Chapter 8

"Why did you hurt yourself?"

When I asked Vivi, the four-year-old visibly froze.

But she didn't try to lie. She just lowered her head and whispered, "Mommy, you found out."

"I… I was afraid you'd be angry with me."

I lifted her onto my lap. "Explain it to me slowly."

"At the group home, if you fought, you couldn't fight back. The caregiver didn't care who started it. She only cared about who was still standing at the end."

My stomach dropped.

"So when the other kids pushed me or took my snack, I learned to pinch myself instead. If I cried first, the caregiver would come faster."

She said it matter-of-factly, like she was explaining how to tie her shoes.

I held her tighter. "Vivi, you don't have to do that anymore. Not here. Not with us."

"But what if you send me back?"

The question hit like a punch.

"What?"

"The other kids at the home said foster families always send you back. When you stop being cute enough, or when they have a real baby."

I pulled back to look at her face. Those big eyes—the ones that had melted Vance on the rooftop—were now filled with a fear no four-year-old should know.

"Vivi, listen to me. You are not going back. Ever."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Pinky promise?"

I extended my pinky. She wrapped hers around it, so small I could barely feel it.

That night, after Vivi fell asleep, I told Vance everything.

He sat on the edge of the bed, his hands clasped between his knees, and didn't speak for a long time.

Then: "I'm filing for legal adoption."

"Vance, you're technically bankrupt. The courts might not—"

"I don't care. She called me Daddy. She chose me on that rooftop. I'm making it legal."

His eyes were fierce in a way I hadn't seen since his corporate days. Not the cold calculation of a businessman, but the raw determination of a father.

"It might take time. And money we don't have."

"Then I'll deliver more food. I'll drive nights. I'll do whatever it takes."

Looking at him, I realized something that made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

The plot said the villain was supposed to die.

But the plot didn't account for Vivi.

Or for the fact that a man who'd lost everything could find something worth more than everything he'd lost.