Chapter 1 - The Cruel Fiancée
The silence in the room was absolute and suffocating.
Damian did not blink as he looked at the empty walnut chair, and then back at my seven-year-old daughter.
Before he could answer, Selene Vale let out a sharp, breathless laugh that sounded exactly like breaking glass.
"Damian, surely you are not going to humor this," Selene said.
Her voice was dipped in honey but lined with invisible razor blades.
"We are not running a charity soup kitchen for the domestic staff."
The cruelty in her words hung in the warm air, freezing the oxygen in my lungs.
I felt my face burn with a sudden, overwhelming wave of humiliation.
I took a step forward, reaching out to grab Lily’s small hand and pull her out of the room.
"I am so sorry, Mr. Bellucci," I whispered frantically.
"She did not mean to intrude, and I will take her back to the kitchen immediately."
Damian raised his hand, just a fraction of an inch, but the gesture carried enough authority to stop me dead in my tracks.
He did not look at me.
He did not look at Selene.
His dark, unreadable eyes remained fixed on my daughter.
"Are you hungry, Lily?" Damian asked, his voice unexpectedly gentle.
Lily looked down at her scuffed black shoes and nodded her head slowly.
"Yes, sir," she murmured.
Damian stood up from his seat at the head of the table.
He walked past the stunned executives, past his furious fiancée, and stopped beside the empty walnut chair.
He pulled it out a few more inches and gestured for my daughter to sit down.
"Then you should sit," Damian said.
Selene’s face turned a dangerous, mottled shade of red.
"Damian, this is highly inappropriate," she hissed, glancing at her father, who was staring at the table in stunned silence.
"She is a maid's child, and this is a private corporate dinner."
Damian finally turned his head to look at the woman he was supposed to marry.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees in a single second.
"This is my house, Selene," Damian stated, his voice completely devoid of emotion.
"And in my house, we do not let children go hungry while we feast."
He looked at one of the servers standing near the wall.
"Bring the girl a plate of whatever she wants," Damian ordered.
I watched in absolute disbelief as my daughter climbed into the expensive chair.
She looked so incredibly small surrounded by crystal glasses and silver cutlery.
Damian sat back down and picked up his fork as if nothing unusual had just happened.
The executives hurriedly resumed their conversations, desperate to pretend the tension had evaporated.
Selene gripped her wine glass so tightly I thought the crystal would shatter in her manicured hand.
She glared at me across the room, her eyes promising a retribution I could not yet understand.
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I stood by the service door for the rest of the meal, my heart hammering violently against my ribs.
I made a silent vow right then and there that I would never make Lily apologize to anyone for simply existing.
