The Little Princess

"Yes, I am right here," Hazel whispered into her smartwatch, hiding behind a thick marble pillar outside the Knox Group headquarters. The morning air carried a biting chill. The corporate staff stood in perfectly straight lines near the entrance, their breath forming white clouds. A sleek black luxury car glided to a halt at the curb. The passenger door swung open, and a man resembling a butler hurried out to pull open the rear door.

Roman stepped out. His long legs, clad in impeccably tailored black trousers, hit the pavement with calculated precision. He radiated a freezing, arrogant aura. The surrounding staff members held their breath, intimidated by the sheer dominance of their boss.

He kept his gaze fixed straight ahead, striding up the wide granite steps.

"Daddy!"

A sweet, childish voice sliced through the heavy silence. Heads snapped toward the sound.

A little girl in a fluffy pink princess dress tumbled out from behind the pillar. She scrambled up the steps with clumsy determination. Her small face was partially hidden beneath a matching pink bonnet, but the noble confidence in her posture mirrored the man she chased.

She lunged forward, wrapping her tiny snow-white arms around Roman's long leg. He was a towering giant; she barely reached his knee.

"Daddy!" Hazel whined, pouting her soft lips.

Gasps rippled through the assembled crowd. Panic and curiosity warred in their eyes.

Roman froze in his tracks. He looked down at the tiny intruder clamped to his calf. Annoyance flashed across his sharp features. "Let go."

The little girl tilted her head back. The morning light illuminated her face. Gasps echoed again, this time from the butler standing mere feet away. The child shared a staggering seventy to eighty percent resemblance to the CEO.

"Daddy..." she murmured.

"Sir, this child..." The butler's eyes bugged out.

"Daddy, hug. Hug!" Hazel released his leg and raised her short, chubby arms. Her massive eyes, as bright and clear as a cloudless summer sky, locked onto his cold gaze.

Something shifted inside Roman. A strange warmth bloomed in his chest. He despised children. They were noisy, messy, and irrational. Yet, looking at this unknown little girl, an inexplicable urge to protect her washed over him.

He hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then, the imposing CEO crouched down and lifted the small girl into his strong arms. She felt impossibly light against his broad chest.

He shot a piercing look at his security team. "Seal the perimeter. Start a full investigation immediately." A child this young could not have breached the plaza alone.

An hour later, the atmosphere in the top-floor executive suite was thick with tension.

"Mr. Knox, the DNA test results are out." Merrick Tate, Roman's trusted assistant, stepped into the office. His hands shook slightly as he extended a sealed medical folder. "She... she is in fact your biological child."

Roman snatched the document from Merrick's hands. He tore the seal open and flipped straight to the final page.

Probability of paternity: 99.9%.

The numbers glared back at him. This girl was his daughter. His mind raced, sifting through the past. Besides Sienna, he had never touched another woman. It was a biological impossibility for anyone else to bear his child.

His neck snapped up. He stared across the spacious office. The little girl sat comfortably on the expensive leather sofa. She cuddled a fluffy teddy bear with one arm and popped a vibrant fruit candy into her mouth with her free hand. She kicked her small feet, thoroughly enjoying the luxurious environment as if she owned the place.

Roman tossed the report onto his desk and closed the distance between them. He stood over her, his shadow casting over her small frame.

"What is your name?" he asked, keeping his tone measured.

"I am Princess Hazel!" she chirped.

"How old are you?"

Hazel paused her chewing, looked up with a bright smile, and held up a tiny hand, fingers splayed. "I am six!"

Roman's heart slammed against his ribs. Six years old.

If Sienna had not died in that horrific crash, their baby would be exactly six years old today.

Could it be? Did Sienna survive the car accident six years ago?

A dangerous spark of hope and excitement flared in his dark eyes. He had deployed endless resources to find her back then. He hired elite salvage teams to scour the freezing ocean for a solid month, but they never recovered Sienna's body. He had forced himself to accept her death.

Now, this child sat before him. His flesh and blood. Six years old.

Did Sienna live? Did she flee to some remote corner of the world, hiding from him to give birth to their daughter?

His breathing grew slightly heavier. He crouched down, bringing his face level with hers. "What about your mother?"

"Mommy? She is..." Hazel started to answer automatically. Her bright eyes widened for a split second as Nash's stern warnings echoed in her mind. She caught herself instantly and tilted her head. "I do not know!"

Roman narrowed his eyes. He kept his voice deceptively gentle. "A good girl does not lie to her father."

Hazel blinked her large, innocent eyes. She squeezed her teddy bear tighter. "Someone told me that lying is inherited. Daddy, are you a good boy?"

Roman's expression turned rigid. "Who told you that?"

Hazel jutted out her bottom lip, looking pure and sweet. "Have you lied then, Daddy?"

