Chapter 10 - THE LETTER FROM HER FATHER
Two days after the surgery, Lily was strong enough to sit upright.
Dominic brought me the final document recovered from the storage unit.
A letter from my husband.
I opened it with trembling hands.
If you're reading this, then someone has finally found the records.
I am sorry.
I didn't tell you because I believed keeping the company away from Lily would keep her safe.
I was wrong.
They discovered her condition before she was born.
They believed she could become the key to a treatment they could patent for billions.
I tried to expose them.
They threatened you.
I chose silence.
My eyes filled with tears.
The last paragraph broke me.
If anything happens to me, protect Lily. Do not let anyone turn my daughter into a study subject. She is a child, not a product.
I pressed the letter against my chest.
For years, I had blamed my husband for hiding things from me.
Now I understood that he had been fighting a war I never knew existed.
He hadn't protected us perfectly.
But he had tried.
Dominic read the letter over my shoulder.
“He knew.”
“Yes.”
“And he trusted you to keep going.”
I looked at my daughter.
She was awake now.
Smiling weakly.
“Mommy?”
I walked to her.
“What is it?”
“Can I go home?”
I laughed through my tears.
“Yes.”
Behind me, Dominic stood quietly.
The man who had first appeared beside my daughter on a city street had become the man standing between her and everyone who wanted to use her.
And I finally understood something.
Sometimes the most dangerous person in your life isn't the one who looks frightening.
Sometimes he's the one who smiles politely while deciding what your child is worth.
But Dominic had shown me the difference.
Power can destroy.
May you like
Or it can stand between a child and the people trying to destroy her.
And that night, I chose to believe he would keep standing.
