“Let’s make it look real,” she says, and pulls my face to hers. Her kiss is passionate, desperate even, fueled by anger and wine and God knows what else. In the few seconds that it lasts, it flushes my face and brings sweat to my skin. My senses are still buzzing when she walks to the door and unlocks it.

“What are you doing in here with the door locked?” Leo asks.

“I’m not alone.”

He pushes his six-foot-four-inch frame through the door and swings his head around to me. His hard features go slack with amazement.

“What the hell’s going on here?”

“Penn and I were talking.”

“Talking.” Leo is still wearing a suit, though he has untied his necktie. “Button that blouse, Olivia.”

Livy does not button the blouse. She steps away from her father, leaving no obstacle between him and me.

“I can’t believe you brought this bastard into our house,” he says, his eyes locked on mine. “I want an explanation.”

“Make one up. Anything you like.”

Her defiant tone draws Leo’s gaze away from me for a moment. “Don’t take that tone of voice with me, young lady.”

“I’ll take whatever tone I please.”

Leo looks off balance. Livy is not playing the role of favorite daughter. “What’s going on here?” he asks. “What’s Cage been telling you?”

“What could he tell me? Have you been keeping things from me?”

“Of course not.”

“No?” She reaches into her blouse and brings out the scrap of legal paper, which she unfolds and hands to him without a word.

Leo stares at it for several seconds, then looks up blankly. “What’s this?”

“Think about it,” she says, her arms folded over her chest.

His face shows only confusion. He looks like he might have had a couple of drinks since receiving the warning about Presley. “Why don’t you save me the trouble?”

“The adoption,” Livy says in a dead voice.

“Your adoption?”

“Yes.”

“What about it?”

“You took money for it?”

Leo shrugs. “So?”

“Thirty-five thousand dollars?”

“That paid a full year of your tuition at UVA.”

Her mouth falls open. “Paid . . . you sold my baby to pay my college tuition?”

“ ‘My’ baby?” Leo’s face softens as he senses the hurt in his daughter. “Honey, you didn’t want that child. I tried to get you to terminate the pregnancy, but you were against it. Given that adoption was your choice, I don’t see what’s wrong with—”

“Selling your own flesh and blood?” Her eyes are blazing now. “Like you needed the fucking money?”

“Profanity doesn’t become you, Olivia.”

“Profanity? Try obscenity. Selling my misery for money. That’s about as obscene as it gets. I was just another profit-loss entry, I guess. Offset the liability of college tuition with the asset of unwanted babies. What the hell, right?”

Leo reaches out to her. “Honey—”