Page 35 of My Girl to Take

Why?

I exhale slowly, dragging a hand down my face as I push away from the desk. The tension builds fast, sharp, uncomfortable, because I don’t want to go there. I don’t want to question her, not after everything, not after the way things have been between us.

But the doubt is there now. And it doesn’t leave.

I shake it off quickly, forcing my focus back where it needs to be. Because this isn’t about her right now. Not until I know more. Not until I have everything in front of me—something solid, undeniable.

And now, I do.

I grab the files, the evidence, everything I’ve compiled, and head out of the office. My steps are quick, controlled, my mind already set on what needs to happen next.

I need to tell Kiera. I need to tell my father.

And I need to shut this down before it gets any worse.

⁎⁎⁎

Her office door is slightly open when I get there.

I don’t knock. I push it open.

And everything inside me goes still.

Kiera stands near her desk. And Ivy is right there with her.

The world narrows instantly. My grip tightens around the file in my hand as something sharp and immediate cuts through everything else. Every thought, every explanation, every benefit of the doubt I was still holding onto.

They’re together. Talking. Close enough to look familiar. Like this isn’t the first time.

My jaw locks.

Kiera turns first, her expression shifting from neutral to surprise the second she sees me. “Logan—”

I don’t let her finish. I look at Ivy instead, my gaze hard, cold, taking in the way she straightens. The way her expression shifts into something practiced and controlled.

“Well,” she says lightly. “This is unexpected.”

Then she puts her hand on Kiera’s arm.

Just briefly. Just long enough. The way you’d touch someone you’d been standing beside for a while.

“We’re nearly done here, aren’t we, darling,” she says. Not to me. To Kiera. Perfectly warm. “Same as always.”

And she looks at me over her daughter’s shoulder while she says it, and I watch her enjoy herself.

She’s had about two seconds to work out what I am to Kiera and what she can do with it.

Kiera’s face does something—confusion, a flinch, her arm coming away. I don’t stay to read it because I’m already looking at a calendar artifact from eighteen months ago and hearing not tonight in the dark.

I don’t respond to Ivy. I don’t trust myself to. My focus shifts back to Kiera, searching her face, looking for something, anything that tells me I’m wrong. That this isn’t what it looks like, that there’s an explanation that makes sense.

But all I see is surprise.

And that’s not enough.

“You didn’t think to mention she was back,” I say, my voice low, controlled in a way that feels dangerous, even to me.

Her brows pull together. “Logan, I was going to—”