“Where is he?” I asked, panicking that they’d disposed of him.
“My guess is a comfort break.”
My heart calmed down. I might not have gotten on with Franco, but I was a far cry from wanting him dead.
“I really think we need to talk,” he told me, and it took me a moment to process before I nodded.
“Talk. Yes.” I turned away from him to walk into the room and gestured to a chair. Tossing my phone onto the bed, I perched myself on the edge of it and rubbed my eyes, trying to get my brain to catch up to everything that was going on.
“Were you ever going to tell me you were pregnant?” Luc asked. He hadn’t taken the seat that I’d offered him. We weren’t skirting around this morning. This conversation had been a long time coming and it was finally just the two of us.
“You didn’t let me get a word in when I saw you,” I reminded him, ridding myself of the last dregs of sleep. “And before you ask, he is yours.” All the rumors echoed around my head and I had no doubt that they’d reached Luc.
“You were stuck to my hip; of course he’s mine,” Luc replied just as aggressively and then stopped, realizing what he’d said. “He? You know?”
My cheeks burned as if I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t. Under normal circumstances we would have both been there when I found out the gender, but instead I had been placed on the spot with Carmen sitting quietly at my side when I agreed to the reveal. “We’re having a son,” I whispered confirmation. “You don’t have to be involved, Luc. We don’t even have to be around,” I told him, my voice finding strength again as I rambled, brain still slightly slumber addled. “Actually, we might be moving. Emilio and Carmen said I’m more than welcome to move here and start fresh.”
“What?” Luc looked confused in the dim light of the room that came from the lamp on the nightstand that I’d forgotten to turn off.
“I’m going to keep the baby and you don’t need to be involved.”
“What the fuck are you on about?”
The swell of emotions hit me hard. I refused to cry in front of him. I refused to let him know that the words he said had hurt me as deeply as he wished them to. There were a few moments of uncomfortable silence as I pushed back the tears. “I was the biggest mistake of your life, Lucas,” I said eventually, a slight tremble lacing the words. “And now you have a lasting reminder of that mistake, but I’ll be gone soon.”
The shame washed over his features. “I never meant that. I should never have said it, but I was so angry at you. You broke your promises to me. You left.”
“Ibroke my promises toyou? You’re a fine one to talk.”
“Excuse you? I did everything I promised you. Everything you asked of me and more.”
“You promised you’d never hurt me and then you put a hit out on me,” I hissed, trying to keep my voice down so they didn’t carry across the door and alert Franco.
“You promised you’d marry me and then you ran. Do you really want to start keeping score, princess?”
Any come back I had, died in my throat. Neither of us had managed to hold out on the promises we made. With a sigh, I dropped my head into my hands. I needed to come clean and let Luc knew the truth about why I’d left him. If I didn’t then come back here was wasted.
I jumped when Luc took a hold of my wrists, pulling my hands away from my face. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he told me firmly, kneeling on the floor in front of me.
My hands slid into his and I held on tight. I’d missed him more than words could express. Luc was my anchor during stormy times. Whatever I couldn’t shoulder, Luc had done for the both of us, and there were so many times I wished I could have turned to him in the last few months. This small gesture of physical contact, not ordered by someone trying to do their job, made something inside me waver dangerously, threatening to push me over the edge and fall apart.
There was a time I’d believed that I wouldn’t see Luc again. I had cut my ties and was ready to accept that the man I had fallen madly in love with was destined to become a stranger to me once more. To have him sat in front of me made my heart want to burst out of my chest. I took a hand from his and tentatively rested it against his cheek. Luc turned his head and kissed the inside of my palm as my eyes stung with tears.
“I know why you left,” he said, looking up at me.
Sniffing, I blinked the tears from my eyes and shook my head. “You have no idea.”
“I know, Mia. I know. Dante told me everything.”
“Everything?” I asked him quietly.
Luc nodded. “Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you come to me? We could have dealt with this together. You didn’t need to run.”
“I couldn’t think straight,” I admitted to him. “I’d just found Dad. I didn’t know what he’d do to me. I thought if I left then I’d be safe, and everything would go back to normal for you.”
“Why didn’t you come back after you found out about the baby?”
“I wanted to. I thought about it, but then Carmen told me that you were looking for me and I couldn’t. I couldn’t risk it.”
