Chapter 1

Vincent froze.

He stared at Eve, his expression conflicted.

Eve forced a smile. "Bye, Don Colletti. I have Mommy, and that's enough."

I stood nearby, heartbroken for her. Ever since I'd realized Vincent was favoring Serena and her daughter, I'd been teaching Eve to call him Don Colletti instead of Daddy.

But Eve was too young to understand why she had to call her own father something as cold as Don Colletti, or why he loved a child who wasn't his more than he loved her.

Every time I called him Don Colletti, she'd ask me why, tears in her eyes.

But today, she'd said it herself, as if she were finally cutting ties with Vincent.

She stepped aside and smiled up at Vincent. "Go ahead, Don Colletti."

She took my hand and said firmly, "I have Mommy, and that's enough."

I was the only one there who understood. She wasn't just accepting one more absence from Vincent. She had finally realized she would never beg for her father's love again.

Vincent was about to speak when Serena's hesitant voice came through the phone again. "Vincent, am I making things hard for you?"

He looked from Eve to me, torn. In the end, he said into the phone, "I'll be right there."

I squeezed Eve's hand, my heart aching.

Again.

Six months ago, Serena had saved Vincent's life in a gang shootout. Afterward, he moved her and her daughter onto the estate and took care of them himself. Ever since, he'd made one exception after another for them.

At Eve's birthday party, Serena called to say she'd seen someone suspicious outside her building, and Vincent walked out on a room full of family elders to rush to her side.

When Eve woke up burning with fever in the middle of the night, Serena called in tears to say Daisy was crying for her daddy in her sleep. Vincent left Eve without a second thought and stayed with them all night.

I told myself Vincent was only repaying a debt, and I swallowed the hurt every time.

Then one day I asked the estate's medical team to do Eve's monthly checkup, and they looked at me helplessly. "Donna, all our records and equipment have been set up to care for Miss Daisy."

I nodded without a word and got ready to take Eve to Mount Sinai for her checkup.

But Vincent had taken the entire motorcade to escort Serena and Daisy on a drive along the Gold Coast.

Vincent and I had the worst fight of our marriage that day.

He demanded to know why I kept making things hard for the woman who saved his life.

I laughed.

I'd never mistreated the woman who saved his life. I just couldn't stand by and watch her and Daisy take Eve's things, one by one.

Vincent said he was only repaying her.

I looked him in the eye and said slowly, "Vincent, you are Eve's father."

Vincent's gaze fell on Eve, pale and huddled in the corner of the couch, clutching her stuffed animal in fear. His anger drained away.

At last, he backed down. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

But he never stopped putting them first.

I couldn't take the chance that Vincent would hurt Eve again in the name of repaying a debt.

But I couldn't force Eve to leave, either. She was her own person, and the choice had to be hers.

That night, I asked Eve, "If Daddy did something that made you sad, how many times would you forgive him?"

Eve held back her tears. Clutching the stuffed animal Vincent had given her, she counted carefully on her little fingers. "Seven times."

And today was the seventh time.

Eve had made her choice.

But I took no joy in it. All I felt was a dull ache spreading through my chest.

I held Eve tight and said it again. "It's okay. Mommy's here with you."

Just as we walked toward the baptismal font, Vincent suddenly came after us.

As usual, he seemed ready with another grand, empty apology. Then Serena's flustered voice called his name over the phone, and he stopped in his tracks.

He sent an attendant after us instead.

He said he'd take Eve to Margarita's, a family restaurant on the Upper East Side, that night. Eve had begged him for two weeks to go there with Mommy and Daddy.

It didn't cheer Eve up.

Vincent should have been the one to give Eve the family crest pin. When I pinned it to her collar myself, her tears finally spilled over. She tugged at my shirt and whispered, "Mommy, I don't want Daddy anymore."