Chapter 3 - The Child Dominic Couldn’t Ignore
Harper was the only person at the estate who did not fear Dominic.
She called him Mr. Dom because she could not pronounce his full name.
She left drawings beneath his office door.
She once interrupted a meeting of armed men to ask whether dragons could swim.
Dominic dismissed the room and spent ten minutes helping her decide.
Mia apologized afterward.
“She cannot enter your office again.”
Dominic looked at the drawing Harper had left on his desk.
It showed him as a giant wearing a crown, protecting a small house from rain.
“She knocked.”
“That doesn’t make it appropriate.”
“No one else in this house knocks.”
Mia nearly smiled.
Claire witnessed the exchange.
That evening, she moved Harper and Mia from the comfortable east-wing rooms to smaller quarters near the laundry.
Dominic discovered the change two days later.
“Why were they moved?”
Claire poured herself wine.
“The child was disturbing guests.”
“We had no guests.”
“She was disturbing me.”
Dominic instructed the house manager to return them to their original rooms.
Claire waited until he left before confronting Mia.
“You seem to forget who I am.”
“No, ma’am.”
“I will be Dominic’s wife.”
“Yes.”
“This estate will be mine.”
Mia said nothing.
Claire stepped closer.
“Do not use your daughter to gain his attention.”
Mia’s eyes hardened.
“My daughter does not need to be used.”
That night, Harper asked why Claire hated them.
Mia tucked the blanket around her.
“She doesn’t know us.”
“She knows I like pancakes.”
“That isn’t enough to know someone.”
“Mr. Dom knows I like dragons.”
Mia smiled sadly.
“Yes, he does.”
Dominic’s kindness toward Harper never became inappropriate. He remained distant, careful and respected Mia’s boundaries.
But Claire saw every small gesture as a threat.
Nathan saw something different.
Dominic trusted people who protected children.
If Mia ever earned that trust, she might gain access to rooms Nathan had spent years controlling.
So he began creating doubts.
A bracelet went missing from Claire’s dressing room.
It was found inside Mia’s laundry cart.
Mia denied taking it.
Harper said she had seen Claire’s assistant place something beneath the sheets.
No one believed a four-year-old.
Dominic did.
He reviewed the hallway camera.
The assistant was dismissed.
Claire called it humiliation.
Nathan called it a warning.
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Mia called it the moment she realized the house contained enemies who were afraid of witnesses.
👉 When another valuable object disappeared, Mia stopped defending herself and began quietly saving every piece of evidence.
