No matter what she says, a simple DNA test will prove everything.
Biology doesn’t care about guilt or grief or what ‘should have been’. It doesn’t spare feelings and it certainly doesn’t create coincidences like this. Children don’t emerge bearing the exact echo of another man’s face and wind up being someone else’s. That’s just simply not possible. No matter how desperately Elena clings to this lie or how many times she repeats it to herself like a prayer, it doesn’t change the truth staring back at the both of us.
Luca is mine.
I grind my teeth, my hand slipping from the doorframe to curl into a fist at my side. The restraint I’ve been clinging to for days finally begins to fray. The shift happens so fast, I barely register it happening.
“Where is your father?” I bite out.
She blinks at me, genuine confusion flickering across her face at the sudden aggression in my tone before it hardens into a guarded expression. “I don’t know.”
“You’re stilllying,” I say coldly. “He didn’t disappear without help, Elena. You and I both know that. He’s not that resourceful.”
The softness she’d had for Luca moments ago vanishes, replaced by the same stubborn defiance that has always infuriated me. “I’ve told you everything I know. I don’t know how many moretimes I have to say that to get it through that thick skull of yours.”
“You’ve told me nothing,” I snap.
“Because I don’tknowanything,” she fires back.
The argument spirals me out of control almost immediately.
It’s not just this moment, it’s everything else piling on top of it. Exhaustion gnaws at me from my sleepless nights, hollowing me out from the inside out as it coaxes the frustration that’s been riding just beneath my skin for days. Every dead lead, every wasted hour, every memory of her leaving me behind when I needed her the most stacks up until something inside me wavers dangerously.
I don’t even realize I’ve crossed the threshold of the library until I’m standing right in front of her and her eyes widen.
In the same instant, my hand clamps around her wrist and I yank her forward. Not enough to hurt her, but it’s abrupt and forceful, driven by frustration rather than reason. She gasps softly and the book slips from her hand, thudding to the floor as she instinctively tightens her one remaining arm around Luca to keep him from rolling off her lap.
He wakes immediately with a small, startled sound as his body jerks. His eyes fly open in sudden panic. He looks between us, confused and disoriented, sensing the danger in the air even if he doesn’t understand it.
I should stop.
I should step back.
But I don’t—I can’t.I’m too far gone to think clearly, consumed by the need toend this. I reach down and grab Luca gently but firmly by the back of his shirt, lifting him from Elena’s arms before she can react. He barely squirms as I scoop an arm beneath him, keeping him upright, my other arm curling around him to hold him securely against my chest.
Elena scrambles to her feet immediately, panic tearing through her expression as I take a step back from her. Then another when she lunges forward, hands outstretched.
“What are you doing?” she cries, her voice breaking.
“You will give me the information I want. This isn’t a negotiation.” I say, my tone flat.
I’m not interested in hurting Luca.
Despite the chaos roaring through my veins, that line is immovable. He is my son. I may not know him, I may not have felt anything close to attachment yet, but I am not stupid enough, or monstrous enough, to harm the next Cosenza heir in a fit of unchecked rage.
Luca leans back slightly in my arms just enough to look at me properly. Those gray-green eyes blink up at me, curious. Not at all terrified like I’m expecting.
The realization hits me harder than I thought it would. I’d braced myself for fear or screaming, maybe even tears. Instead, he studies me like I’m a new puzzle, his small brow furrowing as if he’s trying to understand who I am.
It rattles me without warning.
“Dante, stop,” Elena pleads, reaching for him again.
I take another step back instinctively, putting distance between us. “Answers, Elena.”
Her face crumples, tears pooling in her eyes she’s desperately trying not to let fall. For the first time since I opened my mouth tonight, I realize with sickening clarity exactly how far I’ve crossed the line.
Not just as a Don or as a man grasping for control. I’ve become the very thing I swore I never would be. My father. A man whose presence alone could make anyone recoil in fear, capable of terrorizing the mother of his own child as a means to control her.
