Page 37 of Say My Name

Neither attorney comments.

Amelia finishes reviewing the remaining language, then closes her folder. “I’d like a final private conversation with my client.”

Rebecca and I step into the hall. I’ve negotiated transactions that took months and involved rooms full of attorneys. None of them left me waiting outside a conference room with this much at stake.

Through the frosted glass, I can make out Elena across the table. Amelia is doing her job, confirming Elena understands the agreement and hasn’t been pressured by me, the company, or the circumstances. I’m grateful she’s thorough. I hate that Elena has ever had reason to need eleven pages between us.

The door opens a few minutes later. Amelia invites us back inside, and Rebecca arranges the signature copies in front of us.

“Mr. Rowe,” she says, “would you like time alone with me before we proceed?”

“No.”

Elena looks at me.

I know the agreement. There’s one answer I still need, and Rebecca can’t give it to me.

“I’d like to speak with Elena privately.”

Amelia turns to her. “Are you comfortable with that?”

“Yes.”

The attorneys leave and close the door behind them.

Elena sets her pen down with a quiet click that sounds deafening in the silence. She watches me, her expression unreadable. “What do you need to ask?”

“Is this what you want?”

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t.”

“I need you to say it without an attorney in the room.” I lean forward, resting my forearms on the table. “If you have any doubt, we stop. You walk into your office tomorrow with every part of your job intact. I don’t ask you to reconsider, and I don’t make you manage my reaction.”

She watches me in silence.

“I want the child, Dominic.” Her voice is steady. “And I trust you.” The second sentence hits me harder than the first. Trust. From her, it’s everything.

I sit back.

Elena has spent years arranging her life so no one else can shatter it by leaving. Now she’s choosing a future that keeps me in it permanently, and she believes I’ll handle that choice with care.

“I won’t abuse that trust,” I say.

“I know.”

She says it without hesitation. After watching me for four years and measuring every risk, she has decided I’m still the man she wants beside her for this.

I want to reach across the table and touch her. I keep my hands where they are. Her agreement to have a child with me is already more than I’d hoped for when I walked into her office with the offer.

The attorneys return, and we sign.

Elena goes first. Her signature crosses the line in one smooth motion. She passes the pen to me, and I write my name beside hers.

Rebecca checks each page, confirms the agreement is fully executed, and places the signed copy between us while she prepares our separate folders.

Elena and I reach for it at the same time.

Her fingers slide against mine over the paper. The contact is light and warm. She looks up, but she doesn’t move her hand. I don’t move mine either.