“What?” Amelia whispers.
Wildcat looks at me.
I step forward and take the box before she can.
Inside is a dinosaur.
New. Blue. Plastic. Bigger than Blue Rex.
A kid would love it.
That is the sickest part.
Under it is a folded note.
I open it.
Three words.
Daddy knows best.
Amelia makes a strangled sound.
August pulls away from her enough to see. “Is that for me?”
No one speaks.
His lower lip trembles. “Is it from Daddy?”
Amelia drops to her knees in front of him. “Baby…”
“How did he know I was here?”
There are questions that should never come out of a child’s mouth.
That is one of them.
Amelia’s face crumples, but she fights it because he is watching. “I don’t know.”
I do.
Maybe not the details.
Not yet.
But I know enough.
He reached for the kid.
That changes things.
Something cold and clean settles in me.
Oaks sees it.
Wildcat sees it.
Amelia sees it too.