Chapter 2

Finally, James spoke in a quiet voice.

"But... are you sure? What if she wasn't abandoned? What if she was simply lost?"

The question struck Kylie harder than he expected.

The thought was unbearable.

He couldn't build a new life by stealing someone else's.

Silence filled the room.

Then Alex, far more mature than any child his age should have been, stepped forward.

"If she was lost, someone would be searching for her."

He looked at James with steady eyes.

"But, Uncle James... that forest is known as a death trap. Almost no one who enters it ever comes back alive. Even Father and I only go there because Mother's grave is nearby, and we never dare venture deep inside."

He glanced at the sleeping baby.

"Do you really think any parent would leave their child there... alone?"

James lowered his gaze.

"No..."

A small smile appeared on Kylie's face.

James sighed before muttering,

"You're right, Young Master. I worried too much."

He looked at the little girl and chuckled softly.

"Perhaps this little one is destined to be stuck with your family..."

Then he looked at Kylie with a teasing smile.

"...just like I am."

For the first time in years, a quiet laugh echoed through the house.

Kylie turned to one of the servants.

"Bring the finest cradle money can buy. I want it placed in my room immediately."

"At once, Sir."

Just as he was about to walk away with the baby in his arms, a pair of tiny hands tugged at his sleeve.

"Father..."

Kylie looked down.

"Don't you think children should sleep together?"

Kylie frowned.

He wasn't ready to share his daughter.

Not with anyone.

Not even with his own son.

He cleared his throat and replied with complete seriousness.

"The Santiago family has a long-standing tradition. Every newborn sleeps in their father's room."

Alex blinked.

"...Really?"

"Of course."

"And... until what age?"

Kylie hesitated.

"Well..."

He glanced around for an answer.

"...That's a rather complicated tradition."

Alex slowly turned toward James.

The old butler had both lips tightly pressed together, his shoulders shaking as he desperately tried not to burst into laughter.

When Alex looked at him questioningly, James gave the tiniest nod, silently playing along.

Before Alex could ask another question, Kylie spun around and hurried into his room, clutching the baby protectively.

The bedroom door shut with a loud click.

Alex and James stood frozen for a moment.

Then they looked at each other.

"...He has completely lost it," James whispered.

Alex sighed dramatically.

"I think I just got replaced."

From behind the closed door came a soft coo from the baby... followed by Kylie's gentle, utterly smitten voice.

"Who's Father's little princess?”

On the other side of the city, the Sterling mansion had become a house of mourning.

Olga Sterling sat silently beside her daughter-in-law, Paris Sterling. After crying until she had no tears left, Paris had finally fallen asleep, still clutching the tiny pink blanket that belonged to her daughter.

Darren Sterling stood by the window, his hands gripping the case file of his missing granddaughter so tightly that the edges had crumpled. Beside him, his son, Christen Sterling, had finally broken down, unable to bear the weight of his wife's pain or his daughter's disappearance.

The four brothers who had waited their entire lives for a little sister sat together in complete silence.

William, the eldest, stared blankly at the floor.

Allen kept wiping away tears that refused to stop.

Brandon hugged the stuffed toy he had bought for his sister before she was born.

Little Ryan didn't fully understand what had happened. He only knew that everyone kept crying, so he cried too.

In another room, Cameron, Darren's eldest son, attended an online business meeting with a composed face, while his trembling hand clutched the only photo album of his niece beneath the table.

His wife, Amyra, stood in the kitchen. The milk bottle she had prepared for the baby remained untouched as tears silently rolled down her cheeks.

Carson, the second son, spent every waking hour speaking with the police, investigators, and anyone who might have seen the child. Beside him, his wife, Jeane, held his hand tightly, silently lending him the strength he no longer possessed.

Darren looked around at the family he had spent decades building.

Each of them was breaking.

Each of them was drowning.

He wanted nothing more than to collapse beside them.

But he couldn't.

If the head of the family fell...

There would be no one left to keep the rest from being consumed by grief.

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