I raised a brow. “You smuggled an animal into SeaWorld?”

Stella nodded. “I like to think of it as helping him get asylum, but yes.”

“Daddy, can we go to SeaWorld? Maybe we’ll see the turtle Stella saved.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her the thing was likely long dead. “Maybe someday.”

Charlie shoveled a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. “Your turn, Daddy.”

I admitted that I’d never been to SeaWorld, and then gave the floor to my daughter.

She tapped her pointer to her lips as the wheels in her head turned. “Can mine just be a secret that Stella doesn’t know? I can’t think of anything you don’t know, Daddy.”

“Sure.”

Charlie leaned toward Stella, mimicking what Stella had done earlier. She cupped both hands around her mouth and whispered, “My name isn’t really Charlie.”

“Wow. Okay. That is a pretty big secret. I had no idea.” Stella’s eyes flickered to mine, and I nodded confirmation before her attention returned to my daughter.

“Is Charlie short for something?” she asked.

My daughter shook her head. “I was named after my grandmas. My middle name is Charlotte, like Daddy’s mom was.”

“So Charlie is short for Charlotte, which is your middle name? But then what’s your first name?”

“My mommy’s mom’s name—Laken.”

“Laken?” Stella’s brows drew together. “So your name is Laken Charlotte?”

Charlie nodded. “Daddy, can I have more whipped cream on my ice cream?” She tilted her bowl toward me and frowned. “Mine’s all gone.”

“That’s because you ate it. But I guess so. Go grab the can from the fridge, okay?”

Charlie hopped off her chair, already done with the secrets game and moving on, but Stella looked confused.

“Her name is Laken Charlotte? That can’t be a common name combination.”

I shrugged. “Probably not. My ex-wife’s mom passed away a few months before Charlie was born. She wanted to name her after her mom, so we combined our mother’s names to honor them both. But after Charlie was born, Lexi had a little postpartum depression, and every time she called the baby Laken, it made her emotional and upset. So we started calling her by her middle name—Charlotte, but shortened it to Charlie. It stuck. By the time she was a month or two old, Charlie was Charlie, and calling her anything else didn’t feel right.”

“Laken Charlotte,” Stella repeated. It seemed like it bothered her for some reason.

“It’s not something I think about, because she’s just Charlie to me. Are you upset I didn’t mention that?”

Stella shook her head. “No…it’s not that. I just…”

I waited for her to say more, but she just stared off, her head somewhere else. “Is Lexi short for something?”

My brows drew together. “Lexi as in my ex-wife?”

Stella nodded.

“Her full name is Alexandria, but everyone calls her Lexi. Why?”

Stella went pale and her eyes grew wide. She looked freaked out.

“Is something wrong?”

She shook her head. “No. No, I…I just have a headache.”

“A headache?” I frowned. “When did it come on?”

“Uuuhhh…just now.”

My gut told me she was full of shit, but Charlie came back to the table with the can of whipped cream and shoved her bowl in front of me. I sprayed more than I should’ve and slid it back to her before returning my attention to Stella.

“You want some Tylenol?”

“No. Actually…I think I’m just going to get going.”

Something was definitely off. “You didn’t even finish your ice cream.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” She stood and walked her bowl into the kitchen.

I followed, speaking quietly so Charlie wouldn’t hear. “Is something else bothering you? Why do I feel like we just did something to upset you?”

Stella smiled, but it was clearly forced. “You didn’t. I just…need to lie down, I think.”

I looked back and forth between her eyes, then nodded. “Alright. Well, let me call you an Uber.”

“I can take the train.”

“No, I’ll call you an Uber. You’re not feeling well.” I pulled the phone from my pocket and opened the app. Punching in Stella’s address, the screen flashed that the driver would be arriving pretty damn fast. I turned the screen and showed it to her. “Four minutes.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Stella spent a minute collecting her things and said goodnight to Charlie, who gave her a big hug.

“I’ll be back in one second,” I said to my daughter. “You finish up your ice cream while I walk Stella out.”

“Okay, Daddy.”

At the front door, I stepped outside with Stella and pulled it partially closed behind me. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m positive.” She looked down. “Sometimes a headache can make me nauseous, so I just think it’s better if I get home.”

Again, I wasn’t buying it, but I nodded anyway. “Okay.”

A car that matched the description of the Uber pulled up at the curb, so I cupped Stella’s face and kissed her lips softly. “Check the license plate before you get in. It should end in six-F-E. And text me when you get home.”

She nodded. “Goodnight.”

I watched as Stella walked around the car and read the back plate, then climbed into the backseat. She spoke to the driver, and I waited for her to look back and wave goodbye one last time. But she never did. The car simply pulled away from the curb.

Something was definitely off, and my gut told me it had nothing to do with a headache.

CHAPTER 27

Hudson

Stella wasn’t at work when I arrived on Monday morning. I walked by her office three times before my nine o’clock meeting. When she still hadn’t shown up, I shot off a quick text.

Hudson: Everything okay?

The lack of my phone buzzing caused more of a distraction than if it had rung loudly during the presentation I was supposed to be watching. I couldn’t seem to focus. The other night after Stella left, I’d managed to talk myself into thinking I’d overanalyzed shit—that it was just a headache, and everything would be back to normal by Sunday morning. But obviously that hadn’t happened.

By the time my meeting ended, it was almost eleven, and I still hadn’t heard from Stella. Her office door was locked, and the receptionist said she hadn’t seen her today, so I headed down to talk to my sister.

“Hey. Have you talked to Stella today? She’s not in yet.”

My sister stopped writing and looked up. “Hi, Hudson. It’s nice to see you this lovely morning, too. I’m doing well, thanks for asking.”

“I’m not in the mood…”

She frowned. “What crawled up your butt?”

“Can you just tell me if you’ve spoken to Stella today?”

Olivia sighed. “Yeah, I spoke to her twice. She’s working from home. Didn’t she mention it to you?”