“For you?” I murmur. “For our baby? I would do anything.”
37
SORA
For a heartbeat, I can’t breathe. Leo’s words hang suspended in the air between us.
The coppery taste of blood still coats my tongue, and my face aches from where I was struck, but all of it vanishes the moment he looks at me like that. Like I’m the only thing left in his world worth holding onto.
“I want something real with you,” he says, his voice quieter now but no less firm. “If you’ll still have me. If you’ll leave all this behind with me, I swear, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to be the man you and our child deserve.”
A tear slips down my cheek before I can stop it. “Leo…”
Everything in me wants to say yes. God, yes. I want to run and never look back. But the world we come from doesn’t let go so easily.
“You really think we can just disappear?” I ask, my voice trembling. “That we can walk away from all of this and just… live?”
He doesn’t hesitate. “I do.”
I want to believe him. But there’s a weight in my chest that won’t lift. I search his face, desperate for something more. “And you’d be okay with that? After what happened to your father? After my family stole so much from you?”
Before Leo can answer, Miko cuts in behind him, his low voice powerful and sure as he steps forward. “We’ll handle it.”
Gio nods beside him, his dark eyes flashing with grim satisfaction. “You’ve always hated the politics, Leo. The power plays. You never wanted to be Don in the first place. We all knew that, and now that Father’s dead, no one’s stopping you from walking away. Let us deal with the traitors. We’re not about to let what happened to Raf’s wife go unpunished—or the don, even if he was a dick.”
That draws an unexpected laugh from me as Leo’s most affable brother delivers the cold, hard truth.
“Besides,” Sandro adds, his voice softer, “you’re going to be a father now. That changes everything.”
Leo glances at his brothers, his jaw working like he doesn’t quite know how to argue with them. A muscle tics in his cheek as he processes it all, then… slowly… he nods. “You sure?” he asks, voice low.
“We’re sure,” Miko replies, no hesitation. “We were born into this world, Leo. But you? You were never meant to die in it.”
My heart twists at that. I never realized how much Leo had been quietly carrying, how deeply he hated the legacy that had been forced on him.
Leo turns back to me. “I’m done, Sora. With the violence, the bloodshed. I want peace. For me, for you, and for our child.”
And just like that, the walls I’d tried so hard to hold around my heart crumble.
Before I can say anything, a sharp buzz cuts through the moment.
Leo pulls his phone from his pocket as it lights up with a name that makes my blood run cold. My father’s calling.
A chill prickles down my spine, and my stomach twists. “Answer it,” I whisper.
He taps the screen, putting it on speaker as he holds it out between us.
“Signor Tanaka, this is a not-so-pleasant surprise.”
“Chiaroscuro,” my father growls. “I don’t know how you pulled it off, but I want my daughter back. Now.”
“I don’t think so,” Leo says flatly.
My father scoffs. “Sora is still Yakuza. She’s still blood, and she belongs to us. She knows that as well as I do, so even if you try to keep her, it won’t last forever. She’ll come back.”
I step closer, reaching for the phone. “No. I won’t.”
There’s a long silence on the other end. Then, “You’re making a mistake. They killed your brother, Sora. They’re animals?—”
