Jasper's POV
"Daddy, catch me!"
Millie launched herself off the playground swing before I could move. My heart stopped as I dove forward, catching her just in time. She giggled in my arms like it was the best game in the world.
"Don't do that!" I said, trying to sound stern but failing totally. "You scared me."
"But you always catch me, Daddy," she said with perfect four-year-old confidence. "You always keep me safe."
If only she knew the truth.
My phone rang just as I was setting her down. Robert Whitmore's name showed on the screen, and my stomach dropped. He only called when something big was happening.
"Play on the slide, sweetheart," I told Millie. "Daddy needs to take this call."
I walked a few steps away and answered. "Robert."
"She's coming home."
Four easy words that changed everything. I knew exactly who he meant.
Belle.
"When?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
"Tonight. The plan is going faster than we expected. Are you ready?"
Was I ready? I'd been waiting for this moment for four years. Four years of wondering if she was safe, if she was happy, if she ever thought about me.
"What happened?" I asked.
"She found out about the guy. And the friend. It's over, Jasper. She's coming home broken and angry, just like we expected."
My hands clenched into fists. "You let her get hurt on purpose."
"We let her learn the truth on her own," Robert amended. "There's a difference."
No, there wasn't. Not to me.
I looked back at Millie, who was climbing up the slide ladder. She had no idea that her whole world was about to change again.
"How much does she know?" I asked.
"Nothing yet. But she will soon. Are you prepared for that conversation?"
The talk I'd been dreading for four years. The one where I'd have to explain why I'd agreed to marry a girl who'd left me behind. Why I'd stayed true to her family when she'd forgotten I existed.
Why I'd been raising her daughter without her knowing it.
"Daddy!" Millie called from the top of the slide. "Watch me go fast!"
"I'm watching, baby," I called back, my heart breaking a little more.
"Is that her?" Robert's voice was soft.
"Yeah."
"She looks just like Belle did at that age. " I knew. God, I knew. Every day I looked at Millie and saw Belle's eyes, Belle's smile, Belle's stubborn little chin. It was pain and blessing all at once.
"The marriage contract is still valid," Robert continued. "All Belle has to do is sign it, and everything will be legal. The company will be safe, and so will she."
"And if she refuses?"
"She won't. Not when she finds out what's at stake."
I closed my eyes. "Robert, maybe we should tell her the truth about everything. About Millie, about the company, about why she really had to come home."
"No." His voice was sharp. "Not yet. She needs to choose to stay first. If she knows about Millie too soon, she'll run again."
Run again. Like she did when we were eighteen and I'd finally worked up the courage to tell her I loved her. She'd been so scared of my feelings that she'd run away from home the very next day.
I'd never told anyone that I was the real reason Belle left.
"Jasper? Are you listening?"
"Yeah, I'm here."
"Good. Because there's something else you need to know. We found out who's been watching Belle."
My blood went cold. "Who?"
"Someone related to the Blackwood family. " The Blackwoods. Our biggest business foes. The family that had been trying to destroy Whitmore Industries for twenty years.
"What do they want with Belle?"
"We think they were trying to keep her away from home. As long as she stayed gone, she couldn't receive her share of the company. But now that she's coming back..."
"Now she's in danger," I finished.
"Exactly. That's why the marriage needs to happen quickly. As your wife, she'll have legal safety. And so will Millie."
Millie slid down the playground slide with her arms in the air, laughing with pure joy. She had no idea that people wanted to hurt her mother. People who didn't even know she existed.
"There's more," Robert said. "We caught a phone call today. Someone's been planning to take Belle when she arrives at the airport."
My heart stopped. "What?"
"Don't worry. We've changed the pickup spot. But Jasper, this is serious. The Blackwoods aren't just trying to hurt our business anymore. They want Belle."
"Why?" But even as I asked, I knew the answer.
"Because she's the key to everything. The company, the fortune, the merger deals we've been working on. Without Belle, we lose it all."
I watched Millie climb the ladder again, her little face scrunched up in focus. She was so sweet, so perfect. The idea of anyone hurting her made me want to break things.
"How long do we have?" I asked.
"Her plane lands in three hours. The wedding is tomorrow morning."
Tomorrow morning. After four years of waiting, I'd see Belle again in less than twenty-four hours.
"Daddy, I'm stuck!" Millie called from halfway up the ladder.
"Hold on, sweetheart!" I called back. To Robert, I said, "I have to go. But Robert..."
"Yeah?"
"If anyone tries to hurt either of them, I'll destroy them myself."
"I know you will. That's why I picked you for this, son."
He hung up, leaving me standing in an empty field with a million thoughts racing through my head.
I helped Millie down from the ladder and picked her up. She wrapped her little arms around my neck and laid her head on my shoulder.
"Are we going home now, Daddy?"
"Yeah, baby. We're going home."
But first, I had to prepare her for the biggest change of her life.
"Millie, remember how I told you that you have a mommy, even though she can't be with us right now?"
Millie nodded against my shoulder.
"Well, tomorrow you're going to meet someone very special. Someone who's going to love you very much."
"Is it my mommy?" she asked in a small voice.
I closed my eyes and held her tighter. "Yeah, sweetheart. It's your mommy."
What I didn't tell her was that her mommy didn't know she existed.
What I didn't tell her was that her mommy was coming home to marry a man she probably hated.
What I didn't tell her was that people wanted to hurt her mommy, and the only way to keep them both safe was to make sure Belle never found out the whole truth.
My phone buzzed with a text message from an unknown number.
"We know about the girl. Call off the wedding, or she disappears."
My blood turned to ice.
They knew about Millie.
And they were willing to use a four-year-old child to get what they wanted.
I looked down at the innocent little girl in my arms, and made a choice that would change everything.
Tomorrow, when Belle walked into our lives, I wasn't just going to marry her to save the company.
I was going to marry her to save our daughter's life.