All Chapters of My Brother's Best Friend's Secret Baby: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Rosalie's POV The quarterly review hearing had been on the calendar ever since we signed our agreement. I knew this day was coming. I'd dreaded it the way I dreaded every unavoidable milestone. The end of the school year. Lucy's birthday. The dentist appointment I kept putting off. Some dates arrived whether you were ready for them or not. This hearing was supposed to be a formality. It followed directly from the agreement I'd signed. I'd told myself I was prepared. The truth was... I wasn't prepared at all. Dana Flores met me outside the courthouse steps at 8:45 that morning. She was carrying two coffees to go and handed one to me without saying a word, which I immediately understood as her way of saying, 'Everything's going to be okay. Here, keep your hands busy.' She was still young and obviously overworked, but over the past three months she'd never once wavered in her professionalism or consistency. I trusted her completely. "How are you doing?" she ask

Rosalie's POV I turned it into an outing. That was the approach I'd chosen. Not grim preparation for something difficult, and not another task to check off before a dreaded milestone. Just an outing. A Saturday morning with my daughter, a shopping list, and the special kind of joy Lucy found in shopping, even when it was just for things she got to pick out. We'd talked to her about the overnight visits the week before. After dinner, I'd sat beside her on the couch and explained everything as simply as I could. Daddy had his own apartment now, and she'd be spending some nights there so they could have real time together, like a proper sleepover. They could have breakfast together in the morning, and she'd have her own things there so it would feel like her space too. Lucy listened to the whole explanation. Then she asked, "Can I get a purple comforter?" "Of course." "And a night-light?" "Sure." "Can it be a fun shape?" I told her she could pick whatever she wanted.

Aiden's POV I was ready by noon. The overnight visit didn't start until six that evening, but I'd finished everything by midday. I spent the rest of the afternoon double-checking details that didn't need checking, simply because it was better than sitting around waiting. Her room was exactly the way I'd envisioned it. I'd measured it twice before buying the little desk for her art supplies. The room was small, and I wanted it to feel open, not cramped. The desk was the perfect size, made of light wood. It didn't match anything else in the apartment, but somehow it didn't need to. I'd arranged the watercolors, colored pencils, and thick sketchbook the way Rosie organized her own kitchen table whenever she painted. Everything within easy reach, neat without feeling overly precise. The purple comforter was already on the bed. I'd washed it twice before making the bed because it was brand new, and new fabric sometimes had that chemical smell Lucy would notice immediately. The moon-

Rosalie's POV The apartment was utterly silent when I got home. I knew it would be. I'd spent the entire week preparing myself, reminding myself that it was only one night, that I'd been craving a little space and quiet for years, and now that I finally had it, I was going to enjoy it. I'd even made a list of things to look forward to. Open the book that had been sitting on my nightstand for three months. Watch the movie I'd put off because it wasn't appropriate for Lucy. Go to bed early for once, the way my body had been begging me to for nearly a year. I stood in the entryway for a long time after closing the door behind me. The silence had a texture all its own. It wasn't the silence of Lucy sleeping in the next room, which carried its own kind of presence. The muffled sounds of another life nearby. The familiar hiss of the baby monitor. The occasional creak when she shifted in her sleep. This was something entirely different. This was the silence of an apartment where I w

Aiden's POV I'd found the account four months earlier. It had been buried in the initial background report my investigator compiled. A thorough file detailing Rosie's daily routine, employer, address, and financial situation. Near the bottom, almost as an afterthought, he'd noted a small public account where she posted her paintings under her mother's maiden name. It had very few followers, and she posted only occasionally. The investigator had included it simply to make the report complete. I'd looked it up that same afternoon, after the report landed on my desk. I hadn't expected much. The investigator had described the account as having almost no activity and very little engagement. Technically, he wasn't wrong. But he'd completely missed the point. There were eleven posts spread over the course of a year. Most were photographs of small paintings. Studies of light falling across still lifes. A series of quick observational sketches she'd done during her lunch breaks, p