“Because you saved me,” he said.
“Now it’s my turn.”
Six months into the adoption process, someone from Michael’s past appeared.
Daniel Brooks, his longtime rival and head of Brooks Enterprises.
“I have information,” Daniel said smugly.
“About your daughter.”
Michael stiffened.
“I found her mother,” Daniel continued.
“Sarah Collins. Your former employee. Fired for leaking data.”
Daniel leaned in.
“Give me forty percent of your company, or I expose everything.”
Michael thought of Lily’s laugh. Her hugs. Her whispered Good night, Dad.
“Do whatever you want,” Michael said calmly.
“I’m giving you nothing.”
The story went public.
A billionaire adopts the child of a disgraced former employee.
Michael prepared Lily.
“They’ll say awful things,” he told her.
She squeezed his hand.
“I trust you.”
Instead of outrage, the public supported them.
And that was how Project Lily began.
One shelter became many. Hundreds of children left the streets behind.
At eight, Lily stood on a stage near Fifth Avenue.
“I was invisible,” she said.
“Doing the right thing changed everything.”
Michael cried backstage.
Years later, Lily graduated top of her class in architecture at Columbia University.