His heart jerks sharply in his chest - here is the question he had hoped she would not ask. He cannot pretend that the idea isn't, however unlikely, plausible, and Sigma disguises the seconds he has to think of his answer with a long, frustrated sigh. This conversation has riled him up, but he remembers what the stakes are for Phi, who has been her entire life without her father - a father she did not regard kindly.

He folds his hands on his lap and treats her question with the concern she expects. As he chooses his answer his expression cycles from anxious to hard, hard to sympathetic, and from there to confidence. The decision he makes is not made on likelihood or even logic, but because he believes it is the answer that they both need, going forward.

"I do."

The way he sees it, there are a lot of things he had faith in that paid off - Luna, for one, and even Phi herself. In spite of her enigmatic past his trust in her was not misplaced. There was no sense in dwelling on paranoid delusions. "It is completely nonsensical conjecture. Refute whom you must, but please, put it out of your mind until then." He attempts to ease the tension by picking up his fork and continuing their meal. He even tries a joke: "I had my hands full as it was, and believe me: one child was enough." He was fortunate that his legacies in Panem skipped the infant phase entirely.