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Her eyelids flutter. “You stayed in touch?”
“When Emily let me.” I nod. “Once she aged out of the system, she got good at dodging the radar. Whenever she popped up, I gave her food and money. I took care of her as well as I could before I was running things.”
“And after you were running things?” Piper asks.
“She was the first person I hired. I brought her on as an… an assistant, I guess you could call it. She had everything she could have ever needed. I thought…” I sigh and drag a hand through my hair. The late hour is starting to catch up with me. I’m weary down into my bones. That exhaustion is probably the only reason Piper manages to drag this story out of me. “I thought things were going to start looking up for her.”
Piper lays a hand on my elbow and squeezes gently. “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. So am I.”
There’s a beat of silence before Piper steps back. “But wait. If you hired her, then you must know who the father of her baby is. You were back in her life. She would have told you.”
I stare at her, watching, waiting. I’ve called Piper dumb plenty of times, but I know she isn’t. I know if I wait a few seconds, she’ll put the pieces together. Three, two—
She gasps. “Rodion.”
Ding, ding, ding.
“Oh my god.” Her eyes go wide. “That’s why he said—So much makes sense now!”
“Hindsight has that effect.”
She ignores me and laces her hands around the back of her neck. She’s pacing again. Finally, she faces me and snaps her fingers. “So you know who the father is! You can call him and see if his family has a history of congenital heart disease.”
“No.” The word is out before she can even finish. And before she can ask me why, I say it again. “No. Absolutely not.”
“But Benjamin is in trouble. The nurses could use that information to help him.”
“Rodion could use that information to hurt him,” I say with as much gravity as I can. “I need you to understand that Rodion can never, under any circumstances, find out about Benjamin being his child. Ever.”
She stares at me. Once again, I see the pieces clicking into place. “Because you think he killed Emily.”
“And he might come for Benjamin if he knows,” I confirm.
She wheezes out a breath and drops unceremoniously down into the chair next to me. Her legs flop like they’re filled with sand instead of bones. She looks as exhausted as I feel. “Rodion really has no idea?”
“None.”
“Does anyone know?” she asks, peeking over at me.
“Me,” I tell her. “And now, you.”
She blows out another breath. “Wow. Okay.”
“I need to know I can trust you to be discreet. Or else—”
She grabs my hands and shakes her head. “No ‘or else,’ okay? I don’t need one. Benjamin would be in danger. That’s enough for me. You have my word. I’ll never tell a soul.”
I could kiss her right now.
I could do a lot more than kiss her right now.
Before I can make that mistake again, the door opens.
74
PIPER
