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“I’d seen what you could do for Venom, Seb. You were so certain I’d cheated on you. How was I supposed to know you wouldn’t be just as certain Sparrow belonged with you?”
His head came up. “Sparrow?”
I hadn’t meant to give him her name. It had come out because it was hers and, in my head, she’d never been anything else.
He leaned forward. “That’s her name? We have a girl?”
“Yes. We have a girl. Her name is Sparrow.”
His eyes closed for a second. “Sparrow,” he said quietly. Then he sat back. “I wouldn’t have done that to you.”
“You say that now. But I didn’t know it then, and I don’t know you well enough anymore to take it on trust.”
He nodded once. He didn’t argue.
So he wasn’t here to take Sparrow from me. He’d come alone, he’d apologized, and he looked wrecked. He’d spent a year trying to find me and failed because the men outside this room really were the best security in the business.
All of that mattered. More than I wanted it to. But it didn’t answer the question I’d carried for a year. Why had he believed a screen before he believed me?
“You’re the best I’ve ever seen at what you do,” I said. “You check everything. Then you check it again. If one tiny thing doesn’t look right, you keep going until you know why.”
His face tightened.
“But not that video. Not me.”
“I told you it was us. You didn’t ask me a single question. You decided I was lying and told me to get out.” My voice broke. “You chose a screen over me. That’s the part I can’t get past.”
He held my eyes. “I did.”
“There’s one more thing about the video,” he said.
I held up my hand. “The video wasn’t what hurt me, Seb. You were.”
He looked down. For a while, neither of us spoke. Eventually, he looked up. “What happened after you left?”
“Robin picked me up outside Fennimore and brought me here. I’ve been here ever since.”
He waited.
“The pregnancy was fine. No issues. Sparrow’s birth was textbook. We were both healthy.”
His jaw tightened, but he nodded.
“That’s all I’m ready to tell you today.”
“Okay.”
Twice, his eyes moved around the office while we talked. The second time, they stopped on a muslin cloth hanging over the arm of a chair. Nick had brought Sparrow in on Friday while I dealt with Mavis on the phone.
Seb knew what it was. His eyes stayed on it for a moment before he looked back at me.
“Wednesday,” I said.
“What?”
“You can meet her. Wednesday, here, in the afternoon. Robin or one of them will be in the building.” I stood up, because it was one thirty and I’d said half an hour.
He got up and nodded once. At the door, he looked back at me.
