Page 236 of Secret Heir For The Billionaire Twin

I hold Sophie’s gaze instead.

“We need to talk.”

Her expression tightens.

“I know,” she says.

I step back from the doorway before anger, shock, or something far more dangerous can get ahead of me.

Sophie does not stop me.

The door closes behind me.

I make it to the car and stand there with one hand on the roof, staring at nothing.

I came here to return a bag. Instead, I am leaving with the first real explanation for seven years of silence.

And if I am right, Sophie has not only kept a secret from me.

She has kept a son from me.

Chapter Thirty

Sophie

The door closes behind me, and I move quickly across the annex toward my room with my phone still clenched in my hand. My pulse has not settled since I left Julian, but the message from Emma has shoved everything else to the side.

I unlock the screen again and reread it as I reach my door.

Emma: Theo got sick at school. He threw up twice and said his stomach hurt. He got dizzy when they tried to stand him up, so I’m taking him to urgent care now. I’ll call as soon as I know anything.

Another message sits beneath it.

Emma: He’s awake and talking. Don’t panic. I’m with him.

I step inside, drop my phone onto the bed, and pull my suitcase from beside the dresser. My hands move faster than my thoughts as I gather what I can, folding nothing properly, shoving clothes, shoes, toiletries, and chargers into the case while I pull up the airline app on my phone.

There is a commercial flight to Los Angeles leaving in just under two hours.

I book it without hesitating.

If I leave now, I can make the airport, get on the plane, and be home by early evening. I can replace anything I forget. I can deal with the rest later.

For one brief moment, my mind drifts backward to the night I just left behind. The storm. Julian. The way everything between us broke open after years of silence. The way I stopped guarding every thought and every instinct and let myself fall into something I had spent years pretending was finished.

I close my eyes for a second, then force them open. There is no room to unravel over that now. The harder truth is that whatever happened between Julian and me last night did not change the one thing I still have not told him. It only makes that omission heavier, more immediate, and much more difficult to keep compartmentalized.

My phone starts ringing.

Emma.

I answer at once. “What happened?”

“He’s okay,” Emma says.

“We’re still waiting to be seen, but he hasn’t gotten sick again.”

“Is he still dizzy?”