"Safe from what?"
I glanced at Leo, happily running trains along the tracks, oblivious to our conversation. "From people who would use him to get to me. From anyone who'd see a Barone child as leverage."
Fear flickered in her eyes. "What kind of enemies do you have, Cassian?"
"The kind that require me to protect my family." I held her gaze. "This building has security you can't imagine. Guards. Cameras. Protocols. Your apartment in Brooklyn has a standard lock and a doorman who lets anyone through with a smile."
"So what—we just move in? Today?"
"You already are moving in. Your belongings are being packed as we speak." At her shocked expression, I added, "I sent a team to your apartment an hour ago. They're being very careful with Leo's things."
"You sent people into my home without permission?"
"I sent people to retrieve belongings from a property you're vacating." I kept my tone even. "The lease is in your name. I had your signature."
"I never signed—" She stopped, realization dawning. "You forged my signature."
"I had it replicated from your employment contract." Not technically a lie. "Isla, this isn't a negotiation. You and Leo are moving in today. You can make this easy and stay with him, or you can fight me and lose him anyway."
"You'd really take him from me?" Her voice broke. "He's two and a half years old, Cassian. He needs his mother."
"Then be his mother. Here." I softened my voice slightly. "I'm not trying to separate you from him. I'm trying to keep you both safe. Protected. This is the only way."
"By controlling where we live? What we do?"
"By ensuring my son grows up safe." I gestured around the penthouse. "You'll have your own room. Your own space. You keep your job—you're still my assistant. Nothing changes except your address and your son's security."
"Everything changes," she whispered, looking at Leo.
"Yes," I agreed. "It does. But it changed the moment you decided to keep him from me. This is me correcting that mistake."
She flinched.
I moved to the doorway of Leo's room. "Leo, would you like to see where you and your mama will sleep?"
He looked up from his trains. "We're sleeping here?"
"Yes. This is your new home."
"Forever?"
The question caught me off guard. "Yes. Forever."
"Okay!" He returned to his trains without another thought, the simplicity of childhood making everything easy.
Isla looked like she might cry.
I showed her to the second bedroom—smaller than mine but still spacious, with its own bathroom and a view of Central Park. Her suitcases were already there, delivered by my team.
"This is yours," I said. "You can decorate it however you want. Change anything."
She stood in the doorway, not entering. "And if I say no? If I take Leo and leave?"
"Then I file for emergency custody Monday morning." I let the words sink in. "I have resources you can't match, Isla. Lawyers who specialize in this. A name that carries weight in family court. What do you have?"
The truth of it showed on her face. She knew she couldn't win.
"I could run," she said quietly.
