CHAPTER 5: My Daughter Answers First

Amelia’s voice came out low, but steady.
“The doctor. Then the police.”
Grant’s mouth opened.
Celeste went pale under the chandelier light.
Charles finally looked at Grant, and the hall seemed to shrink around him.
“You had one responsibility in this house,” Charles said. “Keep my daughter safe.”
Grant swallowed. “Your daughter?”
The words slipped out before he could stop them.
That was how Amelia knew the truth had always been worse than betrayal.
He had married her name, used her father’s network, accepted her silence, and somehow still believed she was a woman without a family behind her.
Charles walked up two steps and knelt beside Amelia with careful distance, letting her decide whether to take his hand.
She did.
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
Charles’s jaw tightened.
“No,” he said. “You are alive. That is not the same thing.”