The Daughter We Kept in the Dark

I had always been the kind of person who apologized when someone else stepped on my foot.

It was a softness born into my bones, a quiet, non-confrontational disposition that my parents spent my entire childhood trying to protect. My father, Arthur Montgomery, had built Montgomery Capital from a two-room office in Manhattan into an empire spanning three states. He was a man made of steel and sharp corners, but when he looked at me, his eyes softened into pure terror. He and my mother were terrified of what the world would do to a girl like me once they were no longer around to stand between me and the wolves.

So, they devised a plan. Instead of marrying me off into another dynasty where I might be swallowed whole, my father decided to handpick a successor—a prospective son-in-law whom we would groom, test, and bring into the family on our terms.