Sophia had pulled her face away from my shoulder. She looked at the man bleeding and crying on the floor. For months she had asked for him. She had colored that paper necklace with so much love, hoping to earn a fraction of his attention.

But children are perceptive. They see the truth when the masks come off.

Sophia looked at the crushed necklace I’d picked up and tucked into my pocket. Then she looked at Dominic. She didn’t cry. She didn’t reach for him. She let go of my hand, took two steps back, and hid completely behind Victor’s legs, refusing to even look at her father’s face.

The rejection from his own child was the final blow. Dominic let out a hollow sob and collapsed forward onto his hands.

“You should have thought about her before you let your secretary crush her gift under her heel,” I said. “You should have thought about her before you forged my name to send her mother to federal prison.”

I turned my back on him.