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“No, I don’t think you do.” Dom stood because sitting still had become impossible. “You hid your entire pregnancy from me. You made every decision alone, then showed up at my apartment and acted like leaving a bag with some clothes and diapers and paperwork made what you were doing okay.”

“It didn’t,” Talia said. “I know it didn’t.”

“You stole months from me.” His voice broke, and he hated that, but he couldn’t stop. “Months I could have had to get ready. I should have known she was coming. I should have been at the hospital when she was born.”

Talia covered her mouth with one hand and stared at him with unshed tears filling her eyes, but Dom couldn’t stop.

“You took her first three weeks too. Do you understand that? There are three weeks of her life I will never get back. I don’t know what she sounded like when she first cried. I don’t know if she had trouble eating or sleeping or if she was scared. I know nothing because you decided I didn’t deserve to know she existed.”

“You did deserve to know.” Tears spilled freely down Talia’s face now. “I was wrong.”

But Dom was on a roll and her words barely registered. “All that time, when I could have bought a crib and figured out how to put a car seat in my SUV. Those were months I could have asked questions and read something and had one fucking minute to understand that I was going to be somebody’s father.”

Talia flinched at the force in his voice. Dom glanced at the monitor to check on Lucia. She hadn’t moved, but he lowered his voice anyway.

“I was scared.” Talia’s voice shook.

“So was I.” Dom pressed both hands to the back of his neck and paced toward the windows. “But you got months to think about what was happening. I had to figure it out in one night.”

“I’m sorry.” Talia covered her mouth again, barely holding in a sob. “I’m so sorry, Dom.”

“Sorry doesn’t fix any of this.”

“I know.” Talia lowered her hand and looked at him, her face wet but unguarded. “I’m not asking you to forgive me. I’m not asking you to tell me I did the best I could because everyone knows I didn’t. I knew you would take care of her, and I convinced myself that leaving the paperwork and the formula meant I wasn’t really abandoning her.” Her breath shook under the weight of Dom’s glare. “It just meant that I planned it.”

Dom looked away and returned to his seat. For months, he had imagined this conversation with Talia defending herself. In some versions, she accused him of making everything about his own pain. In others, she told him he should be grateful she had chosen him instead of giving her away. He had answers planned for every excuse she could have given him, but her agreement knocked the fight out of him.

Silence stretched between them. The monitor crackled on the coffee table, and Dom watched Talia’s head whip toward the sound. On the screen, Dom watched Lucia start to wake.

“My attorney has a custody agreement ready,” he said.

Talia took a slow breath. “That won’t be necessary.”

Dom’s shoulders tightened, and he raised his brow. “What?”

“We don’t need a custody agreement,” she whispered. She sat up straight and looked at him. “I’ll sign away my rights.”

Dom froze, unsure he’d heard her correctly. “I’m sorry?”

“Talk to your attorney,” she continued. “Whatever needs to happen, whatever I need to sign or show up for, just let me know and I will.”

He looked at the monitor again. “You understand what you’re saying?”

“Yes.” Her voice shook, but she didn’t look away. “I’m not asking you to raise her until I decide I’m ready. I’m telling you I want to give up my rights.”

Dom pressed his palms against his knees. He had spent so long preparing to fight her if she ever reappeared that he didn’t know what to do with her willingness to completely walk away. “And you’re not asking for visits?”

“No regular visits. No weekends. Nothing you have to schedule her life around.” She paused. “I wanted to see her today because I needed to know she was okay. But this isn’t me asking to come back.”

“Giving up your rights is permanent, Talia.” He didn’t know why he was pushing the issue when he should be sprinting to his attorney’s office.

“No kidding, Dom.” Talia rolled her eyes, and for a split second, Dom saw the girl he used to have so much fun with. Then she looked at him, and her face got serious. “I’m not ever going to be her parent, and I don’t want you to have to keep wondering whether I’ll show up and screw up your life. And hey, someday you might find someone good enough to be another parent to her.”

Dom’s thoughts flew instantly to Gavin, and he nodded. He believed she meant what she was saying, but it would take more than one conversation to trust her to follow through. A soft complaint came through the monitor, and he looked down to see Lucia rubbing a fist over her face and her legs moving in her sleep sack.

“She’s waking up,” Dom said.

Talia sat straighter, eyes fixed on the screen while Dom watched her. He was still angry. He wasn’t sure how long he would be angry, or whether there would ever come a time when he could think about everything he’d missed without feeling the loss and sadness he felt now. But he had agreed to consider letting her see Lucia, and she had sat here and answered him, even when the answers made her look worse. Lucia complained again, louder this time.