.”
Then—
Ellie’s older sister noticed a second phone beneath Ryan’s chair.
Ryan’s face instantly changed.
“Give me that.”
Emily grabbed it first.
The screen was unlocked.
A message was still open:
Did you get Emily to sign the custody papers yet?
Ryan went completely pale.
May you like
Emily slowly looked up.
And suddenly, she realized his rage at dinner might have been hiding something much bigger.
