Page 7 of Secret Baby Daddy

I did not sleep for three days after that call.

I remember standing in my bathroom at two in the morning, running the tap until it went cold, telling myself the numbers did not matter, that a win dressed as a loss is still technically a win.

I remember throwing away the ruined shoes, cream suede, scuffed past saving, and buying an identical pair the next morning out of pure spite.

My therapist, whom I see exactly twice a year and only when forced, calls this pattern “competitive grief.”

I call it Tuesday.

What I never told anyone is that I went back through Calder’s timeline afterward, hour by hour, looking for the moment he got lucky.

There was no luck.

There was a man who did not need to exhaust himself to prove he had earned the answer.

He simply had it, the way other people have blue eyes.

I hate him for that more than for anything else.

Not because he beat me.

Because he made it look like beating me had never cost him any energy at all.

“The Aurelius problem required nuance,” I tell him now, keeping my tone exceptionally bright.

“You found a name on a spreadsheet. Congratulations on your basic accounting skills. I handled the fallout so Margaret did not lose her seat on the board.”

“You put a bandage on a bullet wound and called it surgery.”

Calder slips his hands into his trouser pockets.

He looks relaxed, and it makes me want to throw my briefcase through the window.

“You prioritize the picture over the structure.”

“I prioritize the survival of the client.”

“If this building caught fire right now, Piper, you would not look for the exit.”

He tilts his head, studying me like a piece of machinery he wants to dismantle.

“You would check the lighting to ensure the press photos of the flames came out beautifully.”

“And you would drag everyone out through a sewer grate and leave them smelling like garbage, but declare the mission a success because they have a pulse.”

“A pulse is the prerequisite for a reputation.”

“A ruined reputation is a social death. My clients prefer to survive both.”

I step forward, invading his space.

Cedar and ozone cling to his suit.

“I will not let you turn the Merrick family into a fortress. The public reads silence as guilt.”

“The extortionists do not care about the public.”

Calder does not step back.