“You’re hurting me,” Beatrice hissed.

He let go, pale, but kept the phone locked in his grip. “Don’t ever try to take my daughter out of my hands again.”

She glared at him, fear and cold fury mixed together. “If that girl were really alive, do you think she wouldn’t have come back to you long before now?”

Alexander closed his eyes. That was the thought that cut deeper than any knife. Maybe Valerie was alive. And maybe she hadn’t come back because he didn’t deserve her return.

The last time they’d spoken, she had begged him to let her study public-interest law at Columbia — far from his corporate empire, far from the Sterling name.

He had laughed in her face. “Public-interest law? To defend penniless people in moldy courtrooms?” Valerie had cried with rage. “One day you’re going to be too late, Dad.