Chapter 2 - The Work Clothes
Dante’s face went completely rigid. He pushed past the elite guests, his heavy footsteps eating up the glossy marble floor as he rushed toward the commotion.
When he reached them, his dark, calculating eyes bypassed his furious fiancée completely and locked onto his daughter hiding behind the maid.
Dante leaned down close, his large, tattooed hands gently reaching out to move Claire’s apron aside. When he saw what his little girl was wearing, all the air violently left his lungs. His face twisted into a mask of extreme, heartbroken distress.
Lily wasn't wearing the expensive silk party dress he had bought her for the gala. She was wearing a cheap, black short-sleeved uniform with stiff white piping. It was a child-sized replica of the staff's clothing.
"Lily," Dante breathed, his voice cracking with shock and horror. "Baby, what are you wearing?"
Lily clung tighter to Claire’s apron. She looked up at her towering father, her brown ponytail a mess, her big eyes wide and completely filled with terrified tears.
"My work clothes," Lily cried, her voice muffled and heartbroken.
The entire ballroom went dead silent. The string quartet in the background awkwardly stopped playing.
Dante felt the blood turn to absolute ice in his veins. He stared at his daughter, trying to comprehend why the heir to a billion-dollar empire was dressed like a servant at her own father’s engagement party.
Lily took a shaky, hyperventilating breath. She looked up at Dante with an innocent but deeply, profoundly hurt expression.
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