Chapter 5

Before Analia could leave, she was surrounded. A flock of dealers and collectors, who had ignored her moments before, were now pressing their business cards into her hands, their voices a desperate chorus of offers.

"That stone is a masterpiece! I'll give you five million for it, right now!"

"My firm would be honored to represent you in the sale, Ms..."

Analia politely but firmly waved them away. "I'm sorry, it's not for sale. It's the centerpiece for my new collection."

A flustered Barnaby Finch pushed his way through the crowd, his face slick with sweat. "Ms. Morris," he stammered, his earlier arrogance gone. "My deepest apologies for my... unprofessional assessment." He cleared his throat. "I happen to manage this gallery. We have a prime retail space, right at the front, that has just become available. Given your... extraordinary talent, perhaps you would be interested in leasing it?"

It was exactly what she had come for. "I'd be very interested," she said.

As she turned to follow Finch toward his office, the small hand that had been clutching the hem of her coat let go.

Ella, her attention captured by a shimmering kinetic sculpture across the room, wandered away.

At that exact moment, Alessandro Dorsey was descending the gallery's grand staircase from a private viewing room upstairs. He was with a potential investor, discussing a new art fund, but his mind was elsewhere. It was consumed by the news of Analia's return. A cold, familiar anger simmered just beneath his calm exterior.

He paused at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes scanning the chattering crowd with distaste.

He felt a small tug on the cuff of his tailored trousers.

He looked down.

A little girl with a cloud of dark hair was staring up at him. She was holding a worn-out stuffed rabbit and had the biggest, most serious blue eyes he had ever seen. Eyes that were a startling, perfect mirror of his own.

Alessandro froze. He wasn't a man who liked children. He found them noisy and unpredictable. But there was something about this child's solemn gaze that felt... familiar.

Ella looked at the tall, imposing man. He smelled like clean laundry and the faint, crisp scent of the outdoors after it rains. It was a strange, comforting scent, one that reminded her of the way her mother described the father she'd never met. A deep, instinctual sense of safety washed over her.

She let go of his trousers, reached out her small arms, and wrapped them around his leg in a tight hug.

Then, in a voice that was clear and soft, a voice no one but her mother and brothers had heard in over a year, she said one word.

"Daddy."

The word struck Alessandro like a lightning bolt. His entire body went rigid. The air in his lungs seemed to evaporate.

The people nearby fell silent, their conversations dying as they turned to stare. The investor at his side looked at him with a shocked, questioning expression.

Alessandro's first instinct was to pry the child off him. But as he looked down into those trusting, upturned eyes, his hands stopped in mid-air.

Across the room, Analia finished her conversation with Finch, a signed lease agreement in her hand. She turned, a small smile of victory on her lips, and her heart stopped.

Ella was gone.

Panic, cold and sharp, seized her. "Ella?" she called out, her voice tight.

Her eyes followed the curious gazes of the crowd, tracing them to the foot of the staircase.

She saw her daughter. Clinging to a man's leg.

And then she saw the man's face.

The blood drained from her own. The lease agreement slipped from her numb fingers and fluttered to the floor.

Alessandro.

It was him. After five years of trying to scrub his image from her memory, he was here, just feet away. And their daughter-his daughter-was hugging him.

The one thing she had feared above all else was happening.

A primal instinct for flight took over. She stumbled backward, melting into the shadow of a large bronze statue, her heart beating a frantic, suffocating rhythm against her ribs.

What was she going to do? If he saw her, if he realized...

Down by the stairs, Alessandro was crouched down, trying to gently detach the little girl. His voice was strained, awkward. "Hey, little one. Where's your mommy?"

Ella just hugged him tighter, burying her face against his leg, content in the presence of a father she had never known but had somehow recognized instantly.

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