After Our Daughter Died, He Lost It

Synopsis

My daughter died before she turned two. In the vast Duke of Valor's estate, not a single physician could be found—she was left to die, slowly and cruelly. Her father, Caine Valen, had taken every last stem of the rare Celestine Lotus—the only thing keeping her alive—and sent all the doctors to Willow Court, to heal his newly returned beloved, Loretta Sinclair. I knelt in the downpour, my daughter's lifeless body in my arms, trembling so hard I could barely breathe. I couldn't tell if the shiver came from the fever burning inside me—or from the hollow ache in my chest. For three years, I stayed—for a man who never loved me—because our daughter needed the Lotus to survive. Now, she was gone. And as I reached for the whistle my father left me before he died, I knew: something in me was finally breaking.