Chapter 1 - THE GIRL NO ONE WANTED TO SEEThe conference room was designed to intimidate.
Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked Manhattan, where thousands of lives moved beneath a gray afternoon sky. The walls were made of glass, steel, and polished stone. Everything about the room whispered power.
And then Mia walked in.
She was a small seven-year-old girl wearing a pale cardigan, clutching a worn stuffed rabbit against her chest.
Her father, Lorenzo Rossi, entered behind her.
The room immediately went silent.
Everyone knew Lorenzo.
Billionaire. Investor. Ruthless businessman.
A man who could destroy a career with one phone call.
But almost no one in that room knew the man behind the expensive suit.
They didn't know that every morning, before checking the stock market, Lorenzo checked whether his daughter had slept well.
They didn't know that he had spent three years building walls around Mia because the world had already taken the person he loved most.
His wife.
Mia's mother.
And now, as Mia stood frozen beneath the harsh fluorescent lights, the employees stared at her as though she were an inconvenience.
Everyone except Karen Seymour.
Karen noticed the way Mia covered her ears.
She noticed her breathing.
She noticed the panic beginning to rise in the little girl's eyes.
And Karen understood immediately.
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This wasn't bad behavior.
This was fear.
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