“You don’t have to worry. I haven’t told anyone you’re my father.”

He looked pained. “That’s actually why I’m here. Dayana told me about the NDA.”

“What do you mean she told you about it?” she asked.

“I’m embarrassed to say that I had no idea that Rebecca, my ex-wife, forced you to sign something like that.”

“You had no idea?” she repeated slowly.

“Did you wonder why I didn’t present it to you? Why it wasn’t my attorney in the room?”

“Of course not. I assumed you didn’t want to deal with it. With me,” she said, still clinging to what she believed to be true. That she was unwanted. Unloved. Unwelcome.

He grimaced, and she noticed the lines around his eyes were deeper now. “I can’t blame you for thinking that.

“After I turned your trust over to you, you essentially vanished from my life. You stopped returning calls, stopped accepting invitations.”

“Because I thought you made me sign the NDA swearing I would never tell anyone that you were my father!”

“I’m not here,” Dayana insisted, stepping into the room. She had a bottle of scotch in one hand and two glasses in the other. “And I’m not saying anything other than my mother is a cold, single-minded person who hurts people for sport.” She put them down on the desk that stood between father and daughter and left.

They both stared at the bottle.

“Rebecca told me you were finished with me because you got your money. That your trust was all you wanted from me.”

“I never wanted your money,” Maggie said, her voice shaking. She sat because she would start throwing things or making new holes in walls if she let herself think too hard.

“I understand that now,” Spencer said gently. “I started to believe it when you sent that check to me. It was a gift, Maggie. Not a loan.”

She closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. “I wanted to prove that I didn’t need you. That I didn’t need a father who didn’t want me.”

“You are so much like your mother,” he said wistfully.

“I didn’t know that you two knew each other beyond…well, me.”

“I loved her.”

His confession had Maggie uncovering her face and reaching for the scotch. “I think I need this.”

“Make it two,” Sebastian said.

She poured heavily, and they sipped in silence for a moment.

“My marriage was rocky when I met your mother at that conference. I’d brought up the idea of separating a few weeks before, and Rebecca had agreed to move into our apartment downtown. In my head, it was a done deal. I met your mother. This bright, beautiful, intelligent, caring woman with this energy. This zest for life. It was intoxicating. We spent the entire conference together.”