“Mommy, look! I made a new friend. His name’s Dimitri.”
Isabella’s lips parted, but no sound came out. Her gaze flicked from her daughter’s beaming face to mine—two identical pairs of brown eyes staring back at her.
And in that moment, the world tilted.
Because the truth she’d hidden from me for five years was suddenly standing between us—alive, breathing, and calling me friend.
Chapter Twelve
Isabella’s POV
The last thing I expected after that gruesome meeting with the investors was to walk into my office and find my daughter with him. Dimitri.
Shit.
I froze. Not just physically. Literally. I felt like the blood stopped circulating through my body. My lungs seized. My vision tunneled. It was like walking into a horror show where the bad guy was poised to strike you with an axe, and you were too paralyzed with fear to even scream. That was an exaggeration, but that was exactly how I felt.
My gaze moved from Adele’s bright, innocent smile to Dimitri’s piercing, accusing eyes. And I just knew. He knew.
Dimitri was a smart man. But aside from being smart, he would have sensed the familiar bond between him and Adele the moment she’d gotten close to him. It was instinctual for shifters—that pull, that recognition of their own blood. It was the way wolves knew their pack. It was primal, undeniable. He would have felt it in his bones, in his soul, the moment their eyes met. He wouldn’t need a DNA test to figure out that she was his daughter.
So much for trying to keep Adele away from him. Barely two weeks in Virginia and he’d already found out about her.
Terror clawed up my throat, threatening to choke me. What if he tried to take her from me? What if he claimed parental rights? What if Selene found out and decided Adele was a threat to her perfect little life with Dimitri?
The thoughts spiraled, each one more horrifying than the last, but I couldn’t let him see the panic clawing at my chest right now. So, I jutted my chin forward, forced steel into my spine, and stepped fully into the room, closing the door behind me with more force than necessary.
“Mommy, look! I made a new friend!” Adele said, scooting even closer to Dimitri and placing her small hands in his large ones. The sight of it made my heart clench painfully. “He looks a lot like the prince from the story you always tell me, doesn’t he?”
I grimaced. Children and their unfiltered mouths.
Dimitri hooked a brow, and I could see the moment curiosity sparked in those devastatingly familiar eyes. “Prince?”
Adele bobbed her head up and down enthusiastically. “Mommy always reads me bedtime stories about a man—part dragon, part human—who always flies to the princess’s room every night to take her out on adventures.”
“Oh, really?” Dimitri said, his gaze sliding to me as his mouth dragged into a slow, knowing smirk that made heat creep up my neck. “And what is the name of this princess?”
“Bella. Her name is Princess Bella.”
The smirk widened. “Bella, huh?”
My face burned. Before this painfully embarrassing moment could drag out any longer, a voice sounded behind me.
“Ms. Crawford, I’ll be heading to my afternoon class now. But I’ll be back by two-thirty to pick up Adele and take her home.” Sarah’s voice cut through the tension, and it was only now that I realized she’d been in my office all this time.
I sighed, grateful for the interruption, before Adele went on about how the Prince and the Princess ended up together with one daughter—a plot point that would make it painfully obvious that the story had been about Dimitri and me.
I hadn’t told Adele the story because I believed a fairytale prince would come along and sweep me off my feet one day. Those delusions had died the night Dimitri rejected me. No, I’d wanted to paint a picture of her father for Adele—even if she hadn’t met him—and I didn’t want that picture to be anything like how I’d seen him in the last five years. I wanted her to see her father as a hero, a good man. Because despite everything—despite the rejection, the heartbreak—I knew Dimitri was.
I turned to Sarah with as much of a smile as I could offer, given the situation. “Of course, Sarah. You can leave. I’ll call Charleson—my driver—to take you to campus.”
“Oh no, I wouldn’t want to be a bother, Ms. Crawford.”
“First—it’s Estelle. And second, it’s not a bother. Charleson will wait until you’re done with classes and bring you back, okay?”
Sarah smiled appreciatively at me. “Thank you, Ms.—Estelle.” She glanced at Adele. “I’ll see you later, Addy.”
“Are we still going to play hide and seek when we get back?” Adele asked hopefully.