My billionaire boyfriend’s mother walked into my Vermont farmhouse, placed a blank check on my kitchen table, and said, “Name your price. Then disappear before Adrian learns that child is his.”

months.”

He closed his eyes.

“Almost two years.”

“Yes.”

When he opened his eyes again, they were wet.

“She called me Daddy.”

I looked down at Poppy.

“She knows your face from the photograph.”

Adrian glanced at the picture.

The one I’d kept because it was the only reminder of our relationship I could show her.

“You kept that?”

“Of course I did.”

He swallowed.

“I thought you wanted me completely out of your life.”

“I sent you a letter, Adrian.”

“I never saw it.”

I pointed toward the envelope.