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He met my eyes—the eyes I’d only recently realized looked like his—and offered me a watery smile.

“But if I did…” Chance shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”

“Please stop apologizing. The parent who knew about me decided not to be present. Don’t put that guilt on your shoulders because she didn’t tell you about me.”

Romeo squeezed my thigh when I finished talking, and when I looked over at him, a hint of a smile was flirting with his lips. He turned to look at me and the pride in his eyes calmed me. Just a little bit.

Chance blew out a breath and pulled my attention back to him. “You shouldn’t be comforting me. I—I just—I don’t know what to say. I had a hunch, but I had no idea I’d be right. At the very least, I thought I knew your mom. I didn’t know she hadyou—” His words broke off again and this time his shoulders were shaking as he hid his face with his hands.

When I tossed Rome a wide-eyed look, he inclined his head to the man opposite us and I got the silent message.

Sliding off my seat, I sat on the booth side of the table and wrapped my arms around Chance.

“It’s okay.”

He let me console him for a while, rocking gently until his tears ebbed and he turned to me with awe in his eyes.

“I’ve wanted a child all my life. That’s all I wanted. To be a father. But it never happened and I accepted that. Butyou…” Every time he got to that word, his voice grew faint and another wave of emotion overtook him.

Seconds melted into minutes before he got his bearings again. The brightness had returned to his smile, but he couldn’t stop shaking his head.

“I don’t believe this.” He touched his chin, shock still traveling over his face. “You’remine.”

That was all it took for the first wave of my own tears to hit me.

You’re mine.

I didn’t realize I’d been waiting my whole life to hear someone say that about me until it fell from his lips.

And he sounded so damn happy about it, it made me happy too.

Everything at the table blurred while I tried to play it off, but then Rome reached across the table to offer me a napkin and the dam broke.

Tears coasted over my cheeks unchecked until I could steady my hand enough to wipe them. Chance’s hand found my shoulders, supplying wordless reassurance.

“So now we know,” I muttered, lost on what else to say.

Chance seemed to read the uncertainty in my words and quickly followed up. “We’ll take this at your pace. But I do want to get to know you, Goldyn. I want to know everything about you. I want to have dinners with you. I want to tell you about my childhood and your grandparents on my side. They would have adored you.”

Some part of me wanted those things too, but there was still a lot up in the air.

“Um,” I cleared my throat. “Did you tell Lilith?”

I still wasn’t able to scrub our confrontation from my mind.

That woman did not like me.

And technically, I was her stepdaughter. I shivered at the thought.

“She knows it was a possibility. And she’s really sorry about the way she blew up at you that day. I’ve never stepped out on that woman, I don’t know what got into her, but…”

She could be sorry all she wanted, but the hate in her gaze that day wasn’t anything I would just get over. This wasn’t about her. It was about Chance. Myfather.

“I’d prefer that if we’re going to build a relationship, it doesn’t include her. At least for now. That means I won’t be going to your house or anywhere she deems her territory.”

Chance looked somber before nodding. “That’s fair.”

“This is new…to both of us. If I get dodgy just know that I’m processing, not trying to punish you with my absence. This is a lot to accept after twenty-seven years of not knowing.”