The evening air carried the faint chill of early autumn as Olivia walked beside Chloe, Ethan's stroller rolling smoothly over the sidewalk cracks. The restaurant's glow faded behind them, replaced by the familiar hum of streetlamps and the quiet of her neighborhood.
Chloe reached the corner and stopped. "Call me if you need anything, okay? And I mean anything—day or night."
Olivia smiled faintly, tugging her cardigan closer. "I will. Thanks for today. For listening."
"Always," Chloe said, leaning in to hug her tightly. "Now go get some rest before Ethan decides two a.m. is party time again."
Olivia laughed softly, though her stomach tightened at the thought of her unpredictable nights. "Goodnight, Chloe."
"Night, Liv."
They parted ways, Chloe heading toward the subway while Olivia pushed Ethan's stroller back toward her building. The baby had dozed off, his tiny chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm that soothed her nerves.
But as she turned the corner onto her block, her heart stumbled.
There, in the fading light of the street, a sleek black sedan eased into a parking space directly in front of her building. The headlights cut through the dusk before flicking off, and then the driver's door swung open.
Daniel Brooks stepped out.
Olivia froze mid-step, her pulse thundering in her ears.
He looked different in the dim light than he had in the hallway earlier—less polished, maybe, but just as unsettlingly familiar. His dark hair caught the glow of the streetlamp, his broad shoulders framed by a casual jacket. He closed the car door with an easy motion, then lifted his head.
Their eyes met.
Time seemed to snap in half. Olivia gripped the stroller handle tighter, every nerve screaming for escape.
"Olivia," Daniel said softly, as though testing her name on his tongue after years of silence. He offered the smallest of nods, polite yet hesitant. "Good evening."
Her throat locked. She managed a stiff nod in return, but her lips refused to form words. Instead, she pushed Ethan's stroller forward quickly, her feet carrying her past him and toward the building entrance as if her survival depended on it.
She didn't look back.
But Daniel did.
He watched her retreat into the building, her figure taut with tension, her shoulders hunched protectively over the stroller. He stayed rooted to the sidewalk long after the door shut behind her, his chest heavy with a tangle of emotions he didn't want to name.
Olivia Parker. After all these years.
The last time he'd seen her, she'd been standing in his apartment doorway, her eyes full of guilt he hadn't been able to forgive. She had left him with the sharp, unrelenting ache of betrayal. And yet tonight, as she hurried past him with a baby at her side, something else gripped him—something closer to confusion than anger.
He dragged in a breath, running a hand across his jaw.
A baby. Her baby.
He had noticed the stroller in the hallway before, but seeing the infant sleeping there now, so peaceful, rattled him in a way he hadn't expected. He hadn't seen a man beside her. No ring on her hand. No voices drifting out of her apartment window when he passed by earlier. Just her and the child.
So whose child was it?
The question gnawed at him as he leaned against his car. He hated that it mattered, hated that the thought of Olivia moving on, creating a life without him, still stirred something raw inside. He told himself he didn't care. He had Vanessa now, a steady relationship, a plan for his future.
And yet…
Daniel's gaze flicked to the building, to the door she had disappeared through.
He remembered the way her eyes had widened when she recognized him in the hallway earlier that week, the way she had hurried away just now, as if proximity to him burned. She was afraid of him. Or maybe afraid of what he represented—her past, their mistakes, everything broken between them.
He exhaled slowly, his breath misting in the cool night air.
"She's alone," he murmured to himself. "Her and the kid."
The thought didn't leave him, even as he grabbed his bag from the backseat and turned toward the stairwell leading up to his newly rented apartment.
Inside, the hallway buzzed faintly with pipes and old wiring. His footsteps echoed against the worn carpet, steady and sure. But his mind was anything but steady. He tried to shake it off, to remind himself that Olivia Parker's life was no longer his concern.
Still, the baby's face flashed in his mind. Soft cheeks. Tiny fists. A mystery.
Daniel unlocked his apartment door and stepped inside, but even the quiet hum of the place couldn't drown out the one truth that kept circling his head.
Olivia wasn't married. She was raising a baby alone.
And the existence of that child left a question hanging in the air like smoke.
One Daniel wasn't sure he wanted the answer to.