285

285
Alaric’s POV
I was going to kill Emilia.
Slowly. Painfully. And with great satisfaction.
“You’re overreacting,” she said, not even looking at me as she fixed her earrings in the mirror.
I let out a humorless laugh, crossing my arms. “You’re dragging me to have dinner with Alonso. That’s not overreacting. That’s a death wish.”
Emilia sighed, finally turning to face me. “He agreed to the wedding, didn’t he?”
I scowled. “Begrudgingly. There’s a difference.”
She gave me a pointed look. “Alaric, he’s trying. And if you don’t at least pretend to try too, I swear to God-”
I held up a hand. “Yeah, yeah. You’ll cut me out of your life, blah blah.” I let my head fall back. “Jesus. You’re really enjoying making me suffer, aren’t you?”
Emilia smirked. “You have no idea.”
I regretted everything the second we stepped into Alonso’s house.
He barely spared me a glance as he gestured for us to sit at the long dining table, his expression set in that usual unreadable scowl of his. The man had two moods-disgust and mild disgust.
Dinner was surprisingly… tolerable. Mostly because Emilia did all the talking. She carried the conversation like she was determined to force this into being a normal family dinner, despite the fact that she had shoved two mortal enemies into the same room and expected them not to stab each other with the silverware.
I mostly pushed my food around my plate, answering only when necessary. Alonso was the same. The silence between us wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t comfortable either.
And then he said something that changed everything.
“What about the child?”
I froze mid-bite, my fork hovering in the air.
Emilia, sitting beside me, frowned. “What child?”
Alonso’s gaze flicked to me. “The one in the car when Dominic had the accident.”
The entire room went still.
Slowly, I set my fork down, my jaw tightening. I could feel Emilia’s eyes on me, her confusion thick enough to choke me.
“What is he talking about?” she asked.
I swallowed.
I didn’t answer.
Because I knew.
I knew this moment would come. I had been waiting for it. Dreading it.
And now here it was.
Emilia turned to Alonso. “What child?” she demanded.
Alonso leaned back in his chair, watching me. “You really never told her?”
I exhaled sharply, rubbing a hand down my face. “Alonso-”
“I should have known.” He shook his head. “Of course you wouldn’t. Too much of a coward.”
Emilia slammed her hand on the table, her patience snapping. “What child?!”
Silence.
I stared down at my plate. My appetite was gone.
I could feel the storm brewing in Emilia before she even spoke again. “Alaric.”
I squeezed my eyes shut for half a second. Then, finally, I forced myself to look at her.
She was already furious. Already hurt. And I hadn’t even said anything yet.
But I knew that once I did, it would break something between us.
Still, I had no choice.
I swallowed hard. Then I said the words I had been keeping from her for years.
“Francesca isn’t mine.”
Emilia’s expression shattered.
She blinked once. Twice. Then shook her head, like she had heard me wrong. “What?”
I clenched my jaw. “She’s not my daughter.”
The color drained from her face.
I wanted to reach for her. To hold her. To fix this before it completely fell apart.
But there was no fixing it.
Emilia’s voice was barely a whisper. “Then… whose is she?”
I hesitated.
And then, finally-
“Dominic’s.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, pushing back from the table like she couldn’t stand being near me. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You are,” she snapped. “Because that would mean that-” She let out a shaky breath. “That would mean you’ve known this entire time.”
I didn’t answer.
Because she already knew.
Her hands were trembling. “How long?”
“Emilia-”
“How long have you known, Alaric?!”
My throat felt tight. “Since the beginning.”
She made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “The beginning,” she repeated, shaking her head in disbelief. “So you let me believe she was yours all these time?”
I let out a heavy breath. “I never wanted to lie to you.”
“But you did.” Her voice was raw. “You lied to me. Every single day.”
I exhaled, rubbing the back of my neck. “It wasn’t that simple, Emilia.”
She laughed again, but there was nothing amused about it. “Wasn’t that simple? You took in Dominic’s daughter and never told me? That seems pretty damn simple to me.”
“She was just a baby,” I snapped, my frustration spilling over. “I wasn’t going to abandon her.”
“Abandon her?” Emilia shot back. “I’m not telling you that you should abandon her. If you had told me, I’d have understood! But you never even gave me a choice, Alaric.” Her voice cracked. “You didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.”
Guilt clawed at my chest. “I was trying to protect you.”
She let out a sharp, bitter breath. “Protect me from what? The truth?”
I clenched my fists. “From everything. From more pain. From-” I gestured between us. “From this.”
She let out another shaky breath, looking away like she couldn’t stand to even see me right now.
And fuck, that hurt more than I could put into words.
Alonso watched the entire thing unfold with something unreadable in his expression. I didn’t know if he was entertained or if he was just silently relishing the fact that I had finally fucked up so badly that Emilia might never forgive me.
She turned back to me, her eyes wet but still blazing with anger. “You had months to tell me, Alaric.”
I swallowed. “I know.”
She let out a sharp, shaking breath. Then, finally, she shook her head. “I need to get out of here.”
“Emilia-”
She was already pushing back from the table. “Don’t.”
Her voice was final.
She didn’t look at me again, she just turned and walked out.
I sat there, staring at the spot she had just been, my heart pounding like a war drum.
For the first time in years, I felt truly, utterly lost.
A slow clap echoed through the room.
I turned to Alonso, barely restraining the urge to break his nose.
He smirked. “Well, that was fun.”
I exhaled sharply, scraping a hand down my face. “Go to hell.”
He laughed, standing from his seat. “Already there, kid.”
I barely registered Alonso’s smug expression before I was on my feet, moving before I could even think.
Emilia was leaving.
I wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Emilia!” I called out, striding after her as she stormed out the front door and down the stone path leading into Alonso’s massive garden.
She didn’t stop.
Didn’t even look back.
I caught up to her just as she reached the edge of the garden, her shoulders rising and falling with every sharp, angry breath. The soft glow of the garden lights bathed her in gold, but there was nothing warm about the way she looked at me when she finally turned.
“What do you want, Alaric?”
Her voice was cold.
And fuck, if that didn’t hurt more than I was ready for.
I swallowed hard. “I’m sorry.”
She scoffed. “For what, exactly? For lying? For hiding Dominic’s child from me?”
“For everything,” I said, my voice thick. “For keeping it from you. For making you feel like you weren’t part of this when you were. You always were.”
Her jaw clenched, her arms wrapping around herself. “Do you even understand how much this hurts?”
I stepped closer, desperation creeping into my voice. “Emilia, I swear-I never wanted to lie to you. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was protecting you.”
She let out a bitter laugh, shaking her head. “You keep saying that like it makes it better. Like it erases all these months of secrets.”
“I know it doesn’t,” I admitted. “But I’m begging you-please, Emilia. Don’t walk away from me.”
Her eyes burned into mine, her breathing ragged.
For a long moment, she just stared at me, and I could see it-the anger raging inside her.
Then, suddenly-
“What date?” she whispered.
I blinked. “What?”
She lifted her chin. “The date of the crash. When did Dominic die?”
I hesitated, caught off guard. But then, quietly, I gave her the answer.
“March 4th.”
And then-
Something changed.
Her entire body tensed, her breath hitching like she had been struck. Her eyes went wide, her lips parting slightly.
“Emilia?” I stepped toward her, frowning. “What is it?”
But she didn’t respond.
She was somewhere else.
Frozen.
Distant.
And then, almost as if in a trance, she whispered, “Oh my God.”
My stomach dropped.
“Emilia?”
She blinked rapidly, shaking her head. “I-I remember.”
My frown deepened. “Remember what?”
She sucked in a breath, eyes darting to mine, her entire body trembling.
“I saved her.”
I stared at her, my pulse hammering in my ears. “What do you mean you saved her?”
Emilia’s eyes were distant, like she was seeing something I couldn’t. She sucked in a sharp breath and pressed a shaky hand to her temple.
“I was there,” she whispered. “The night of the crash. I was there.”
My stomach tightened. “How?”
She let out a ragged breath, her fingers curling into fists. “I don’t-I didn’t remember until now. But I was on that road, Alaric. I was coming back from-God, I don’t even know anymore. But I remember the rain. The way the air smelled. The way the sky was so dark, and then suddenly-headlights.”
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “Go on.”
She exhaled shakily. “I heard the crash before I saw it. I remember slamming on my brakes, my heart in my throat. And then I saw the wreck-Dominic’s car. The other one too, but I-I didn’t go near it. I only ran to the one that looked the worst. His car was-” She sucked in a breath, eyes flickering with something raw. “It was crushed. The front was barely recognizable. And I remember thinking, no one could have survived that.”
I clenched my jaw. I’d spent years picturing that night in my head, but hearing her describe it sent a different kind of pain through me.
Emilia swallowed hard. “But then I heard her.”
My breath stalled.
“Francesca?”
She nodded slowly, her voice breaking. “She was crying. Softly. Like she was tired. Like she had been crying for hours.” Emilia’s eyes shimmered as she looked at me. “I don’t know how she survived, but she was there, strapped in the back seat. The only thing keeping her safe was that Dominic must have put her in a car seat.”
I ran a hand down my face, my chest tightening.
Emilia let out a shuddering breath. “I-I don’t even remember deciding to move. I just acted. I ripped open the door, unbuckled her, and pulled her out. She was so small, Alaric. So helpless. She stopped crying the moment I held her.”
A lump formed in my throat.
That was Francesca. That was so Francesca.
“I tried to wake Dominic up,” she whispered. “I-I shook him. I yelled. But he didn’t move. He was already gone.”
A sharp pain pierced through my ribs, but I stayed silent, letting her finish.
“I didn’t know what to do,” she admitted. “I had this baby in my arms, and I just stood there in the rain, completely lost.” She let out a bitter laugh. “And then I heard sirens. The medics were coming. I panicked. I-I don’t know why, but I panicked.”
She inhaled sharply, looking away.
“I set her down on the grass, right near the road,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I wrapped her up in my jacket and made sure she was safe. And then-I left.”
A cold breeze swept through the garden, but all I could feel was the warmth of my pulse hammering through my body.
She saved her.
Emilia saved Francesca.
I exhaled, a shaky, disbelieving sound. “That’s why she calls you ‘Mom’.”
Emilia flinched, her eyes darting to mine.
I let out a weak chuckle, running a hand through my hair. “She remembers you. Even if she doesn’t fully understand why. Some part of her knows you were the first person to hold her after Dominic died.”
Emilia’s face crumpled, her breath hitching. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “Oh my God.”
I reached for her instinctively, but she took a step back, shaking her head.
“I-I can’t,” she choked out. “This is too much. I can’t process all of this right now.”
“Emilia-”
“I can’t,” she snapped, her voice sharp with exhaustion.
I froze.
She exhaled shakily, rubbing her arms. “I just want to go home, Alaric.”
My heart clenched.
She looked drained-mentally, emotionally. And who could blame her?
She just found out she was the reason my niece was alive.
I swallowed my protests and nodded. “Okay.”
She turned away without another word, walking back toward the house.
I followed in silence, my mind spinning.
There were still a million things I wanted to say. A million things I wanted to ask, but right now, she needed space.
And for the first time in my life, I forced myself to give it to her.