Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Leila’s POV
I hadn’t heard from Luca since yesterday—since the news about him having underground dealings with Cassius started circulating online—and I was getting worried.
A part of me felt guilty, because I knew he’d only gotten involved in the first place for me.
I could smell the setup from the headline alone.
Luca would never—never—get tangled in illegal dealings with notorious rogue leaders, especially not one who had held me by the throat over my father’s debt this past year.
But the entire pack didn’t know the full story. They saw the headline and flew into chaos, convinced their Alpha was without a moral compass.
I scowled as the reporter on the TV spewed more trash about the situation.
Pulling out my phone, I dialed Luca for what was probably the tenth time in the last eighteen hours. Like every other time, it went straight to voicemail.
The sound of Ollie coming down the stairs snapped me back to the present. I quickly switched off the TV, not wanting him to see the headlines about his father.
He was carrying the new LEGO set Luca had gotten him, the box almost half his size.
“Mom, is Daddy still coming today?”
I stood, going to help him with the puzzle, unsure how to answer. Amidst all the chaos in his life right now, Luca had promised to come over this evening to see Ollie—and he wasn’t one to break his word.
I passed Ollie a bright smile. “He’ll be here,” I said, hoping to God he would. I didn’t want Ollie going to bed disappointed. He was already buzzing with excitement at the thought of seeing his father.
The timer in the kitchen dinged, signaling the lasagna I’d been making for lunch was ready. While pulling the tray from the oven, the doorbell rang—and from the living room came Ollie’s excited squeal. “I’ll get it!” His voice was pure joy. It had to be Luca.
I slid the lasagna back into the oven, stripped off my oven mitts, and headed toward the living room.
I froze halfway there.
It wasn’t Luca standing at the door. No.
It was the last person I ever expected to see.
Elena.
And she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking at my son—horror flashing across her face before it hardened into something sharper. Anger. Hate.
“Elena,” I said sharply, striding toward the door. Instinctively, I eased Ollie behind me. “What are you doing here?”
“You even have his son?” she demanded, disbelief slicing through her voice. But beneath it, something darker stirred. “How long have you both been fooling me?”
I turned to Ollie. “Ollie, go upstairs and work on your LEGO set. I’ll be up in a few minutes to help you.”
He didn’t argue, but disappointment flickered in his eyes when he realized it wasn’t Luca. Without a word, he turned and climbed the stairs, his small footsteps echoing. Only when he was out of earshot did I snap my gaze back to Elena.
Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides, her chest rising and falling fast. The composed, polished woman I’d been planning a wedding for was gone. In her place stood someone unhinged.
“How long?” she demanded, her voice low and dangerous. “How long have you and Luca been lying to me?”
“Elena, I understand you’re upset about the wedding—”
“Upset?” She laughed, the sound sharp and brittle. “Upset doesn’t begin to cover it.” She stepped forward, uninvited, crossing the threshold of my house as if she owned it. “You’ve been planning my wedding to that man for weeks. Do you have any idea how humiliating this is for me?”
“I never meant for this to happen,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “When I took the job, I had no idea Luca was the groom.”
“Stop lying!” Her voice cracked through the air, loud enough to make me fear Ollie might hear.
“I don’t appreciate you barging into my home to yell at me.”
Her eyes went wide with outrage. “How dare you? How dare you steal my fiancé?”
Her hand shot up to slap me, but I caught her wrist before she could connect.
“I didn’t steal anyone,” I snapped, my own anger breaking loose. “Luca made his own choice.”
“Because of that bastard upstairs!”
The word hit like a blow. My wolf snarled under my skin, enraged by the insult. “Don’t you dare call my son that.”
She ripped her hand free. “Of all people to lose my fiancé to, it’s you. A fucking half breed.” Her fingers tangled in my hair, yanking it back hard. “You’re not even worthy to lace my shoes!” she screamed, pulling my hair so tight I thought she might rip it off my scalp.
I shoved her away with every ounce of strength I had. She stumbled, hitting the floor with a thud. She scrambled up, ready to lunge again—until a small, steady voice cut through the room.
“Stay away from my mom!”
My gaze shot to the staircase. Ollie stood there, his little jaw set, shoulders squared, eyes blazing with defiance.
