Chapter 7

Only one camera was malfunctioning; the rest were working fine.

Under my relentless pressure, the principal finally pulled up the surveillance footage.

The recording clearly showed the little boy entering the restroom wearing the watch and coming out without it.

"You're not going to claim Vivi stole it from you in the boys' bathroom, are you?"

The boy flinched. Scared, he finally confessed.

"It… it was my mom. She told me to say it was the new girl."

The boy's mother—a woman dripping in designer labels—went pale.

"That's ridiculous! My son would never—"

"Ma'am," the principal interjected nervously, "the footage is quite clear."

I crossed my arms. "Your son hid his own watch and blamed my four-year-old daughter. On her first week of school."

The woman's eyes darted around the room, searching for allies. Finding none, she switched tactics.

"Well, can you blame us? Everyone knows your… partner… is that bankrupt Vance fellow. Who knows what kind of values you're teaching at home?"

The room went cold.

I was about to respond when Vance's voice came from the doorway.

"The kind of values where we don't teach our children to frame other kids and lie about it."

He'd arrived straight from a delivery—helmet under his arm, uniform slightly wrinkled. But his posture was iron-straight, his gaze steady.

The woman sneered. "And who are you? The delivery boy?"

"I'm Vivi's father." He walked to stand beside our daughter, placing a hand gently on her head. "And I'd rather be a delivery driver with integrity than raise a liar in luxury."

The principal, sensing the PR nightmare, quickly mediated. The boy's mother was forced into a mumbled apology. The watch was returned.

On the way home, Vivi held Vance's hand and mine, swinging between us.

"Daddy?"

"Hmm?"

"You were really cool back there."

Vance looked down at her, surprised. Then a slow grin spread across his face—that devastating grin that had originally gotten me into this mess.

"Yeah?"

"The coolest."

He picked her up and put her on his shoulders. She squealed with delight.

Walking behind them, watching this ridiculously handsome man in a delivery uniform carrying a little girl who wasn't even his by blood, I thought:

Screw the original plot. I'm keeping this one.