Page 233 of Secret Heir For The Billionaire Twin

That is not entirely false.

Her gaze stays on mine for another second.

“You could have couriered it.”

“I could have.”

Something shifts in her expression.

Not irritation.

Something tighter.

I hold the bag toward her. Sophie reaches for it, but instead of stepping fully outside, she keeps herself positioned in the doorway. I notice because Sophie has never been subtle when she is trying to hide something.

“Thank you,” she says.

“You’re welcome.”

Neither of us moves.

The morning after the storm sits between us, unresolved and impossible to ignore. I am about to say something when my attention catches on a pair of sneakers near the entryway behind her.

Small.

Blue.

I glance past them without meaning to. A backpack rests against the wall beneath a narrow console table. One side pocket holds what looks like a water bottle covered in stickers.

My eyes shift slightly farther.

A sheet of construction paper is taped crookedly to the wall beside the kitchen entrance. Thick blue marker. A badly drawn structure with arrows pointing toward something that might be a pulley.

I look back at Sophie.

Her face has changed.

The tension I noticed when she opened the door is no longer subtle.

“Sophie..”

She adjusts the bag against her hip.

“What?”

I glance toward the sneakers again.

Then the backpack.

“You…have…a kid?”

Her lips part slightly.

Before she answers, something clatters deeper inside the townhouse. Sophie turns her head. The reaction is immediate.

Protective..

Alert…