“Ollie, baby, go back upstairs,” I said quickly.
Elena laughed, low and cruel. “What’s this little shit going to do?”
That was it. I’d had enough of her calling my son names.
“Get out of my house.” I pointed to the door. “Before I call the police.”
She sneered. “And what exactly would the police do to me? You seem to forget who I am, Leila. My father controls the police. He’s the Alpha of the very pack you live in.” Her gaze flicked to Ollie, then back to me. “But fine. I’ll leave. And I’ll leave you with a promise.”
Her eyes burned. “I’ll make you pay. I’ll make you suffer. So much you’ll wish you’d never met me in your entire miserable life.”
With one last venomous look at me and Ollie, she turned on her heel and stormed out.
The door slammed shut, and silence pressed in. For a beat, all I could hear was my own breathing, sharp and uneven. Then the quiet creak of the stairs.
Ollie.
His small frame hovered halfway down, uncertainty clouding his face. My heart squeezed as I hurried toward him, crouching so we were eye to eye.
“Hey,” I whispered, brushing his hair back. “Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Why was she so mean?”
I pulled him against me, holding him tight. “Because sometimes people say ugly things when they’re hurting. But none of what she said was true. Do you hear me? None of it.”
He sniffed, leaning into me. “She called me a—”
I pressed a finger gently to his lips before he could finish. “Don’t even keep that word in your mouth. You are mine. Mine and your father’s. You are loved. And you are the best part of my whole world. Don’t ever forget that.”
I pulled him into a tight hug, hoping Elena’s theatrical act hadn’t scared my son.
It wasn’t until ten p.m. that Luca arrived at my house. When I heard the doorbell ring, fear clawed through me for a moment. But peering through the peephole and seeing him, I opened up instantly.
“Luca—what’s going on?” Relief coated my voice, though it was quickly edged by concern. He had bruises on his face and looked utterly dejected.
Luca’s response was to envelope me in a hug. I was confused at first, but I hugged him back, threading my fingers through his hair. I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but it was comforting. And in that moment, I felt safe.
Since Elena’s visit, I’d been on edge. I couldn’t ignore the promise of threat in her voice, the vindictiveness in her eyes—especially when she looked at my son.
It had made me cranky all day. I didn’t bother telling him, because I didn’t want to give him one more thing to worry about in his pile right now.
When we finally disengaged, I guided Luca to the kitchen, grabbed an icepack from the fridge, and started pressing it against his bruised knuckles. With how red and swollen they were, someone had gotten the beating of their life today.
“How’s Ollie?” His voice cracked through the silence of the kitchen. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it here sooner. I was caught up in—”
“You don’t have to explain yourself, Luca,” I passed him a reassuring smile. “I understand right now that you have a lot of things going on in your life.”
“Are you sure?” Uncertainty filled his eyes. But there was also something else—remorse, guilt. Pity.
I nodded. “Ollie was a little disappointed, but I explained to him just how busy you were, and he understood. If he hadn’t already gone to bed, you would have caught him up. At least you still showed up—that’s what matters most.”
“Hmm…” Luca hummed, but said nothing else. His gaze still held that remorse, guilt, and pity for me.
I paused in pressing the icepack to his knuckles. “Luca,” I called, my voice soft. “What’s going on?”
For a moment, he averted his gaze, as though ashamed of something. And when he looked back at me again, there was a heaviness in his expression—like whatever he was about to say would forever alter something between us.
“There is something you need to know.”
I sat up straighter, bracing myself for whatever he was about to say. But nothing—nothing—could have prepared me for the words that came next. In my wildest imaginings, this had never crossed my mind.
“Victor?” My voice was barely a whisper, heavy with shock.
Luca took the ice pack from my hand and enclosed my palm in his much larger one.
“I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours feeling like absolute shit.
Because if I had truly believed in us—believed in you—Victor never would have had the chance to get between us.
You wouldn’t have had to spend five years alone, paying off your father’s debt.
You wouldn’t have raised our son without me.
” His voice caught on the last word. “As much as I’d like to put all the blame on him—and I do, because he’s as sick as they come—this was my fault, too.
