"Every second," Ethan said.
"Even when I messed up?"
"Especially then," Victoria answered. "You figured out what to do and kept going."
Lily considered that, clearly pleased, and handed Victoria a small paper apple she had made in class. Across the front, in uneven block letters, she'd written THANK YOU FOR COMING. Victoria held it carefully, as though it were more delicate than the signed contracts in her briefcase. She took it back to the city and placed it beside a framed industry award on her office shelf.
That same evening, a photographer standing outside the school took a picture of Victoria getting into her car while Ethan and Lily stood on the sidewalk. It appeared two days later on a local entertainment account beneath a speculative caption asking whether Hayes Global's CEO had found a secret country romance. Most of the comments were harmless. A few were cruel about Ethan's clothes, his income, and the age of the farmhouse visible in the background.
Mara brought the photograph to Victoria's attention before breakfast. "We can ask them to remove the image of the child," she said. "And I'd recommend you avoid discussing this with anyone outside the necessary team until we have a better idea whether it spreads."
Victoria stared at the image. Lily was looking up at her father, smiling. There was nothing scandalous about it except that strangers had decided they were entitled to make a story from the moment. "Get the photo of Lily taken down," she said. "Don't contact Ethan through public relations. I'll call him myself."
He answered from the barn. She heard a metal bucket strike the floor behind him. "Morning."
"There's something I need to tell you. Someone took a photograph of us outside the school. It's on a local site. I've asked that the picture of Lily be removed."
Ethan didn't answer immediately. He had always known Victoria was well known, but public attention was something he experienced as a threat, not an inconvenience. He pictured strangers discussing his little girl as though she were another detail in a celebrity article.
"Is she recognizable?"
"Yes. I'm working on it. I should have been more careful."
"You couldn't know somebody was hiding a camera. But I need you to understand that Lily didn't sign up for your world."
"I do."
He rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand. "I don't want reporters near the farm. I don't want people at her school looking for a story."
"Neither do I."
"Then we need a plan before the next picture."
Victoria was silent for a moment. She was accustomed to solving problems by instructing her staff. Here, Ethan was asking her to work alongside him on something neither fully controlled.
"You're right," she said. "Let's decide together. And Ethan? I'm sorry."
Her apology was specific, without excuses, and that mattered. They agreed not to post photographs involving Lily, to keep public events unrelated to their personal relationship, and to tell the school if someone attempted to approach the child. The offending account removed the photograph later that afternoon. The incident left Ethan shaken, but it also showed him that Victoria would listen when the boundary concerned his daughter.