Chapter 2

Damian stared at me, disbelieving.

"Leah Harper, what are you doing?"

He was the one who had been hit, and yet I could barely hold back my tears.

"Where is Ella's present?"

Impatience flickered across his face. He took off his coat and walked straight toward the bedroom.

"What's the rush? I said I'd buy it."

Ella and I had been hearing that line for seven years.

Wait a little longer. There's no money. Don't push me.

But I was done waiting.

I pushed open my daughter's door and looked at her red, swollen eyes. "Ella, if Mommy and Daddy get divorced, who would you want to live with?"

She stood frozen for a long moment, then suddenly wrapped her arms around my legs. "Mommy, please don't leave me."

I gathered her up. "Mommy will never leave you."

She did not yet understand what divorce really meant; she only instinctively feared being abandoned. Her red, swollen eyes made me realize that I had not been the only one who had gone without a sense of security for seven years.

"If you go with Daddy, you might have a very good life."

Damian was now the Don of the Moretti Family. If he chose to, Ella could have the best education and every comfort.

She looked at the picture of the submarine by her bed and said quietly, "Can we wait one more week, okay?"

She was still waiting for her father to keep one promise.

Even once.

I said yes.

The next morning, after dropping Ella at kindergarten, I went to my shift at the restaurant as usual.

When I graduated from college, I had an offer from a Wall Street investment firm. But after the wedding, Damian fell apart; I became pregnant, gave birth to Ella, and raised her alone. My career came to a halt.

I was an orphan, with no one to help me. When I reentered the job market seven years later, no company wanted to hire a mother who had been out of the workforce that long, so all I could find was part-time work as a server.

The restaurant paid poorly, but it was the only foothold I had. After each shift, I also stocked shelves at a convenience store so I could cover the rent and Ella's tuition.

"Leah, customers at table six."

I walked over with the menus, and the next second my eyes met Damian's.

He sat in the most secluded booth with Cecilia beside him. Two men in black guarded the door, and even the manager did not dare approach.

Damian's expression shifted slightly when he saw me.

Cecilia, on the other hand, gave me a warm smile. She was young and polished, dressed in a cashmere coat that ten years' wages at my job could not have bought.

I was the same age as her, pale, with shadows under my eyes from years of too little sleep. Undisguised pity flickered in her eyes when she looked at my cheap uniform.

And in the silver-blue gift box beside Damian was the limited edition submarine Ella had been dreaming about.

Cecilia finished ordering and reached for her glass of ice wine, but Damian put a hand over it.

"You're not well. The doctor told you no alcohol."

She blinked and smiled at me. "Isn't he a little controlling? He's been like this since we were students."

The sweetness in her voice landed like a slap.

I turned away too fast and knocked into a coworker carrying a tray. The scalding soup went all over me.

The manager rushed over and shouted, "If you didn't have a kid to feed, I'd have thrown you out a long time ago!"

Muted laughter rippled around the room.

Damian shot to his feet, his eyes going cold. The bodyguards at the door reached inside their jackets at the same moment, and the restaurant went silent.

He had taken one step toward me when Cecilia suddenly bent over, clutching her stomach.

"Damian, it hurts so much..."

He froze.

A second later he swept Cecilia up and strode out. The bodyguards closed around them like an escort for the real Don and Donna.

From Damian's arms, Cecilia calmly met my gaze while I stood there drenched and humiliated.

She said nothing, yet I had already lost.

My coworkers knew the manager had been making unwanted advances and that he humiliated me whenever he could after I rejected him. They all looked at me with sympathy.

But I no longer cared about any of it.

I worked until late that night with stains all over me before finally heading home.