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Constance turned to him. “I don’t agree with that. He had an ability to think fast. He owed both your father and MacGregor debts, and we had no money to pay for them. When you publicly announced in Scotland that the baby was yours, he realized there was a Guerra heir, one of his blood too, who could inherit. So he and MacGregor came up with a plan. Kill you, which everyone knew had to happen anyway because of the war you’d waged with your father. With you dead, all that had to happen was for Carlos to marry Nyah and legitimize the baby. He knew that with you gone, Carlos would want a new heir, and Nyah’s baby, the one you had claimed was yours, was his only chance at having one. He just had to marry her to legitimize the baby. So we knew he wouldn’t need convincing.

“But I know my daughter. I know she’s a romantic. I didn’t know if she would marry Carlos, even if she thought the three of you were dead or imprisoned or had walked away. So I convinced Jeremiah to keep you alive just in case he needed you. If you’re dead, you’re dead. There’s nothing to leverage.”

I felt sick over all that time we’d spent in that church basement. “But if we were alive, he could torture us.”

“He heard about what happened to Nyah in Carlos’s cages. The branding. He knew she wouldn’t want any of you to go through what she did. So he kept you alive, just long enough to make sure she did what he wanted.”

Luca pinched the bridge of his nose. “We heard the guards say we were supposed to die the day of the wedding. I thought they were my father’s men.”

She shook her head. “They were Jeremiah’s. You were all supposed to be executed the minute Nyah married Carlos. That would have legitimized the baby, and he would have officially been seen as the next Guerra heir. But then Enzo stepped in and took matters into his own hands. That was never part of MacGregor’s and Jeremiah’s plans. It was just the two of them, MacGregor getting Nyah and the Guerras’ international holdings, while we would keep the baby and control the US. But I think Enzo had come to the same conclusion. He already thought Luca was dead, Isabella’s husband would have inherited before Enzo did…”

“Unless Enzo was married to Nyah, the mother of the only remaining male Guerra bloodline,” Luca said, tone flat. “Or at least, the baby everyone believed was Guerra blood. It didn’t even matter that Enzo knew he wasn’t. It just had to look like he was.”

I stared down at the baby in my arms who had, through absolutely no fault of his own, become the center of a Mafia war. I held him a little bit tighter, all the more determined that he was never going to be a part of this world again. I didn’t care where I had to move my family, or what we had to do to get away from all of this, all I knew was my child was not going to grow up with a target on his back.

“I’m just glad I got to meet the baby,” Constance said softly. “You’ll be a much better mother than I ever was, Nyah. I have no doubt about that. I know I never said it, but I do love you and I’m so proud of you. I hope one day you’ll forgive me. Maybe you could even send me photos once in a while?”

Nyah didn’t say anything. She trembled at my side, all of us silent as we tried to process the absolute bomb Constance had dropped.

Constance tried to smile, but it didn’t quite work, her lips barely flickering. “I’m going to go now. I truly am sorry, to all of you. I hope you get the clean break you deserve.”

She was at the door before Nyah brokenly called out, her voice cracking, “Mom!”

Constance stopped and turned back.

“Of course I’ll send you photos when you’re in prison. And we’ll visit, me and James. We’ll come see you.”

Constance nodded. “I’d really like that.”

She lifted a hand in a wave and disappeared down the corridor.

Nyah couldn’t hold it together a moment longer. She burst into tears, and Lynx and Luca immediately got up off their seats, joining us on the bed to comfort her. I passed her back the baby who woke up and started fussing, and then I stepped back, needing some air, knowing Lynx and Luca would keep them both safe while I did.

I found myself out in the hallway, then in the elevator, then down on the ground floor and walking faster and faster until I was outside in the night air surrounding the parking lot.

Constance’s heels clicked along the concrete in front of me.

I choked out her name, not even sure if it was loud enough for her to stop, not even sure if I truly wanted her to.

But she turned on her heel, doing a double take when she recognized me. She glanced around the quiet parking lot, but there was no one else here but me and her.

Fear flickered in her eyes.

“Did you mean what you said back there?” I asked her. “About wanting to be a better mother? And about turning yourself in?”

Constance stared me dead in the eye. “Yes. To both.”

I bit down on my lip, not even sure how I could contemplate saying this when half of me was baying for this woman’s blood.

But the other half of me, the bigger, better half, whispered that hurting her only hurt Nyah in the end.

And that was the last thing I ever wanted to do.

“Then don’t turn yourself in.”

Constance stared at me for a moment. Then shook her head. “I have to.”

“You don’t. You get to live with your guilty conscience for the rest of your life. But despite every horrible thing you’ve done, nobody should be without a mother. My son has had to live that reality for the last few months, and so have I, but Nyah has had to live that her entire life. And she’s a good enough person that I know she would still relish a second chance with you. A do-over. A chance for you to be different. Better.” I sighed heavily. “Jeremiah already paid for my mother’s death. As he should. It was his actions that killed her in the end.”