“No.” Richard held up a hand. His face had changed. “What makes you think you know my daughter?”
“Because I was her.” The words felt like they were being ripped out of me. “I didn’t talk for four years after my parents died. Foster care. Fourteen different homes. Everyone wanted to fix me. Nobody wanted to just… listen.”
“This is a waste of time,” Victoria said.
But Richard’s eyes were on Amelia. The girl was staring at me now. Really staring.
“What changed?” Richard asked quietly. “How did you start talking again?”
“Someone stopped asking me to.”
The ballroom was silent enough to hear a pin drop.
“There was a woman. Mrs. Rodriguez. She ran the group home I ended up in.” I kept my eyes on Amelia. “She never pushed me to talk. Never bribed me. Never treated me like I was less than whole. She just… existed near me. Made me feel safe enough to be silent.”
Amelia’s hands stopped trembling.
“One day I asked her why she never tried to make me talk like everyone else did.” I smiled at the memory. “She said, ‘Why would I? You’re already saying everything I need to hear.’”
“That’s the most ridiculous therapeutic approach I’ve ever heard,” Dr. Frost scoffed.
“It worked.”
“Security, please escort—” Victoria started.
“Wait.”
The voice was so small, so soft, that for a second I thought I imagined it.
But Richard’s face went white. His champagne glass slipped from his fingers and shattered on the marble floor.
Amelia stood up.
Every eye in the room locked on her. She took one step. Then another. She walked past the experts. Past the millionaires. Past her own father.
She stopped right in front of me.
“You see me,” Amelia whispered.
My throat closed up. “Yeah, sweetheart. I see you.”
“Everyone else sees broken.” Tears started rolling down her cheeks. “You see me.”
“That’s because you’re not broken. You never were.”
Amelia looked back at her father. Richard was frozen, his hand over his mouth, tears streaming down his face.
“Daddy?” Amelia’s voice got slightly stronger. “I’m sorry I stopped talking. I just… I didn’t know how to tell you it hurt.”
Richard dropped to his knees. “Baby. Oh my god, baby, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Amelia ran to him. Richard wrapped his arms around her, sobbing into her hair.
The room erupted. Camera phones came out. People were crying. Victoria stood there, her face twisted in fury.