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My eyes widened. “You know?”

“I called her,” Julian explained. “I wanted your best friend here in case you need her when the name comes through. It should be soon.”

“Thank you,” I managed.

The bag rustled when Megan shifted it. “He earned some brownie points for filling me in so you don’t have to.”

“I’ll take them.” Julian kissed the top of my head as he walked back into the kitchen.

Megan and I followed him. She set the bag on the counter and pulled me in for a much-needed hug. I held on longer than I meant to.

Megan whistled when she saw the counter. Cookies covered just about every surface—chocolate chip, oatmeal, and brown butter chocolate chunk, and many more.

“You stress-baked for an army,” she murmured.

My best friend didn’t need to ask if I was all right. She already knew I wasn’t. So she opened the bag and started putting the groceries away, giving me another slice of normal.

Once she was done, she walked down the row of cookies. “Which ones are the salted caramel?”

I pointed, and we both took one. We stood at the counter and chewed while the oven timer counted down. When I pulled the cake out, the top was cracked. I set it on the rack and started to make the frosting.

Julian’s phone buzzed against the table. He answered and put it on speaker before I even looked up from my mixing bowl.

The man on the other end did not waste words. “Coffee shop footage matched one of the photos you provided. It’s your daughter.”

Ellie.

I set the spatula down and realized my first thought was not about the video. It was about the man sitting in my kitchen.

I loved Julian, and she was his daughter.

His tech guy had only been able to figure out it was her because Julian had given him a photo of Ellie to check against.

When I looked up, his gaze was already locked on my face. He didn’t rush to defend her. He just closed the laptop and set the phone face down. Then he waited.

“I need a minute,” I managed.

“Okay.” Julian stood and started to walk out of the kitchen. Then he stopped in the doorway. “I’m not leaving unless that’s what you really want. But I can give you space.”

I shook my head and gestured toward the couch in the living room. He went and sat down. Megan pulled me in for a hug that was tighter than the one she gave me when she got here.

“I have a shovel in the trunk,” she murmured against my hair. “Ride or die. Always.”

“Love you, Megan.”

She let go, and I climbed the stairs. After locking the bathroom door, I splashed cold water on my face. It didn’t really help except to wake me up a little.

If one of my friends told me this was a plot from a book they were reading, I would’ve said it was too unrealistic. But my ex-husband’s mistress really had tried to sell a deepfake sex video of me. And the man I’d fallen head over heels in love with was her father.

Julian had done everything right since he found out about the video. He had proven that he was ride or die for me too.

I dried my face and went back down. Julian was still on the couch, and I sat next to him. Our shoulders touched.

“I don’t blame you for what happened.”

His hand found mine, and his shoulders slumped. “I’m so fucking sorry, baby.”

“Hey.” I climbed on his lap and pressed my forehead to his so we were staring into each other’s eyes. “This is not your fault. She could have decided to target me for being Harrison’s ex, even if you and I had never met.”