For a moment, only the murmur of the waves filled the cabin, heavy with salt and silence. Sophie stayed motionless, her dress clinging to her skin, her hair still wet and heavy from the sea. Her whole body pulsed, as if every cell refused to believe what she had just heard. Alex's proposal hung in the air, absurd, drifting among the slanted lights that painted stripes on the blue carpet of the suite.
She felt her throat tighten. She moved slowly, not in any rush to answer this man who, despite the CEO posture, now seemed smaller than his own wounded pride.
"Are you messing with me? Is this some kind of sick joke?" Her voice was barely audible, her gaze fixed somewhere else.
"You bring me here, open up your abyss, and expect me to jump in like it's just another job as a companion? Do you honestly think someone could pretend to be your daughter, just for money? Do you have any idea what you're saying? How could anyone come up with something like that?"
Alex remained still, feeling like a boy in front of a disappointed teacher. Even so, he held Sophie's gaze, at least long enough for her to see the exhaustion etched into his face, a tiredness beyond years, laced with shame.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, Samanta… Wait, it's Sophie, right? Sorry, Sophie, it's not about disrespect," the millionaire tried to explain, his tone careful. "And I don't expect you to see me as a father. I'm not looking for a woman to literally become my daughter… I'm not trying to fill some hole inside me, if you get what I mean. I just…" He hesitated, searching for some shred of dignity. "I want my wife, Veronica, to know how it feels to be deceived."
Alex turned away, staring out the window at the distorted reflections of light on the ocean. The silence between them grew, dense and oppressive, broken only by the distant clinking of glasses and the low hum of the yacht's engines on its way back to shore.
"I believed I had the perfect family," Alex continued, his voice lower, rougher. "I was faithful, a good husband, a good father. I was stupid enough never to cheat on my wife. I never needed to, honestly. Then one day… I found out I've been infertile since my teenage years, thanks to my reckless youth, to falling off horses, to that old pride in being a riding champion. I had some tests done for something else and… Only then did I realize my son… couldn't be my biological son."
He took a deep breath, his large hands clasped together so tightly it looked like he wanted to crush them.
"I did the DNA test without them knowing. Nobody knows. Not Veronica, not… not even him. Do you know what it's like to live with that lie, Sophie? To look at the son you raised and think: he's not mine, he never was, but I loved him, loved him as much as a man can love a son."
Sophie, now sitting on the edge of the bed, felt her own father's memory rise inside her like a cold tide. Her father — part rock, part tenderness — gone just a few years ago, still present in the way she tucked her hair, in her habit of saving old notes in the pocket of her coat. No, she could never pretend to be someone's daughter, not for money, not for revenge.
"Sir… excuse me, Mr. Grant… but I can't. I could never look at someone and call him 'father' without feeling enormous shame, something deeply wrong. It's not just about the money, it's everything this would mean. My father's memory is sacred to me, and the idea of selling myself as someone's daughter feels… unhealthy… forgive my honesty."
Alex lifted his face, his eyes glistening with a pride that no longer fit the moment.
"I don't want you to feel like my daughter. I never… I'm not trying to replace anyone, not you, not myself. I just want Veronica to feel, even if just a fraction, of what I felt all these years. The pain of knowing she was betrayed too, that she was lied to. I know it sounds crazy, but trust me, I know exactly what I'm doing."
Sophie wiped her face with a cold hand. She didn't want to cry. She only wanted to leave that place, to escape that yacht, to forget Alex Grant and the pain written across his eyes.
"I… I need to think about it," she said, her voice nearly a whisper, almost an escape. "I just… I can't decide this now, okay? I promise I'll keep in touch and give you an answer."
She stood up again, and Alex didn't try to stop her. He simply watched, in silence, as she crossed the room with a delicate certainty, as if he already knew he had lost, one more time, the last pieces of what he once believed was his family.
Outside, the night curled over the deck, the sea glittered under the moon, and Sophie felt, for the first time in a long time, a violent urge never to look back.