Chapter 1

My daughter accidentally pushed my wife’s first love down the stairs.

My wife immediately kicked her hard enough to break her leg. “You ungrateful brat! So young and already so vicious! You have the same disgusting blood as your father!”

My daughter sobbed in pain, but my wife coldly locked her in the basement with her broken leg, then went on a date with her first love.

The swelling around my daughter’s injury led to a fever. She became delirious, and in the end, the doctors couldn’t save her.

I held my daughter’s body and cried until I could barely breathe, but my wife only snapped impatiently.

“It was just a little fever. Since when is your daughter so precious?”

“If she’s pushing people down the stairs today, she’ll be a criminal tomorrow! Dying young is practically a public service!”

But when she saw our daughter’s ashes, why did she cry?

I collapsed to my knees, past caring how I looked, and clutched the doctor’s hand.

“Please. It was just a fever. How could you not save her? Please, I’m begging you…”

“I’ll get down and beg. Whatever you want. Please…”

I bowed until my forehead struck the floor, again and again, leaving it red and swollen.

The doctor hurried to pull me up, unable to bear watching. His voice was heavy. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Brooks.”

“You can go in and see her one last time.”

The blood in my veins seemed to freeze. All my strength vanished.

I walked mechanically into the operating room. With trembling hands, I lifted the white sheet and saw Sophie’s bluish face.

Her once-soft, rosy cheeks were covered in dried tear tracks. She had suffered so much.

The doctor had closed her eyes. My daughter hadn’t even been able to close them in death.

I touched Sophie’s icy little hand and clutched the prayer beads she’d worn since she was a baby, sobbing too hard to speak.

A long time passed before I shakily took out my phone and called Victoria Hayes.

It rang for ages before she finally answered. “Evan Brooks, do you have any idea that precious daughter of yours pushed Adrian down the stairs?”

Victoria’s voice was thick with anger and impatience. “I have to stay with Adrian. I don’t have time for you.”

At the same time, I heard a hotel receptionist processing their checkout.

In an instant, rage almost tore through my chest.

While I’d been running frantically through the hospital, kneeling before one doctor after another, while they shocked my daughter’s heart, while my little girl became a cold, lifeless body…

She’d been in a hotel room with Adrian Cole!

Nausea surged into my throat. I stumbled into the restroom, gripped the toilet, and vomited until my mind went numb.

Tears fell with the stomach acid. I wiped my mouth blindly, my face soaked.

Hot tears splashed onto the backs of my hands. I clutched my head, laughing and crying at once.

It wasn’t until dawn that I dragged myself home.

Victoria was smiling as she peeled shrimp for Adrian and fed it to him.

The warmth in her eyes vanished when she saw me. She rolled her eyes impatiently.

“Where the hell have you been? Where’s that little animal? Bring her here so she can get on her knees and apologize to Adrian.”

“He has a performance in a couple of days. If he can’t get onstage, I’ll cripple that brat! She’s rotten to the core. Who knows what she’ll do when she grows up!”

“Don’t think two days locked up gets her off the hook! I’m going to teach that little animal a lesson today!”

Little animal…

A sense of despair washed over me, so absurd I could hardly comprehend it.

So that was what she called her own daughter.

“She can’t come.” My voice was rough and ugly. I hadn’t had a drop of water all day.

The moment I spoke, Victoria hurled a bowl of hot soup at me. Grease and broth splashed across my face.

“Evan Brooks! You spoiled that little animal rotten! And now you’re still protecting her!”

“If she doesn’t come apologize to Adrian today, she can forget about getting that leg fixed! She can stay crippled forever!”

I clenched my teeth, shaking uncontrollably. It felt as though I was seeing this woman for the first time.

Even wild animals protected their young.

But she had broken her own daughter’s leg!