Chapter 1
“You’re too handsome to be alone,” my six-year-old daughter announced in the middle of the executive hallway, looking straight at Manhattan’s coldest billionaire. “I think you should be my dad.”
Everyone around us froze, while I stood there, absolutely convinced my career had ended right then and there.
For one terrifying second, no one moved.
Then Adrian Kane—the man who could silence seasoned executives with a single glance—started to laugh.
It wasn’t a discreet smile or a polite chuckle.
It was a genuine, deep, irrepressible burst of laughter.
The morning had already started as a disaster.
My nanny had called before six because a pipe had burst in her Queens apartment building. My mother was stuck in Atlanta, and my best friend was in Denver.
There was no one else who could watch Mia.
Missing work wasn’t an option, either.
At thirty-three, I was a senior creative director at Blackwell & Reed—one of Manhattan’s most demanding luxury branding agencies—and that afternoon, we were presenting the revised versions of a major campaign to the board.
My boss, Adrian Kane, didn’t tolerate excuses.
At thirty-six, Adrian was the heir to Kane Global Holdings and the billionaire who had turned our firm into an industry powerhouse.
He was brilliant, composed, intimidating—and so absurdly handsome that even noticing it felt professionally irresponsible.
Tall, dark-haired, with striking features and blue-gray eyes that seemed to detect every mistake, he rarely smiled. During the two years I worked for him, our conversations were always businesslike, professional, and colder than marble in winter.
So, naturally, that was the very day I had to bring my daughter to work.
"You’re going to be invisible," I explained to Mia as she ate cereal, sitting on the kitchen counter. "Like a ghost. A very quiet ghost."
"Can ghosts eat crackers?"
"Yes."
"Can they watch cartoons?"
"With headphones on."
She tilted her head.
"Can ghosts ask your mean boss why he always looks so angry?"
"Absolutely not."
She smiled down at her cereal bowl.
By 8:35 a.m., we were inside our office building on Park Avenue.
I set Mia up in a corner of my office with coloring books, an iPad, Goldfish crackers, two juice boxes, and Gerald, her stuffed elephant.
For over an hour, she behaved perfectly.
Then my assistant appeared in the doorway.
"The prep for the board meeting has been moved up. Mr. Kane wants all department heads in Conference Room A in ten minutes."
I crouched down in front of Mia.
"Stay here. No wandering off. No looking for Mommy. No adventures."
She nodded very seriously.
"What if the adventure finds me?"
"It won't."
The meeting lasted eighteen minutes.
By the eleventh minute, some strange maternal instinct was already trying to warn me that something was wrong.
By the sixteenth, I was certain.
My daughter was no longer in my office.
As soon as the meeting ended, I rushed into the hallway.
That was when I heard something I had never heard before.
Adrian Kane laughing.
The sound was coming from the executive wing—warm and completely spontaneous. I turned the corner and nearly stopped breathing.
Mia was standing right in front of him.
Adrian was crouched down to her level outside his private office, one hand over his mouth as he tried to stifle a laugh.
Then Mia pointed at him.
"You're very handsome," she repeated. "And tall. I like tall men. So you should be my dad."
At that moment, I wished the whole building would collapse on top of me.
"Mia!"
She turned around cheerfully.
"Hi, Mommy. I found a friend."
"What did I say about leaving my office?"
Before she could answer, Adrian slowly stood up.
His expression changed.
Those piercing blue-gray eyes shifted from Mia to me, and suddenly, the entire hallway fell silent.
Then he looked back at my daughter.
"Mia," he said calmly, "why exactly do you think your mom needs me to be your dad?"
My daughter's smile vanished.
And the answer she gave made my heart stop.
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If you were in my shoes and your daughter said something like that to your billionaire boss, what would you do?
