Page 98 of Secret Baby Daddy

“Don’t let him choose the conversation.”

I almost laugh.

Of course that’s what she says.

Three months ago, I would have walked into that room the second Roman spoke my name.

I would have considered it strength.

Now I understand the difference between acting and being moved.

Roman wants me angry.

So I make him wait.

Ten seconds.

Twenty.

At thirty-two, he reaches for the encrypted drive.

He slips it into his coat pocket.

Hayes taps his screen.

“Documented.”

Roman turns toward the door.

I step out.

He stops.

For one suspended second we’re simply two men facing each other across an archive table, with twelve years of history sitting between us in a cardboard box.

Roman looks older than he did the first time I saw him again in Cordelia’s drawing room.

Not weaker.

Just smaller.

I wonder if he was always this size and I simply spent too many years remembering him as something larger.

“There you are,” he says.

“You broke into a private archive.”

Roman smiles faintly.

“You invited me.”

“No. We let you hear a story.”

His eyes sharpen.

Somewhere four blocks away, I know Piper is hearing every word.

Roman glances toward the box.