Chapter 16 - Learning to Be Her Father
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Dominic did not move Maisie into his wing.
He did not change her last name.
He did not tell her to call him Dad.
Instead, he made pancakes.
Badly.
Maisie stared at the blackened circle on her plate.
“You’re rich.”
“Yes.”
“You have cooks.”
“Yes.”
“Why are you doing this?”
Dominic looked at the ruined pancake.
“Apparently fatherhood requires suffering.”
Grace laughed from the doorway.
For the next several weeks, Dominic learned things no investigation could teach him.
Maisie hated peas.
Loved astronomy.
Slept with one sock on and one sock off.
Asked impossible questions at bedtime.
“Do fish get thirsty?”
Dominic had no idea.
He also learned what frightened her.
Raised adult voices.
Doors closing too hard.
Vivienne’s name.
The ballroom.
Maisie had stopped walking through it.
One afternoon, Dominic found her taking the long hallway around the estate.
“You can use the ballroom.”
“I know.”
“You don’t want to?”
She shook her head.
He didn’t push.
Instead, he took the long hallway too.
Grace watched their relationship grow with complicated emotions.
Dominic understood why.
She had been Maisie’s parent for eight years.
Biology did not erase that.
Dominic hired Grace a lawyer.
Not to fight her.
To protect her.
They created a temporary parenting arrangement while Dominic’s paternity order was finalized.
Grace remained Maisie’s legal guardian during the transition.
Dominic received full parental recognition but agreed that every major change would happen gradually.
Jonathan seemed shocked.
“Your father would have demanded immediate custody.”
Dominic answered—
“I’m trying not to repeat every family tradition.”
Then the financial audit returned.
Vivienne’s motive had involved more than future control.
Over eight years, she had received trustee fees, board compensation, and investment influence that could have changed if Maisie’s existence had been disclosed.
Investigators identified several transactions benefiting entities linked to her.
Not outright theft in every instance.
But conflicts.
Hidden fees.
Undisclosed votes.
A pattern.
The special fiduciary froze millions in disputed distributions.
Vivienne’s civil attorneys requested settlement talks.
Dominic refused to discuss Maisie’s identity as a bargaining chip.
“She isn’t leverage.”
Jonathan nodded.
“Then what are you willing to settle?”
“Money.”
“And what aren’t you?”
“The truth.”
That evening, Maisie came into Dominic’s study.
She held her silver locket.
“Can you fix it?”
The hinge had cracked during the gala.
Dominic examined it.
“Yes.”
“Don’t make it new.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“I want it to look like Mom had it.”
Dominic understood.
Some things were not meant to have their scars polished away.
He had the hinge repaired and nothing else.
When he returned it, Maisie opened the photograph.
Then looked at Dominic.
“Can we add one?”
“One what?”
“A picture.”
“Of who?”
She smiled slightly.
“You’ll see.”
May you like
👉 Maisie was beginning to make room for Dominic in her life—but the photograph she wanted inside Elena’s locket would reveal exactly who she believed her real family was.
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