Returning early after three months, the millionaire choked back tears, expecting his daughter to run into his arms. Instead, she whispered, “Daddy, you’re back early.” Stepping inside, he saw her shivering in rags, while his wife lived in luxury. He froze, knelt down, and asked softly, “Who did this to you?”

out another trill of laughter. “I have the little brat working as a glorified scullery maid, and her oblivious, idiot father is completely in the dark. The girl is far too terrified of me to breathe a word to him.”

A sensation unlike anything I had ever experienced crystallized in the center of my chest.

It was not heat. It was not the erratic, wild continue reading …