In the meeting room, Sophia took her place at the head of the table and smiled at Ethan who was seated by her side.

I missed you, Sophia. “How was your trip?”

Amazing and hot. Sexy hot. “Oh, Ethan. You have to go there.” Her eyes sparkled and she happily lost herself in recounting the experiences she had on her honeymoon.

After a few minutes, she looked around and saw that everyone was ready with their folders and notebooks in front of them. “I guess we can start.”

Scott, seated beside Ethan, took out his Montblanc ready to take notes.

“I’ll begin with a few principles that are the basis of Sophia Leibowitz Foundation. We follow the directives of the UN and International Human Rights. We have in mind the protection of women and children that are or have been abused, supporting and promoting the prevention of violence and struggling to protect them from all forms of abuse, including sexual. You will find all these and the other initiatives on pages three through ten.”

She waited until everyone from Ethan’s team had taken a quick look at those pages, unaware that Ethan’s eyes were fixed on her, drinking in the new beautiful side of a mature, responsible woman he’d never seen before.

“Great. Now, as requested by Mr. Ashford, and supported by Ashford Steel’s gracious donation, we’ve designed a plan where we put Indian and Chinese children—and families, if possible—at the center of all our work for the next year. The following principles are interrelated and will guide our work. Quickly enumerating them.”

Sophia, you’re my zenith. Ethan continued to stare in awe, while Sophia explained the work her foundation planned to undertake. When she finished, he put his hand over hers, and squeezed warmly, not caring what the rest of the people in the room would think about his gesture. “That is amazing, darling. I’m sure this work will have a tremendous impact on these families’ lives. Amazing. I’m so proud of you.”

Zahira and Ashley exchanged looks while Scott hid his smile behind the folder.

Sophia glanced fondly at Ethan. “We’ll do our best.”

You see, Calista, I’m loved. I still have someone I can trust. “I knew I put my trust in the right hands,” he replied.

Thank you, Ethan. She gave him a bright smile and returned her attention to the other participants. “From the first time I talked about this with Mr. Ashford, I saw that the project would have to be bigger than the initial proposal, so I decided to revert our share of fifty percent of the donations, which were left free for us to use at our will, on this project. Children cannot survive on their own, and they need love and care that cannot be given by an institution or foster care. We propose two lines of action. Help the families, and in the case of abandoned Chinese baby girls, place them for immediate adoption. We’ll have volunteers looking for families all around the world and after the first triage with psychologists and psychiatrists specialized in family and adoption, we’ll help them with the legal proceedings. Of course, we always have the children’s best interests in mind. First, decisions and actions affecting an individual child should reflect his or her unique circumstances; second, all actions and decisions, whether legal or administrative, impact all children or a specific group of children, and their parents, so this is a point on which we have to tread lightly. Sexuality is a topic that people in Chinese rural areas are not willing to talk about. We have contacted a few organizations there to help us convince schools to participate in our program, that we are calling safety education. Besides our doctors and health practitioners in general, we already have volunteers that surely will be able to reach pregnant women to save the lives of baby girls and second baby daughters.”

Spectacular, Sophia. “This is better than I thought.”

She smiled at him quickly. “This is a brief introduction of the project. You’ll find the new blueprints of our Indian and Chinese facilities at the end of the folder.” Sophia then introduced the other members of her team, who would describe other areas of the project. “Mrs. Zahira Chanda, the president of the Foundation, will explain the timely placement of children into safe, permanent homes and for their highest quality of care while they are under the court’s jurisdiction. Mr. Paul Evergreen, head of the legal department, will explain the difficulties we are going to face in China. Ms. Ashley Carruthers, our PR director, will show us what information she has already sent out to our supporters and what she prepared for the press conference in two weeks. And last but not least,” she smiled at Scott who beamed at her, “Mr. Scott Mulberry, from Ashford Steel, will present the distribution of funds and profits provided by our gala ball, the table sales, the donations, and support we have already received, and everything else concerning the ball.”

Alistair’s iPhone vibrated for the third time in a row in the space of fifteen minutes but he couldn’t possibly check his cell in the middle of such an important meeting.

He took out from his inner breast pocket the Cartier limited edition dragon pen Sophia had given him. ‘For luck,’ she had said. He willed his lips not to curl up. But every little thing that reminded him of Sophia made a smile come to his face.

Unscrewing the pen, he signed his name on the agreement, passing it along for the others to sign. Malcolm and Berkeley, partners of the bank, had huge smiles on their faces. It had been a great acquisition that transformed The City of London Bank into one of the biggest in the world. He had been studying the South American market for a long time and when the opportunity had presented itself, as the cunning businessman he was, he already had a strategy planned. All he had to do was wield his power dispassionately.

Not that he cared really. He had learned that there were more important things in life than money. No money could bring his daughter back. No money could buy affection.

His phone vibrated again and he harrumphed inwardly.

After all the contracts had been signed and handed over to the lawyers, he rose and greeted all the others in the room with a smile on his face, leaving the seller, an old distinguished man, last. “Senhor Magalhães, I have to say, I was most impressed with how you spread the branches of your bank during the Brazilian military dictatorship and continued expanding through South America. It has been an honor to meet you personally and a pleasure doing business with you.”

“Likewise, Mr. MacCraig. By the way, congratulations on your recent marriage. I’ve known Sophia since she was a child. My wife is very good friends with her grandmother, Angelica. We received an invitation for the wedding, but due to my wife’s fragile health we couldn’t come. I wish I could have seen Sophia marrying again. She must have made a beautiful bride.”

“Ravishing, Senhor Magalhães, ravishing.” That made Alistair’s smile widen and he felt like a school boy who had just been praised for his good grades. “Let me show you a photo.”

He fished his iPhone from the pocket of his navy suit trousers.

He didn’t blink as he scrolled for a photo of Sophia in her wedding dress.

Just by sheer force of will, Alistair maintained his smile as he showed Sophia’s photo to the older man and talked for a few more minutes.

When he had taken his phone out, the last text message he had received was on his screen: