She’s With Me — Single Dad Spoke Calmly, The Billionaire Heiress Stood Frozen at the Table
Chapter 2
Ten years earlier, Daniel Mercer had not been a single father.
He had been an engineer with a growing reputation, a modest apartment, and plans he was afraid to say aloud.
Victoria Ashford had been twenty-four.
Beautiful.
Brilliant.
The only daughter of Charles Ashford.
Their relationship had begun quietly.
Victoria met Daniel at a charity construction project on the edge of the city. He had arrived covered in dust after inspecting unsafe foundations. She had arrived with photographers.
He assumed she would leave after five minutes.
Instead, she spent the afternoon asking questions.
Real questions.
Not the polished questions people asked when they already knew the answers.
Daniel remembered the first time she laughed at one of his jokes.
He remembered the smell of rain in her hair.
He remembered believing, for the first time in his life, that someone like her could love someone like him.
Victoria’s father disagreed.
Charles Ashford never threatened Daniel directly.
Men like Charles did not need to.
Contracts disappeared.
Clients changed their minds.
A project Daniel had spent three years designing suddenly collapsed under a false accusation of financial misconduct.
Within weeks, his reputation was ruined.
Victoria begged him to stay.
Daniel refused to let her sacrifice everything.
Then, one night, Charles invited him to the Ashford estate.
Daniel went alone.
He came out before midnight.
Victoria was waiting near the gates.
She had been crying.
“What did he say?”
Daniel stood beneath the yellow light of the carriage lamps.
“He made his position clear.”
“I don’t care.”
“You will.”
“I love you.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
For one dangerous second, he almost believed love was enough.
Then he looked at the mansion behind her.
At the guards.
At the men who controlled newspapers, banks, companies, and courts.
He kissed her forehead.
“Go home, Victoria.”
“No.”
“Please.”
She shook her head.
Daniel stepped back.
She never knew what Charles had said inside that room.
She never knew about the documents placed in front of him.
And she never knew why Daniel disappeared the following morning without saying goodbye.
Until now.
