His head pulled back. “What?”
“Your postpartum. Is another side effect that it’s making you stalk me too?”
“Stalk her?” Sofia asked, her head rearing away. “What is she talking about, Jamie?”
My laugh stuttered out of me. “Brilliant. You’ve managed to keep that from her too.”
Jamie looked at me, his eyes wide. Shaking. “Cora, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, we’re going full denial. Alright.” I reached into my pocket to get my phone, scrolling until I found the message thread I’m glad Marcus told me to never delete. I handed the phone to Sofia. I think she flinched a little when my trembling hands touched hers. “Here, have a flick through that.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Rory came back into the bakery, and as I turned, her worried eyes found mine. Then Jamie’s.
Her pace quickened, and as she reached me, she whispered into my ear, “Should I go get Marcus?”
I shook my head as I eyed her. “I’ve got this.”
I turned to find Sofia’s worried eyes on her husband and Jamie now with my phone in his hands.
He looked back at me. “Thiswasn’t me.”
“Except that it was.” My head pulled back. “And to save you digging yourself into a deeper hole, we literally tracked you.”
“We?” Jamie asked. “Who’s we?”
Me and the best fucking padlock in the world.
“That doesn’t matter. What matters is we tracked where the texts were comingfrom and it was that secret address I’m sure your wife also has no idea about.”
“Secret address? What are you… oh.” Realisation swept over his face, hisvoice still. “That’s our old house.”
“What?”
“The place we used to stop off at, that’s our old house. Was it the place inChelsea. On West 22nd?” I nodded, as his face softened. “We haven’t sold it yet. We’re using it for storage.”
My head shook slowly, heart thudding in my ears. “That’s great, but… thetexts.” I forced the words out, even as my throat tightened. “We literally watched you type something—and then it came through on my phone.”
Jamie and Sofia exchanged glances, their brows knitting together in aconfusion that didn’t feel fake. Not the clumsy, overacted kind I could’ve brushed off and spun into something easier to swallow.
This looked real. Too real.
And maybe I was just overtired. Maybe I was losing it.
But I knew what I saw.
And more than that—I knew it was Jamie.
It had to be.
It couldn’t be anyone else—
My phonebuzzed.
Still in Jamie’s hand.
He looked down at the screen.
And the moment his eyes lifted to mine, cold, readable, I knew exactly who itwas from.
