Heavy rain poured through the dark night as Keir drove along the empty road. He wasn't speeding, so when a man suddenly ran across the street, he managed to slam on the brakes just in time.

Keir quickly got out of his car and rushed toward the stranger.

The man was sitting on the wet pavement, completely soaked. In his arms was a small child wrapped tightly in a black comforter.

"Are you okay, sir?" Keir asked with concern.

The man slowly stood up. Because the road was so dark, Keir couldn't clearly see his face.

"Sir... please take this baby," the man pleaded, his voice shaking.

Before Keir could answer, the stranger gently pushed the child into his arms and turned to run toward the nearby forest. After a few steps, he suddenly stopped and looked back.

"Her name is Elaine Chin. She's five years old. If I survive... I'll come back for her. Please... protect my princess."

Those were the last words he shouted before disappearing into the darkness.

Keir had no choice but to carry the little girl back to his car. Both of them were drenched from the rain.

A moment later, he started the engine and drove away.

As he glanced at the rearview mirror, he saw five men sprinting across the road in the same direction where the stranger had disappeared.

Two months passed, but there was still no sign of the man who had left the little girl with Keir.

It was finally time for him to return to New York. He had only been in the Philippines to inspect the construction site of a building his company was developing.

Before leaving, Keir looked at the little girl. She refused to leave his side. Wherever he went, she quietly followed him, holding onto his hand or the edge of his coat. Yet, during the entire time they had been together, he had never heard her say a single word.

She was always silent.

Not knowing what else to do, Keir called his mother, Yana Hasford, to ask for advice.

Instead of telling him to leave the child behind, Yana became excited to meet the little girl.

With no other choice, Keir brought Elaine with him to New York.

His work kept him extremely busy, leaving him with little time to search for her real family. Whenever he finally found a free moment, he searched every record and every website he could find, but there was no trace of any Chin family connected to Elaine.

He even hired a private investigator in the Philippines to continue the search. Months passed, but they found no clues.

As time went by, Elaine grew closer to Keir. She slowly opened his heart to her, and he became the only family she had ever known.

Five years passed in the blink of an eye.

Realizing that every lead had reached a dead end, Keir finally made the painful decision to stop searching for Elaine's biological family.

By then, she was no longer just a child he had promised to protect.

Elaine woke up early, unable to hide her excitement.

Today was her first day at work.

The mansion was as quiet as always. Only the household staff were around. Her father, Keir Hasford, hadn't come home in three years. Although he never failed to provide everything she needed, his absence left an emptiness that money could never fill.

That was the reason she had decided to work at Hasford Empire.

To keep her identity a secret, she applied under the surname Chin. She remembered overhearing Keir once say that Chin was her biological mother's family name. If she used the Hasford surname, her father would recognize her immediately and stop her from working there.

Elaine wanted answers.

She needed to know why the loving father who had once spent every moment with her had suddenly become distant after her eighteenth birthday.

At last, she stood in front of the towering Hasford Empire headquarters.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped inside and entered the elevator.

10th Floor.

That was where Keir Hashford's executive office was located.

And starting today...

She would be his new secretary.

Keir had no idea that the person replacing his former secretary was his own daughter.

According to Trish, the secretary who had recently resigned, Mr. Hasford had entrusted her with finding her own replacement. His only condition was simple:

"Choose someone as capable and reliable as you."

Thanks to that, Elaine had passed the interviews without anyone discovering who she really was.

For the first time in three years...

She was finally about to face his father who had been avoiding her.

Elaine stepped out of the elevator as soon as it reached the tenth floor.

The executive floor was spacious and elegant. Employees were already busy with their morning tasks, moving from one office to another.

A young woman approached her with a friendly smile.

"Hello. Are you Mr. Hasford's new secretary?" she asked.

"Yes," Elaine replied with a warm smile.

"I'm Shane."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Elaine."

The two shook hands before Shane showed her to her desk.

"Once you've finished organizing your things, Mr. Hasford wants to see you in his office," Shane said with a smile.

Elaine nodded.

"Thank you."

After arranging her belongings, she took a deep breath and walked toward her father's office.

Just as she was about to knock, voices from inside stopped her.

It was her grandmother...

"Keir," Grandma Yana said gently, "it's time to tell Elaine the truth. She deserves to know that she isn't your biological daughter. You can't keep hurting yourself like this."

Elaine froze.

Her face turned pale.

She couldn't move.

Every word pierced her heart.

She waited for his father to answer...

But only silence came from the other side of the door.

Unable to bear it any longer, Elaine quietly stepped away before anyone noticed her.

She hurried down the hallway and locked herself inside the women's restroom.

The moment the door closed behind her, the tears she had been holding back finally fell.

She covered her mouth to keep herself from crying out loud.

A few more seconds passed before Keir answered his mother, Yana.

"It’s better if I’m the one who suffers, Mom; I couldn't bear to see Elaine get hurt when she finds out the truth," Keir said sadly.

"Keir, son, Elaine is twenty years old; she’ll understand if you tell her the truth," Yana said with concern.

"It hurts me, too, to see you struggling," his mother added worriedly.

"No, Mom," Keir said firmly.

Keir's mother knew that her son have developed secret feelings for Elaine and that he was finding it increasingly difficult to suppress.

Yana understood her son; Elaine was a wonderful girl whom she had watched grow up. Since they were the ones who had raised her, it was understandable that Keir would fall in love with Elaine.

To Yana, there was nothing wrong with Keir's feelings for Elaine because they were not biologically related. Moreover, there had never been any legal adoption papers, as the family had always believed that caring for Elaine would only be temporary.

Elaine took several deep breaths and wiped away her tears.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror, fixing her hair and making sure there were no signs that she had been crying.

After a few moments, she forced a small smile.

No...

She couldn't let anyone know that she had overheard everything.

She gathered all the courage she had left and composed herself.

No matter how much her heart ached, she would pretend she knew nothing.

Not yet.

She wasn't ready to confront her fake father.

Elaine thought to herself, "Maybe that's why he's been avoiding me."

Elaine was on her way back to her desk when the door to Keir's office suddenly opened.

Grandma Yana stepped out.

Grandma Yana immediately noticed her.

"Elaine, darling! What are you doing here?" Yana asked in surprise as she wrapped Elaine in a warm, tight hug.

Elaine hugged her grandmother even tighter.

"I'm Dad's new secretary, Grandma," she said with a bright smile.

"Does your dad know that you're his new secretary?" Grandma Yana asked, clearly surprised.

"Not yet, Grandma," Elaine replied hesitantly.

"Alright. I should get going now. Go see your father," Grandma Yana said with a warm smile.

She gave Elaine one last hug and kissed her gently on the cheek before walking away.

Elaine let out a quiet sigh of relief as soon as her grandmother was gone.

If Grandma Yana had stayed any longer, she wasn't sure she would have been able to hide her emotions. She might have broken down and confessed that she had overheard everything.

She glanced around the office.

Everyone was busy with their work, and no one seemed to have noticed her conversation with Grandma Yana.

Only then did Elaine let out another quiet sigh of relief.

Elaine flinched when the telephone on her desk suddenly rang.

It rang a few times before she finally picked it up.

"Bring me a coffee."

The cold, commanding voice on the other end belonged to Keir.

The line went dead the moment he finished giving the order.

He had already hung up before Elaine could even respond.