"No."
"Twenty million?"
"No."
"What's your number, Mr. Vega? Everyone has one."
"Not for her." I hold his gaze. "There's no number. There's no deal. You could offer me everything you have and I'd still chooseher. That's what you don't understand. She's not a negotiation to me. She's not an asset or a problem or a situation to be managed. She's it. She's everything."
Sterling opens his mouth, but before he can speak, there's movement in the doorway.
Diamond.
She's standing there in my t-shirt, hair still mussed from bed, looking between me and her father with something fragile in her expression. She wasn't supposed to come out. She was supposed to let me handle this.
But she's here. And she's looking at her father like she's twelve years old again, waiting to see if he'll choose her this time.
"Daddy," she says quietly. "Please."
One word. That's all it takes.
I watch something crack open in Charles Sterling's face. The anger drains out of him like water, leaving behind something older. Softer. The look of a father who's just realized he's about to lose his daughter—not to me, but to his own stubbornness.
"Diamond..." His voice is rough. "Sweetheart, I just want what’s best for you."
"I know what you want. You want me safe. You want me happy." She crosses the room, stops in front of him. "I am, Daddy. I'm both of those things. For the first time in years."
"He's not," Sterling stops. Swallows. "He's not what I would have chosen for you."
"I know. But I chose him. He saved my life." She takes her father's hand and holds it like she's the one with all the power. "I love him. And I need you to be okay with that. Because I don't want to lose you too."
Too. Like her mother.
Sterling flinches. The word lands exactly where she meant it to.
"I'm not going anywhere," he says, and his voice is thick. "I would never! Diamond, I would never abandon you."
"Then don't make me choose. Please." Her eyes are wet now. "I'll choose him. I will. But I don't want to. I want both. I want you to walk me down the aisle someday, and I want you to be grumpy about it but there anyway. I want my kids to know their grandfather."
She breaks off. Sterling pulls her into his arms.
I watch them—the billionaire and his daughter, holding each other in the middle of this glass house while the ocean crashes outside. She's crying into his shoulder. His eyes are closed, his jaw tight, and I realize I've never seen him look human until this moment.
"Okay," he says finally. Quietly. "Okay."
Diamond pulls back. "Okay?"
"I don't like it." He looks at me over her head, and there's still steel there, still warning. "I don't trust him. I think you're making a mistake."
"Daddy."
"But I trust you. I trust that you know your own heart. And I'm not going to be the reason you walk away from this family." He wipes a tear from her cheek with his thumb. "I already lost your mother. I won't lose you too."
She hugs him again. Tighter this time.
When they finally separate, Sterling turns to me. His expression has hardened again, but it's different now. Less hostile.
"I meant what I said." His voice is steady. "If you hurt her, there's nowhere you can hide. I'll spend every dollar I have making your life hell."
