Crossing my arms over my chest, I leaned against a window and listened in as Kairi addressed Ria.
“Vincenzo sent you to Japan for a one-month crash case in a prison there to toughen you up, shake your girlish traits. I was supposed to meet you and sort of rescue you, escape. Then his uncle Leo screwed up the plans with his own agenda and you got shipped off to the Korean prison camp where women are sold into trafficking and used as babymakers.”
“I know, I killed Leo’s nephew Dino, the guy he roped in to help him at the airport,” Ria muttered.
“Fuck,” Salvatore cursed, sharing a look with Ria.
So far, a mixture of intrigue and anger seemed to simmer in my blood for what Ria must’ve gone through more so Salvatore sending her there, but I held back.
“When he found out, it was too late you were already inside and there’s a rule in place there that once a woman is in, she can’t get out. He sought my help, knowing I could get in and out. I’d been worst places.” Kairi calmed Ria’s troubled expression by rubbing her arm. “But I could only get in a month before the incident with Matilda and she attacked you, I beat the shit out of her but it was too late. Vincenzo paid the captain through me so no one would touch you while I trained you. We had to escape it was the only way we could get out. Vincenzo’s idea of toughening you up might be considered fucked up but he protected you best way he could, by sending me in and making sure you were safe.”
“But not safe enough from Matilda, she still got her way,” Ria whispered, she’d gone a deathly pale and I wondered why. “Not safe enough that I couldn’t save my baby.”
“That’s why I ca—”
“What baby?” I asked. Three pairs of eyes turned my way as if they’d notice me for the first time. “What baby, Ria?” I repeated, this time with a little force.
Ria approached me and taking hold of my hand, she took the next five minutes to explain everything that happened to her from the day her father took her away from me up to now. I jerked my hand away from her and before anyone could react, I launched myself at Salvatore, my right hook connecting with his jaw.
He staggered back but didn’t return the blow. “You think I fucking wanted that to happen to her,” Salvatore growled.
“How the fuck can you put her through that,” I went in for another, this time my left fist caught him in the stomach and he doubled over. “She lost my fucking baby, you bastard,” I gritted, clenching my fists, unable to stop the tears glazing my vision. “You fuckers took her from me, broke me. Broke her. For what?” I shoved at his chest, and he staggered back, hitting the wall. “Fight me, Salvatore, or I swear I’ll put a fucking bullet in you and unlike Ria’s bullet you won’t walk away from mine.” My chest heaved from the exertion to hold myself back. Ria screamed, grabbing hold of my arm. I jerked her off me. “Don’t be a fucking pussy,” I glared at him. I swung wide and this time someone pulled me back. Jerking out of the hold, I swung around to find Julian behind me. It wasn’t him that stopped me though, but the two children standing to the side, their terrified eyes on me, their bottom lips quivering.
Ria turned, following my gaze, and ran to them. “Oh, my God, Rowan, baby,” she grabbed the smaller of the two in her arms and kissed his cheeks. Then she turned her gaze on the other boy and held out her arm. He was bigger than the two, but his fear was more profound, and he hesitated before his gaze sought Julian. I noticed the child’s two different colored eyes and I recognized him.
“Maddox,” I whispered.
And his gaze shifted from Julian to mine. Without thinking, I dropped to my haunches, took off my Rolex watch, and held it out. He stepped toward me, no hesitation, took the watch, and sat down on the floor, just like he’d done at the airport. I watched him play for a moment. He’d grown. His hair was longer on the top, neater on the sides, his features more profound and I didn’t have to study him long to know he was my son.
“My little baby genius,” I blurted it out, my heart in my mouth, the tremble in my body forcing me to drop to the floor.
He got up and like he’d done before, placed his hand on either of my cheeks and rubbed his nose against mine. Laughing, I held out my arms and he slid into them, leaning his head on my shoulder and sliding his arms around my neck.
I heard Ria’s gasp and my gaze met hers as I held onto him, and she held onto the other boy.
Kairi moved to stand between us. “What I was trying to say earlier, Gianna, Zayne, is that your baby survived.”
Ria whimpered, letting go of the other boy, she slumped to the floor. “How?” she whispered. “Where is he?” She choked on the tears filling her eyes.
Kairi looked at me then back to her. “In his father’s arms.”
It took a second for her words to register before Ria grasped her meaning and she jumped up. “Maddox...” the word caught between her sobs. “Maddox is my son.” Kairi nodded and Ria crawled across the floor toward where I sat with him in my arms. Her gaze on me, the tears streamed down her cheeks. She reached up to caress his hair. He leaned his back to look at her before his eyes came back to me.
“Da,” he whispered with his palm pressed to my cheek.
I choked and for a grown man, I didn’t care that the people in this room saw me cry. I didn’t care that anyone looking down would call me a pussy. Because my love for this little boy would scale mountains and I didn’t even know him, yet. Ria smiled through her tears, caressing his head laying on my shoulder.
Kairi crouched between Ria and me while we continued to sit like that. The other boy had moved to sit on Ria’s lap. “This is what you call serendipity, Gianna. Through all the trials, he still ended where he belonged, with you two. Because Cassius Mancini, in his fucked-up thirst for revenge did half the work, and fate took over, sealing the rest. Not only was the child blessed with both his parent’s eye color, but he also survived Matilda’s brutal beating. He would’ve received better treatment and probably saved his hearing, but Cassius paid to have the baby delivered to him. The lady who took Maddox from the prison, however, was worried because didn’t look healthy. She was taking him to meet a doctor when Cassius had his men chase and shoot her. She dropped the child off at a shelter.”
“Where Jaz’s sister found him,” I said and Kairi nodded. “Why was Cassius so desperate to get his hands on Maddox?”
“Because you killed Nathaniel Prescott, his son and he saw your photo back at our apartment when he came to fetch me,” Ria explained, wiping her tears. “Mendez saw me at the prison and told Cassius I was there, that’s how he knew Maddox was yours.”
“That means he set me up for Ishara’s...” I trailed off in disbelief.
“He was also behind the shooting at the airport.” A fresh bout of tears rushed down her cheeks as though she remembered how close to death, we both came.
“Why are you crying so much, mama?” Rowan asked.
