Page 95 of The Hidden Heir

“You would’ve succeeded,” he says, “had Caroline not had a change of heart. But I will deal with her later.”

My blood runs ice cold as I look at him. “You need to leave her alone. I reached out to her for help. This is my issue, not hers.”

He scoffs and closes the distance between us. I don’t even register the movement or his speed. I merely find myself in his grip, his fingers digging into the back of my neck and forcing me to hold his smoldering glare.

“Do you have any idea what kind of hell you put me through, Valentina?”

“For that, I am sorry. But I’m not sorry for trying to free myself and my son of this.”

“Of me?”

“No, of this!” I scream and yank myself out of his grip. “Of the fighting and the bullet dodging and the constant threats on my life. My stepfather wants to take my son away from me. There are people with guns who are looking to kill me.”

“And I fucking told you that I can protect you, that I would stop at nothing to keep you and Michael safe!”

“You’re not all powerful, Luca! You’re not a god, you’re just a man, and you can bleed, you can die, too. I’m the woman you plucked out of a perfectly good hiding place so you can claim on my son.”

Luca shakes his head, his gaze hesitating between my eyes and my lips. “Valentina, I will burn the whole city down for you. You should know that by now.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” I say, bursting into tears. “Luca, I can’t have my children raised in this violence, in this mayhem, this uncertainty!”

He stills, his shoulders dropping.

“And I can’t really trust anyone, and you can get really scary and dangerous when you lose control. I never asked for any of this,” I add, shaking and crying my heart out once again.

“Valentina.”

“What?”

He steps closer, his frame filling my field of vision, and it feels oddly comforting, all of a sudden. His hands cup my face, beckoning my eyes to meet his, but it’s a different kind of meeting. It’s a meeting of hearts, not of angry words.

“You said children,” he whispers.

Blinking back another deluge, I find the courage to tell him, because I can’t hold it in any longer. Perhaps it’s self-sabotage. Perhaps it’s the inevitable conclusion of a fight I knew I would lose from the moment I escaped the mansion, the end I knew would find me.

“I’m pregnant, Luca.”

“Fuck.”

I can’t read his expression within the first second, and nothing terrifies me more than not knowing how he will react. Quivering in his hands, I give up, tears flowing freely down my cheeks and trickling over his fingers.

“I should’ve seen this coming,” I say.

“No, Valentina. It’s just… I never thought I’d be a father,” he says, a soft smile stretching across his lips.

He kisses me deeply, instantly dispelling every intrusive thought that’s been plaguing my mind since I took that pregnancy test. My heart swells, swiftly healed and enveloped in liquid sunshine, as he places a hand on my belly.

“That is my child you’re carrying, Valentina.”

“It is, and I don’t want us to be afraid anymore.”

“Baby, don’t you see?” He looks into my eyes, and I do see the pain in his hazel eyes, swirling like a tornado and tearing him apart on the inside. “I’m nothing without you. You and Michael are a part of me.”

I place my hand over his. “Oh, Luca…”

“I love you more than anything in this fucking world, and nothing in my possession or in my control makes any sense if I can’t be with you,” he says. “And this right here… it’s our miracle. Our child. Please don’t leave me again, Valentina.”

A bitter laugh escapes my throat. “Honestly, I don’t think I can. Not anymore. Even before you found me, I had my doubts. I kept trying to tell myse⁠—”