My Daughter’s Regret After I Gave Her Exactly What She Asked For

The video Nina posted in the Family group chat, where she sobbed that she was "being abused," reached Don Marlow himself, and he came to our door in person.

"Vincent, is this really how you treat the girl? You're a made man now, an underboss. I don't need a scandal hanging over you."

My husband shot me an awkward look.

Before I could explain, Nina jumped in. "It's all true! Mommy yells at me every day! I don't like her!"

"And she doesn't like me either, because I'm the kid she stole!"

I looked into Nina's sly little eyes, and my mind went blank.

The night before, she'd brushed her teeth and then demanded chocolate. I told her no, and I scolded her hard for it.

She'd screamed that she didn't want to be my daughter.

I lost my head and snapped before I could stop myself. "You were never my daughter anyway. I stole you!"

And now she'd taken that one careless thing I'd said in anger and was spreading it everywhere as her "honest truth."

Marlow's brow furrowed, and he bit out each word. "This is your household business. I have one request. Don't bring me trouble I don't need."

I forced a smile. "She was acting up last night. I said something in anger without thinking, yet she took it to heart. You know how kids are."

The Don's frown eased a little.

I let out a breath and was about to promise it wouldn't happen again.

But Nina nodded slowly, as if she were working something out.

The next second, she asked, all wide-eyed confusion.

"But Mommy can't have babies. If you didn't steal me, then where did I come from?"

Marlow clicked his tongue, impatient, and turned his eyes on me.

I explained quickly, my nerves fraying.

"I was hurt not long after we married, and I never conceived again. That's all she means by 'can't.'"

I tugged at Nina's sleeve, signaling her to stop.

She yanked her arm away. "That's not right! Mommy and Daddy only got married six years ago, but I'm already seven."

Marlow's voice had gone flat with impatience. "Sophia, show her the birth certificate and shut her up!"

My stomach dropped.

Nina's birth certificate. I didn't have one.

All I had were the adoption papers.

And I didn't want to hand them over.

Because then Nina would know she really wasn't mine by blood.

I'd pulled her back from the edge of death seven years ago, in the middle of a job gone bloody.

The first time I saw her, I was stunned by what her parents had done, and only one thought filled my head: if she stayed with the people who'd made her, living would be worse for her than dying.

I couldn't leave her there. I talked Vincent into it, and we brought her home.

It had never been convenient to tell the Don who she really was.

Nina kept using my angry words to embarrass me, never knowing they were also the truth.

I kept my face calm and raced through excuses in my head.

Before I could speak, Nina clapped her hands and laughed.

"Oh, I get it now."

"Mommy's one of those single moms everyone talks about. You had me first, then married Daddy."

She turned to me, sweet as anything. "Mommy, your personal life is really disgraceful, isn't it?"

I froze.

I looked into those flat black eyes of hers and went cold all over.

I'd pulled her out of the cold and held her against my own heart, and now the snake I'd saved was sinking its fangs into the hand that fed it.

Certain she'd landed her blow, Nina only smiled wider.

"Mommy, I'm only telling the truth. You're not mad at me, are you?"

Marlow shook his head. "Enough. Do I have your word? No more dragging the Family's name through the mud."

His heavy gaze moved between Vincent and me. "This ends here."

I clenched my fists and forced everything down. "...You have my word."

It wasn't the first time Nina had pulled something like this.