Chapter 1: Dirt Among Diamonds
The wealthy love hosting extravagant charity galas.
It gives them the comforting illusion that generosity can erase greed.
Tonight, the grand ballroom of the Royal Hotel shimmered beneath crystal chandeliers, filled with the scent of expensive champagne and carefully rehearsed smiles.
My name is Claire Bennett.
Dressed in a silver silk gown worth more than most people earned in a year, I stood beneath the spotlight, playing the role everyone expected—the perfect daughter of the powerful Bennett family.
Then everything stopped.
The massive ballroom doors burst open.
A little boy, no older than six, came running inside.
His bare feet were bleeding.
His clothes were ripped apart.
He smelled of mud, rain, and the darkest alleyways in the city.
Hundreds of guests recoiled instantly.
Women covered their designer gowns.
Men stepped back from the child as though poverty itself were contagious.
"Catch him!" my father, the Bennett family patriarch, shouted from the stage.
"Get that filthy little brat out of here!"
Four large security guards rushed toward the boy.
But he didn't run.
Instead, he frantically searched the crowded ballroom.
Then his eyes found me.
"Aunt Claire...?"
His tiny, trembling voice echoed through the silent room.
May you like
It felt as if someone had reached inside my chest and crushed my heart.
Without thinking, I shoved the guards aside, ran toward him, and dropped to my knees on the cold marble floor.
