I sat by the bed for a long time, watching her drift off to sleep.
When did it start?
When did I start really treating her as my wife? When did coming home to see her become the best part of my day?
When did I start envying that Kirill Orlov I'd never met?
Julian Dante had never believed in love.
In my world, there was only using and being used, onlytransactions and leverage. Women were decorations to me—use them and toss them aside, like Genevie.
Two months later,Luna gave birth.
That night, I was handling a deal when I got a call from her coworker at the nursing home—Luna's water had broken at work. She'd been rushed to the hospital.
I practically flew to get there, only to be stopped outside the delivery room. Actually, a month ago, I'd suggested being there for the birth.
But Luna had refused flatly. The truth was, while I was nearly lost in this game of playing house, she'd stayed clear-headed, keeping me outside her walls.
For twelve solid hours, I sat on a plastic chair in that hallway, anxious like any ordinary husband.
I suddenly realized this was the first time in my life I'd been this nervous over a woman.
Four a.m., a nurse pushed open the door and smiled at me. "Congratulations, it's a boy. Mother and baby are doing well."
I practically burst into the room.
Luna lay in the bed, her face pale as paper, but her eyes were startlingly bright. In her arms was a tiny baby, so small, so fragile.
"Julian," she saw me and smiled weakly. "Look, it's a boy."
I walked to the bedside and looked down at the wrinkled little guy.
His eyes weren't open yet. His little fists were clenched tight, his mouth opening and closing like he was trying to say something.
"What's his name?" I heard myself ask.
"Aiden." Luna's voice was soft as a sigh. "Same as my brother."
Aiden.
She'd named this child after her dead brother.
And I had originally planned to squeeze Kirill and Genevie hard once she'd had the baby.
But now, looking at Luna's exhausted but happy face, looking atthat little guy sleeping in her arms, I suddenly didn't want to do that anymore.
I didn't want to hurt her.
I left the room and leaned against the hallway wall, closing my eyes and finally admitting the truth I'd been avoiding.
I'd fallen in love with Luna.
It was absurd.
But fuck it.
I'd done countless things that violated morality and law in my life—what was one more violation of my own principles?
