My lawyer hands him the envelope that I gave him when I came in, and Andrew opens it to see the bills. “Should have held out,” he says, turning around.

When he is finally out of the room, Evan stands up. “I think I’m literally going to be sick.” He puts his hand on his stomach.

“The guy just signed away a kid,” Markos says.

“He’s sick,” Viktor says, and we all look at him. “Relax, I don’t like him. I’m just saying that he’s a sick man.”

“I don’t give a fuck what you say.” Matthew looks at Viktor. “You’re in recovery. Would you sell baby Zara?”

“I would die before I gave her up,” he says without skipping a beat.

“The question now is when are you going to tell Caroline?” my father asks me.

“Tonight,” I say, and when the lawyer gives me a copy of the papers and I walk out of his office, I get sick right next to the car.

Chapter Forty

Caroline

“Caroline, can you please make sure that all emails have been verified?” Malika smiles at me.

I smile back at her. “I just did.” I give her the ones that have to be changed.

“It’s so good to finally have some real help here,” she says, turning and walking back to her own office. When I first started here, I thought I would just be answering the phone, but Justin stuck me in a office, and Malika came in with a coffee in one hand for her and another one for me, and she went through everything that we did. I was in awe with everything that Justin’s foundation does. I was also in shock when they told me that my salary was close to seventy-five thousand dollars.

“I’m just happy I haven’t messed things up too badly.” I smile when I hear voices, and look out of my office window, wondering if Justin is in. He was acting really weird the whole day yesterday, and this morning, he nearly ran out of the door.

When he went to bed last night, it was as if he wasn’t there. Even when we got lost in each other, something was missing. I tried to tell myself that he was tired. I tried to tell myself that it was nothing and all in my head, but this morning, he barely made eye contact with me, and my stomach dropped when he left without so much as a backward glance. In fact, he couldn’t run out fast enough.

“Hey.” I hear, and I am taken out of my daydream, and I smile when I see it’s him. “You almost done?”

“Yes,” I say. “I’m done.”

“Okay, I’ll be done in about fifteen,” he says, and then he looks at me and just fake smiles and my heart sinks.