“I don’t understand why you insist on keeping that maid. She’s incompetent, letting her child run wild. When we’re married, I won’t have children disrupting our home. We’ve discussed this. We’re not having kids.”
Adrien looked at his fiancée and felt a wave of sadness. When had their relationship become so transactional?
The next morning, Emma wasn’t in the hallway. Instead, Adrien found her in the living room, sitting on the floor with blocks. She looked up and held up a blue block, offering it to him with a tentative smile.
Adrienne sat down on the floor beside her.
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
“Mr. Westbrook!” Sophia rushed into the room. “Emma, no!”
“It’s okay,” Adrienne said. “She’s fine. We’re just building.”
Sophia stood there, uncertainty on her face.
“Please sit,” Adrienne said. “I’d like to understand why Emma does this. Why she follows me.”
Sophia slowly sat down. “Emma’s father… he died six months ago. Leukemia. He was only 31. Diego was a wonderful father. Every morning, she would wait outside our bedroom door for him to wake up, just like she does with you now. He would scoop her up and they would have breakfast together. It was their special time.”
Understanding began to dawn on Adrien.
“She’s looking for him.”
Sophia nodded. “I’ve tried to explain that Papi is gone, but she’s so young. And you, Mr. Westbrook, you’re tall like Diego was. You have dark hair like him. Your morning routine is almost exactly when Diego used to wake up.”
The words hit Adrien like a physical blow.
“My father died when I was seven,” Adrienne heard himself saying. “Heart attack. One day he was there and the next he wasn’t. I used to wait for him too, by the door. I thought if I waited long enough, he’d come back.”
In that moment, the walls around his heart began to crumble. He couldn’t turn away now.
Adrien found himself adjusting his routine, leaving his door open to hear Emma’s small footsteps. Instead of rushing past, he began to stop.
“Good morning, Emma,” he’d say.
Veronica’s disapproval hung in the air like smoke.
“You’re acting like a babysitter, not a CEO,” she said. “What happens when you get bored of playing daddy? You’re setting that child up for another abandonment.”
Her words hit their mark. That night, Adrien couldn’t sleep. He walked to the living room and saw the tower he and Emma had built, carefully preserved on a shelf by Sophia. He realized he wasn’t trying to replace her father; he was trying to be someone who showed up.
The next morning, Emma was waiting. Adrienne knelt down.
“Good morning, Emma.”
She smiled and, for the first time, took his hand.
“Papi,” Emma whispered.
Adrienne’s heart broke and healed all at once.
“It’s okay,” he told a crying Sophia. “I know I’m not her father, but maybe I can be someone who stays.”
The final straw with Veronica came when she found Adrien finger-painting with Emma.
“This is absurd!” she shrieked. “That child is manipulating you!”
“She’s two years old, Veronica,” Adrienne replied. “She’s a child who lost her father and found someone who makes her feel safe. We haven’t built anything together. We’ve just been playing roles. I want something real.”
Veronica stormed out, and all Adrien felt was relief.
Over the next few weeks, Adrien and Sophia settled into an easy partnership. He learned about her life in Mexico; she learned about his childhood loneliness.
One evening, Sophia asked, “Why are you doing all this?”
“When my father died, I learned to shut down my emotions,” Adrienne replied. “I built a life that looked successful, but I was numb. Then Emma started following me, and I realized I didn’t want to be numb anymore.”
“She sees her father in you,” Sophia said softly. “I worry what happens when she understands you’re not him.”
“Then I’ll help her understand that having someone new doesn’t erase the people you’ve lost.”
Adrienne reached out and took Sophia’s hand.
“I’m the one who should be grateful. Emma saved me. You both did.”
Adrienne called his attorney and set up a trust fund for Emma’s education and named himself her legal guardian if anything happened to Sophia.
“You and Emma are family now,” he told Sophia. “Family isn’t just about blood. It’s about choosing each other every day. Emma chose me first. Now I’m choosing both of you.”
Spring came, and Adrien’s feelings for Sophia deepened. She saw him not as a billionaire, but as the man who made silly voices during storytime.
The turning point came on Emma’s third birthday at the Central Park Zoo.
“I need you to know that what I feel for you, it’s not about money,” Sophia said.
“I know,” Adrienne interrupted. “Because I feel it, too. I’m in love with you, Sophia.”
Tears streamed down Sophia’s face. “I love you, too. But I’m scared. Diego has only been gone a year and a half.”
“Diego would want you to be happy, wouldn’t he?”
“He made me promise,” Sophia admitted. “He said, ‘Find someone who loves you and Emma the way you deserve.’”
Adrienne pulled her into his arms and they kissed.
“Adrien kiss mama!” Emma gleefully announced. “Emmy family!”
Adrien proposed with an emerald ring representing the three of them.
“Be my wife. Be Emma’s mother. Be yourself. That’s all I’ve ever needed.”
They were married in a small ceremony with Emma as the flower girl. She started calling him “Daddy Adrien,” then eventually just “Daddy.”
Six months later, Sophia announced she was pregnant.
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