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I walk down the hall, trying not to focus on what the nurse said. What does she mean when she says the pediatric ward is full? What kind of ward do they have my daughter in?

I take a right, my lungs seizing in my chest.

There are a ton of beds lined up on both sides of the hall, and they are all separated by thin curtains that barely act as barriers. Walking along and trying to recognize my daughter’s pink clothes or Patty's familiar honey-blonde hair spikes my pulse.

I’m almost on the verge of giving up, turning around and going back to the cranky nurse to release hell on her if she doesn’t explain in detail where they have my daughter when…I see her.

The nurse was right.

They gave Lina her own bed and one that’s far away from the rest of the patients. It’s near a window, no less.

Watching her swing her legs against the bed with a smile on her face makes me release a sigh of relief.

My legs are already walking toward my little girl, tears are already on my cheeks, and yet, ten feet away from my daughter, the sound of a man stops me in my tracks.

“Who’s Millie?”

The voice is smooth, rich, and unmistakable.

Alaric?

I go still, my heart leaping into my throat.

Slowly, I turn my head, and there he is. He’s seated next to Lina, impossibly large even in the hospital chair, holding her teddy bear, which looks absurdly small in his hands.

I duck behind a pillar, pressing my back to the cold wall as my heart jackhammers against my ribs.

What the hell is Alaric doing here?

I left him at work. How did he get here before me? How did he…

“My friend,” Lina chirps, her eyes bright. “She’s cool like Bear.”

“Yeah?” Alaric asks with that cold, unreadable expression he uses in the office, but underneath it, there’s something calm, something soft, and panic grips me when he looks at my daughter like he’s somehow amused rather than annoyed.

Lina nods. “She likes playing hide-and-seek with me. And sometimes, when her daddy picks her up, he buys us ice cream while I wait for Mommy to come pick me up. Millie and her daddy are the best. Do you have a daughter, mister?”

Something flickers across Alaric’s face, gone as quickly as it appears. “No. I don’t.”

Lina looks down at her boots, her voice quieter. “I don’t have a daddy either.”

Goddess, my breath hitches.

“Mommy says he’s in heaven,” she continues. “But sometimes…I wish he’d come visit me.”

My hands clench into fists. My legs shake beneath me.

Alaric studies her for a long moment, then does something that makes my chest ache—he tilts her chin up gently, offering her the softest smile I’ve ever seen from him.

“Your daddy might be in heaven,” he says, “but you’ve got your mommy, little one. And Bear. And Millie. And Patty.”

He hesitates. Then, quietly, “And now you’ve got me.”

Lina’s face lights up. “Really?”

My heart breaks for her because Alaric will never be there for her. Not while I still breathe. I’ll never let her go through thesame kind of pain I went through with this man. Whether or not he might be her dad.

“Yes.”