I gave him the opening to manipulate everything, and he did exactly that. ”
I reached for his face, my thumb brushing along his jaw. “Luca, don’t do that to yourself. Don’t take responsibility for his madness. You don’t control your brother, or the twisted things he’s done.”
“I know, but—”
“No buts.” My tone softened, but I didn’t let him finish. “Maybe the last five years were meant to teach us something. But I’m done letting them define us. We can either keep punishing ourselves for the past or choose to move forward. And I’m choosing to move forward, Luca.”
He covered my hand with his own. “I promise you, Victor will never touch you—or us—again. And I swear, I will always be here for you and Ollie. The past will never repeat itself.”
I believed him. Every word. Not because I was desperate to, but because the weight of his sincerity left no room for doubt. The rumors about him being mixed up in rogue deals only proved the lengths he was willing to go to protect me.
We stayed like that for a few moments longer, but I could see he was elsewhere. His gaze had gone glassy, like he was staring at something far away—or someone. His jaw worked, tension flickering over his features as though he was holding back a storm.
“Hey.” I cupped his face in both hands, tilting his head toward me. “You don’t have to bother about Victor anymore.”
“It’s not just Victor.” He let out a long, heavy breath, then added. “My mother showed up.”
My eyes widened. “Your mother?”
He gave a short, humorless nod. “Believe me, I was just as shocked.”
“Wh-why?”
“Same thing I’ve been asking myself all day. She was standing outside my building, like she had every right to be there. Said she wanted to talk. Said she had a lot to tell me.” His hand raked through his hair again, the movement sharp, threaded with restrained fury.
“And what did you say?”
“What is there to say? She lost the right to talk to me when she abandoned her children twenty-one years ago.”
My heart broke for him. I could picture it perfectly—Luca, faced with the woman who’d shaped his deepest wounds, trying to hold himself together while she acted like she had the right to claim him.
“Luca, aren’t you a little bit curious?”
“No.” He turned to face me, palpable anguish in his eyes.
“I know what you’re going to say, Leila.
That maybe I should hear her out. That there might be more to the story.
But you didn’t live through what I did. You didn’t wake up every morning for months thinking she’d come home, only to be disappointed all over again. ”
His fingers tightened around mine, and I squeezed back, trying to anchor him.
“You’re right. I didn’t. But—”
“She made her choice,” he cut in. “And I made mine. I don’t need her explanations, or her guilt, or whatever the hell she thinks she owes me now.”
But even as he said it, I could see the conflict in his face—the little boy who still missed his mother warring with the man who’d learned to survive without her. My heart ached for both versions of him.
I stayed quiet, just holding his hand and letting him work through the storm in his head.
When the rigid tension in his shoulders finally eased slightly, I spoke. “Do you know why she left?”
“Does it matter? The bottom line is she chose to walk away from her children. Nothing justifies that.”
“You’re right, Luca. Nothing justifies a mother leaving her child. I would never do that to Ollie. But…” I hesitated, my voice softening, “I would want to know. Why a woman who claimed to care about me so much could walk away so easily.”
He stared at me for a long moment, considering what I said. His expression melted into uncertainty—like he understood, but wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. And at the same time, he did.
“I can’t,” he whispered. “I can’t go through that again, Leila. I’d let that wound close up. I can’t reopen it again.”
The raw vulnerability in his voice made my chest tight.
“You don’t have to do anything, Luca,” I said softly. “Just listen to her. Just hear what she has to say. Just once. And if she disappoints you again, then you’ll know for sure. You’ll have your answer.”
He closed his eyes, leaning into my touch like he was drowning and I was the only thing keeping him afloat. “Why? Why do you care what happens between me and her?”
I thought about my own father—about the years of anger and resentment, about all the things left unsaid. About how I’d give anything for one more chance to make peace with him.
“Because I know what it’s like to lose a parent and never get the chance to make peace with them.
I don’t want you to carry that regret for the rest of your life.
” My lips pressed together, my heart growing heavy.
“You still have a chance, Luca. Maybe not to rebuild what you had, but to get closure. To understand what has been a conundrum all your life.”
“I don’t want to face her alone,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Will you come with me?”
I smiled, a small warmth breaking through the heaviness. “Of course, I will.”