Chapter 1

My surgery was four hours away, and my father was still nowhere to be seen.

The day before, when the doctor advised me to have a family member present, Dad had promised he would come.

I told him I was having a minor procedure. For once, his usual coldness disappeared. He even sounded anxious. “What's wrong? Why do you need surgery?”

I didn't dare tell him it was a heart stent procedure.

I had inherited my mother's congenital cardiovascular defect.

The day she gave birth to me, the condition triggered acute heart failure and killed her.

Every birthday since, the suffocating silence in our house and the red rims around Dad's eyes had filled me with dread.

“It's only a minor procedure. I just need you to stay with me. I'll be fine.”

But he didn't show up.

Dr. Harris, our family physician, looked at me with sympathy. “Miss Stella, perhaps Mr. Lowell is in a meeting and hasn't heard his phone. Why don't you try him again?”

He had already declined my calls seventeen times.

I tightened my grip on my phone, summoned what courage I had left, and dialed again.

Thank God. This time, the call actually connected.

A steady “Hello?” came through with wind rushing in the background.

Hope surged through me. “Dad, you're almost here, right?”

His voice was ice-cold. “If you want me to come, the least you can do is tell me the truth.”

I thought he was angry because I had hidden my condition, so I said quietly, “It's a vascular defect... in my heart.”

The next second, Autumn's voice came through the phone.

“See, Dad? I told you Stella would claim she had heart disease. She knows that's the easiest way to make you think of Mom.”

Dad let out a cold laugh.

“So you did have an ulterior motive. Your heart was fine for all these years, and now, at eighteen, you suddenly have a condition?”

Pain clenched violently through my chest.

My knuckles whitened around the phone. “But you promised you would come. No matter what, you should keep your word...”

“Enough!” Dad barked. “Today is the eighteenth anniversary of your mother's death, and you had to choose this day to make everyone miserable. Stella, you truly disappoint me!”

Autumn's bright laughter rang through the phone.

“Dad, look! The first snow of the year is so beautiful. If Mom can see it from heaven, she must be so happy.”

His voice softened at once. “She would be even happier if the three of us could be together again. Careful, sweetheart. Don't catch a cold.”

My heart went cold.

I stopped trying to explain and ended the call.

Dr. Harris tried to comfort me. “Mr. Lowell does have a company to run. It's understandable that he's busy. But your surgery is important, so I contacted your grandmother. She has agreed to come.”

I forced the sob back down my throat. I didn't want Grandma to worry.

It took her only an hour to arrive. She entered my room leaning on her rosewood cane and left her bodyguards outside.

The moment she saw me, tears filled her eyes.

“Oh, my poor child... Where is Victor? He's your father! Where the hell is he at a time like this?” she demanded.

I lowered my eyes.

“He took Autumn to pay their respects to Mom.”

Grandma wasn't moved by his devotion in the slightest. She trembled with fury.

“He still has the nerve to go? I never should have let Celeste marry him! He knew she was in poor health, yet he still let her get pregnant and give birth. Now he's left you here alone. Is this how he treats a descendant of the Sheridan family?”

“Sweetheart, when this surgery is over, come home with me.”

Hope filled her eyes as she waited for my answer.

What had I been holding on to all these years?

The time I was five, when Dad took us on a road trip and drove nearly two hundred miles before remembering he had left me at a rest stop?

Or when I was ten and lay writhing with acute appendicitis while he filled the sky with fireworks for Autumn simply because she said she was in a bad mood?

If not for Grandma, I would have died long ago in one of the countless places where he had forgotten me.

My father's heart would never soften toward me.

Grandma sighed. “Stella, you look too much like your mother. Victor is a coward. Every time he sees you, he remembers how Celeste died, and he can't face it. And as for Autumn, she's even... Never mind.”

Years of hurt broke loose all at once.

I lifted my head, more certain than I had ever been. “Grandma, I'll come home with you.”

She nodded in relief. “I told you before—as long as you come home, you will inherit everything the Sheridan family owns, including everything your mother once invested in Victor's businesses.”

Before now, I had never been able to accept her condition that I cut all ties with Dad.

This time, I had no reason to hesitate.