The sterile smell of the hospital surrounded me, and I hated it. I’d always hated hospitals, and the only reason I ever came was to see Dad.

My dad’s face instantly broke into a smile as soon as Adam and I walked in. His happiness was contagious, and I couldn’t help the smile that made its way onto my face either. When I was within arm’s reach, he engulfed me in a hug.

When I pulled back, Adam got his hug along with a little ruffle of his hair at the end. That’s when I finally got a good look at Dad. He looked pale, his hair was gone due to cancer, and his face looked sunken and frail. He was surrounded by wires, all connected to different machines that were keeping him alive. His eyes glistened with joy, but as usual, the bleak fog remained, showing just how hopeless he really was.

“Princess. How are you doing?” His deep voice was slightly raspy due to the fact that he had just woken up from a nap. I opened up the packet of chocolate digestives I got on the way as I answered, “I’m good. How about you, is the treatment going well?”

“Yeah, everything is going fine.” I sighed in relief at his answer. Every day I was hoping and praying that Dad would survive, that he would go back to how he was before catastrophe hit our entire family. Hearing it from him had happiness flourishing in my heart.

I wheeled the table over to the bed before I sat on the edge of it and took a biscuit. “Thank God for that. Bad luck seems to follow us like a shadow.” Dad’s lips tipped up at the edges and the slight creases around his eyes deepened.

“No lie in that,” he said, ruffling my hair, and I leaned away, laughing.

“What is it that you wanted to tell me?” I was suddenly reminded of the main reason why I came to visit Dad. “Well, I got a job today.” A smile brightened his face as he waited for me to continue. “At Reid Industries.”

Confusion blossomed in my mind as I watched his smile fall while a bleak look clouded his eyes.

“What are you doing there?”

I sensed a tone of nervousness in his voice, which pushed me to place my hand over his. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Sof. I just don’t want you to overwork yourself.” My eyes narrowed on his face, and I decided not to comment on the fake smile that crawled across his features.

“Starting tomorrow, I will be Amory Reid’s personal assistant.”

Horror danced across his face. He sat up abruptly and grasped my hands in his. “Sofia, that isn’t a good idea.”

“Dad, everything will be fine. He’s not that bad.”

His eyes glassed over slightly. “I know that you can handle the job, but there’s—” He cut himself short to take a deep breath.

I watched with furrowed brows as he regained his composure before turning to me again. “Just be careful. Please. That man is—” he trailed off, staring at the wall ahead of him as he thought deeply.

“Dad, what are you talking about?” I laughed, trying to ease the tension that surrounded us, to no avail.

“Nothing,” he breathed finally. “I’m just being paranoid.”

It was quiet for a moment before he spoke again, his voice soft and quiet as he questioned me. “How did the interview go? Did he ask you any personal questions?”

I heard the note of fear that sat beneath his words.

“No... he didn’t.” I paused to examine his reactions for a moment. “Are you sure everything is okay? You’re acting weird.”

A smile instantly took over his features. “I just want to make sure you didn’t do anything to anger him. I know how you are.” He gave me a playful glare while I threw him a lengthy roll of my eyes.

“I kept messing things up. I was just really nervous, but I got the job so it doesn’t matter.”

“Wow,” he breathed. “I’m impressed, Sofia. You managed to bottle that attitude of yours.”

I laughed loudly before I revealed, “I did insult him a few times, though.”

He looked shocked for a second before he grinned. “Just like your mother.”

Dad always liked to tease me about my attitude, always telling me that I got it from my mum. Her fiery nature was one of the best things about her, and if you were to rile her up, you probably had a death wish.

He laughed softly before taking my small hand in his rough one. “Congratulations, sweetheart. I’m proud of you. You deserve it, but please be careful. You know I would never forgive myself if anything ever happened to you.”

I gave him a big smile before replying, “I’m fine, Dad, really. You have nothing to worry about.”

He nodded wearily before directing his attention to Adam. “Well, boy, how is school going for you?”

Adam swallowed his biscuit before answering, “It’s going great. I got ninety-two percent in my maths test on Wednesday!”

Pride was written all over Dad’s features as he looked at my baby brother, who was an exact replica of him.

They both had the dark hair and blue eyes, the one dimple on their left cheeks, the narrow nose, and the straight eyebrows. Adam inherited most of Dad’s traits, while I inherited Mum’s hazel-green eyes and golden blonde locks. I observed them as they spoke to one another. I noticed how Dad’s eyes lit up at everything Adam said. Mum would have been proud.

My eyes glazed over, and I smiled a genuine smile.

Olivia crushed me in a bone-breaking hug after I revealed to her that I landed the job. She kept gushing over how proud she was of me.

“Is Amory Reid hot?”

I almost choked at her words, but what was I really expecting? This was Olivia Moore.

When I regained my self-control, I nodded lightly with a smirk and joked, “The sexiest. When I saw him, I almost thought I died and went to heaven for a second.”

She leaned back on the couch and held her wine glass to her lips as she gazed off out the window. “What I would do to shag that man…”

She looked like some schoolgirl that was head over heels as she spoke about him, gushing over the littlest details, all the way down to his eyelashes.

“Oh! Why don’t we Google him?”

I groaned in annoyance at her idea, but she took no notice and went to fetch her laptop.

I had to start preparing for my first day at Reid Industries, but instead, I was at Liv’s house drinking wine and dishing out details on my sexy-as-sin boss. As much as I wanted to go home and go to sleep, I had to admit, I too was a little curious about his past, which was why I decided to stay and read a ridiculous amount of articles about him.

Studied at Oxford, went off the radar after university, started his own business, and is now the richest man in England. No wonder people thought his past was so shady. How the hell does the son of one of the most powerful families in England just magically drop off the globe for almost four years?

To hell if I knew.