Roman opened his mouth, but no words came out. He was silenced.

Standing by the door, Merrick pressed a fist to his mouth, coughing to mask his desperate urge to laugh. Seeing the ruthless, cold-blooded Roman Knox outsmarted by a six-year-old was a sight he never thought he would witness.

Roman shot Merrick a lethal glare. The assistant straightened his posture, his amusement vanishing in an instant.

"Any news from the surveillance team?" Roman demanded.

Merrick took a slow breath. "Yes, sir. But it is not good. This morning, the entire surveillance network surrounding the headquarters was breached by an unidentified hacker. All footage from the past three hours has been wiped and corrupted."

Roman’s brow furrowed into a deep V. He slowly turned his gaze back to the little girl swinging her legs on the sofa. A heavy sense of suspicion settled over him. A scrubbed security system and the sudden, precise arrival of his biological daughter. This was a calculated operation, not a mere coincidence.

Hazel squirmed under his intense, scrutinizing stare. She decided it was time to change the subject. She patted her teddy bear, set it neatly on the leather cushion, and looked up with her soft, round face.

"Daddy, I want to take a bath!"

Roman blinked, the heavy tension breaking. A bath? Now? Right in the middle of a corporate morning?

He sighed, the cold mask slipping just a fraction. He gestured toward the door. "Merrick, take the young lady back to the villa. Instruct the servants to draw a bath for her."

"It is Little Princess! Not young lady!" Hazel corrected loudly, her hands resting on her hips. Her childish voice rang with surprising authority. "And I do not want people I do not like to bathe me!"

Roman rubbed his temples. This unexpected daughter was throwing him off balance. He looked at her demanding stance and forced his tone to soften. "Then what do you want?"

"I want to choose someone I like to bathe me!" Hazel declared, pointing a small finger in the air. She scooped up her bear and marched toward the glass doors. "Merrick, send me home!"

Merrick hesitated, glancing between the tiny dictator and the CEO. "Mr. Knox, this..."

Roman waved a hand dismissively, his eyes tracking the girl. "Listen to her. Do whatever she asks."

Merrick bowed his head. He had no choice but to follow the demanding little princess out to the elevators, keeping a vigilant watch over her every step.

Thirty minutes later, Roman stood by the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, reviewing security logs on his tablet. His phone buzzed.

"Mr. Knox," Merrick sounded stressed. "The little princess is not satisfied with a single servant in the entire villa."

Roman tapped the screen, unbothered. "Hire new servants. Bring them in and get her to pick them herself. Keep doing it until she is satisfied."

There was a long pause on the line. Merrick was genuinely stunned. "Yes, sir."

Merrick had served Roman for over five years. The man was notoriously ruthless, maintaining a freezing distance even from his own fiancée, Blair. Yet, within an hour of meeting this child, he was indulging her most ridiculous whims without a second thought. He was already wrapped around her little finger.

Meanwhile, across the city, the sound of cardboard scraping against wood filled a modest apartment.

Sienna gritted her teeth, shoving all her weight against a massive, taped-up box. Sweat beaded on her forehead. She pushed with everything she had, finally sliding the last heavy crate into the living room.

She collapsed onto the fabric sofa, gasping for air. She glared down the hallway toward the closed bedroom door.

"Nash Croft!" she yelled, frustration lacing her voice. "What on earth did you ship back home?"

The bedroom door cracked open an inch. A small, dark-haired head peeked out cautiously. Nash offered an innocent smile. "I sent all of your design manuscripts home."

Sienna froze, her chest heaving as she caught her breath. "Why would you send all those back here?"

She had made her choice. She walked away from the glittering fame and massive fortune she had built in Europe. She returned to Alden City for a fresh start, leaving that high-profile life behind.

"What if you need them in the future?" Nash stepped out into the hallway, his eyes shifting slightly away from hers. He shoved his hands into his pockets and sauntered forward, flashing a placating grin. "Besides, Mommy, I submitted your resume for you today. It is a job you can handle with no sweat. Super easy. They should be contacting you very soon for an interview."

Sienna frowned deeply. She pushed herself up from the sofa, ready to scold him for meddling in her affairs again. She opened her mouth to speak, but a sharp ring cut through the air.

Her phone buzzed on the coffee table.

She shot Nash a warning look and snatched the device. She pressed it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Ms. Sienna?" a man's urgent voice echoed through the speaker. "You have been chosen by our Little Princess. Please report to Onyx Bay Villa immediately."

Sienna's entire body went rigid. The blood drained from her face, leaving her pale and breathless. Her grip on the phone tightened to the point her knuckles turned white.

Onyx Bay Villa?

"Is... Is it the Onyx Bay Villa where Roman Knox lives?"