Why did Omega House want Miles to come in on a Saturday? My logical brain knew they weren’t trying to push my buttons, but without the routines of the office to distract me, I couldn’t stop thinking of all the things that could go wrong while Miles was out in the world without me.

When Miles had told me about his plan to go tour Omega House today, I’d thought it was a matter of course that I would go with him. Miles gently shut that idea down, though. I didn’t handle it well. He was right, though. Just because he was pregnant didn’t mean he was an invalid. And I didn’t think that, and he knew that. We both knew that my issues were entirely related to our past trauma. But this is one of those ways where Miles was so much stronger than I was. He had dealt with so much of this years ago, while I had shoved it in a box that had burst open when he announced we were pregnant again.

He hadn’t said anything, but I was seriously considering talking to a therapist. Something Miles had said to me, that it wasn’t fair to either of us to let the past define us, kept ringing in my head. Miles had enough going on right now with the new job situation and being pregnant. It wasn’t fair of me to burden him with all my angst, especially when he had handled his on his own.

All that said, I was still practically shredding my hands by clenching my hands so tightly that the nails were starting to cut and bruise my palms.

I needed something to do. I glanced around the room, suddenly realizing how lived-in my once-pristine apartment was. I liked it. But… it had been a while since we had picked things up. I’d rushed out and bought a bunch of baby things before Miles called a halt to that too. He wanted the whole nine yards, baby shower, couple shopping, whatever else it would take to prepare for the baby. I was just frantic to get everything ready now, so that I knew it was ready, even though we had months to go yet.

Miles had calmed me from my unpacking frenzy by attacking me and distracting me in quite delicious ways, but the end result was that boxes and bags and papers littered the living room.

I breathed a slight sigh of relief. A project would focus me.

I started by grabbing a giant garbage bag and throwing all of the packaging away and breaking down the boxes. Then I clipped all the tags from the clothes and set them aside to be washed in the special baby detergent the terrifying grandmother in the store had scared me into buying.

Sadly, cleaning and organizing the living room only took a couple hours, and Miles still wasn’t back. Nor had he texted. I’d promised myself I wouldn’t bug him, so I needed to find something else to distract my mind from wondering if he’d gotten in another car accident and that was why he couldn’t—

Stop. Clean the bedroom.

Somehow, a bunch of papers for work had ended up in the bedroom. (I suspected I may have forgotten to drop them in the office during another one of Miles’s… distractions.) I took my time gathering them and setting them aside. I opened a sealed envelope to see how to organize it, and quickly realized it wasn’t for me. I grabbed the envelope to confirm it had been written to Miles, but I’d read too much to not finish it.

My hands were shaking in anger by the time I’d completed it. I had no idea why Miles had an unopened letter from his mother, and she had probably never suspected that I would see it. Miles wouldn’t have had all the knowledge to put the pieces together, but I did.

The front door opened and Miles called out, “Honey, I’m home.”

I folded the letter and placed it into my pocket, my relief warring with my anger. We met half-way through the condo and I wrapped him in a relieved hug.

“See?” he mumbled against my arm. “I managed to go out for the day and come back safe and sound.”

“How was it?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

Miles’s smile was glorious as I loosened my arms and he looked up at me. “It’s amazing, Parker. I know we need to talk about it, but I really want to work there. The work they are doing—it’s just—I can’t even explain how good, how fulfilling the idea of working there makes me feel. You need to come with me for a tour. I can’t wait for you to see.”

I kissed his forehead. “Sounds amazing.”

As I pulled away, Miles’s smile fell. “Something is wrong.”

I sighed. I hated raining on Miles’s happiness. I pulled out the letter. “I found this.”

Miles’s face hardened. “I knew she couldn’t have anything good to say. That’s why I didn’t open it. I don’t know what kind of shit she wrote about you or me or us, but it’s not worth giving her the satisfaction.” He grabbed the letter and started to march for the kitchen. “I’m just going to throw it away.”

“No!” I reached out to grab his hand to stop him. “No, I think you should read it.”

We settled into the couch and he reluctantly read the letter. “It’s just what I said, Parker. She’s making claims about your ability as a business man and going on about how much better Andrew is than you.”

“Remember how I told you someone was embezzling the company?”

“You caught him, right?”

“Yes, but we couldn’t figure out where the money went. It was possible he had it in some private off-shore accounts, but something just didn’t feel right to me. Until I read this letter. Look here, where your mother says I stand to lose twenty-five percent of my worth this year? Timothy had already funneled ten percent out, and I’d almost missed it. That’s a ridiculous amount, though. I have no idea how he thought he would manage it.”

“Has he said anything?”

“Not a peep. His wife’s devastated. Apparently, nothing has changed in their lives or financial situation as far as she had been able to tell, which makes me think there was something else going on.”

“Like what?”

“Blackmail. Look at this part where your mom accuses me of having child molesters in my top executives, and how that’s going to be my downfall—Andrew will make sure of it.”

“That seems really sketchy,” Miles said reluctantly.

I set the letter aside. “I know. But I’ve built my entire enterprise on a combination of gut and logic, and right now my gut is telling me I will find the logic if I follow this line of thought. But I need your permission first.”

“Mine?” Miles looked confused. “Why do you need mine?”

“Your mother knows too much she shouldn’t know,” I said slowly. “If I’m right… there’s little chance your parents aren’t somehow involved.”

I watched the emotions cross Miles expressive face. Disbelief. Betrayal. Determination.

“Parker, you can’t hold back just because they’re my parents. But I don’t want you going after them because of how badly they’ve treated me either. I simply want you to pursue justice. Hand everything over to the police and let them deal with it.”

Miles knew me well. If it were up to me, I would destroy everything his parents had ever touched in retaliation for what they had done to Miles. But it would destroy something inside me as well.

“I promise,” I said. He pulled me into a deep kiss, his hands on either side of my face, and I felt my anger drift away in the waves of his love.