Chapter 18
AURORA
I'm reading in my room when I hear the shouting.
It's coming from downstairs, muffled but unmistakable. Dad's voice, raised in a way I haven't heard since the Kozlov retaliation. And someone else. Axel, maybe? I can't tell.
My stomach twists. Something's wrong. Something's very wrong.
I set down my book and move to the door, pressing my ear against it. The voices are clearer now, but I still can't make out words. Just rage, pure and visceral, coming from my father's office.
Then footsteps. Heavy, fast. Coming up the stairs.
I barely have time to step back before my door slams open so hard it hits the wall.
Dad stands there, and I've never seen him look like this. His face is purple with rage, veins standing out in his neck. His hands are clenched into fists, and there's blood on his knuckles.
Blood.
"Dad?" My voice comes out small. "What happened? Are you hurt?"
"Am I hurt?" He laughs, bitter and harsh. "You're asking if I'm hurt?"
"I don't understand..."
"Is it true?" He's advancing on me now, and I back up instinctively. "Tell me it's not true. Tell me Axel Santego is lying through his teeth."
Ice floods my veins. No. No no no.
"What did he say?" I manage.
"Don't play stupid with me, Aurora! Is. It. True?" He's shouting now, spittle flying. "Is he the father of your baby?"
The world tilts.
He told him. Axel told him.
"Dad, let me explain..."
"So it IS true!" His voice breaks on the words. "Jesus Christ, Aurora. Axel? You slept with Axel Santego?"
"I didn't know who he was! I met him at a club, and we..."
"And you WHAT? You fucked him? Got pregnant by him? By my best friend? By the man I trusted more than anyone in this world?"
The words hit like slaps.
"It wasn't like that! I didn't know he was your friend. Didn't know he was Leo's father. We didn't use last names. We just..."
"You just what, Aurora? Had a one-night stand? Multiple nights? How many times did you spread your legs for him before you bothered to ask who he was?"
I flinch like he hit me. "Dad..."
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" He's pacing now, hands in his hair. "Any idea at all? You've destroyed everything! My friendship with Axel. The alliance I was building. Your reputation. Your future!"
"I didn't mean to..."
"You didn't MEAN to?" He whirls on me. "You didn't mean to fuck my best friend? Didn't mean to get pregnant by him? What DID you mean to do, Aurora?"
"I just wanted..." My voice breaks. "I just wanted to feel something. To have something that was mine. To not be the obedient daughter for once in my life."
"Well congratulations. You succeeded. You had your fun, and now you've destroyed everything."
Tears are streaming down my face now. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know..."
"Sorry doesn't fix this!" He's shouting again. "Sorry doesn't undo the fact that you're carrying that bastard's child! Sorry doesn't fix the twenty years of friendship you destroyed!"
"Don't call him that."
The words slip out before I can stop them.
Dad goes very still. "What did you just say?"
"Don't call Axel a bastard. This isn't his fault."
"Not his fault?" His voice drops to something dangerous. "He slept with you. Got you pregnant. Then came to my house and arranged for you to marry his son while lying to my face. And you're defending him?"
"He didn't know it was me! He didn't know I was your daughter until the engagement party!"
"I don't care!" The roar makes me jump. "I don't care what he knew or didn't know! He betrayed me! And so did you!"
"Dad, please..."
"Reckless," he spits. "You're reckless. Stupid. A disgrace to this family."
Each word is a knife.
"You sound just like them," I whisper. "Just like everyone who called me damaged goods when they found out I was pregnant."
"Maybe they were right."
The words hang in the air between us, and I watch my father's face crumble as he realizes what he just said.
"Aurora, I didn't mean..."
"Yes, you did."
"I'm angry. I'm furious. I just found out my daughter has been sleeping with my best friend behind my back."
"I'm your adult daughter!" I'm shouting now too, months of frustration exploding out of me. "Not your property! Not a pawn! Not a piece on your chessboard! I'm a person who made a mistake! Who fell for someone without knowing who he was! Who's been trying to survive this nightmare you put me in!"
"I was trying to protect you!"
"By selling me to Leo? By arranging a marriage without asking me? By keeping me in the dark about my own life?"
"I was trying to give you security! Stability! A future!"
"I didn't want that future! I never wanted to marry Leo! I never wanted any of this!"
We're both breathing hard, staring at each other across a chasm that feels impossible to cross.
"I loved you," he says quietly, and the past tense destroys me. "I loved you more than anything. You were my little girl. My princess."
"I'm still your little girl."
"No." He shakes his head. "My little girl wouldn't have lied to me. Wouldn't have betrayed me. Wouldn't have..." He stops, swallows hard. "I don't even know who you are anymore."
Before I can respond, the door slams open again.
Leo stumbles in, drunk and wild-eyed. He must have been listening outside, must have heard everything.
"It's true," he says, his words slurred but venomous. "It's actually fucking true. You fucked my father."
"Leo, get out," Dad orders. "This doesn't concern you."
"Doesn't concern me?" Leo laughs, high and unstable. "My fiancée has been screwing my father, and it doesn't concern me?"
"She's not your fiancée anymore."
"Good!" Leo's advancing on me now, and I can smell the whiskey on his breath. "I don't want your sloppy seconds anyway. Though I guess technically, Dad got my sloppy seconds, didn't he? Since I had you first in college."
"You didn't have me," I spit back. "You tried to assault me."
"Is that what you're calling it now? I remember you begging for it."
"I was begging you to stop, you psychopath!"
"Lying whore!" He's in my face now, so close I can see the broken blood vessels in his eyes. "You couldn't get me, so you went after my father? Fucked him to humiliate me?"
"I didn't even know he was your father!"
"Bullshit! This whole thing was planned! You wanted to destroy me!"
"You're insane..."
"No, you're the insane one! Thinking you could fuck both of us! Thinking you could play us against each other!" His hand shoots out, grabs my arm hard enough to bruise. "Well, guess what, princess? You lose!"
"Let go of me!"
"Make me, you little..."
A fist connects with Leo's face before he can finish.
Axel.
I didn't hear him come in, didn't see him enter. But he's here now, and Leo's on the floor, blood pouring from his nose.
"Don't ever touch her," Axel growls. "Don't even look at her."
"You fucking..." Leo staggers to his feet and lunges at Axel.
What have I done? Why do I have a father and his son fighting over me?
They crash into my dresser, sending perfume bottles and jewelry flying. Axel gets him in a headlock, but Leo's fighting dirty, clawing and biting like a rabid animal.
"ENOUGH!" Dad's roarers, flinging himself into the fight. "BOTH OF YOU, STOP!"
They separate, breathing hard. Leo's face is a mess of blood and rage. Axel's got scratches down his neck, and his already battered face looks even worse.
"I want both of you out of my house," Dad says, his voice deadly calm. "Right now."
"Luca..." Axel starts.
"I said OUT! Out of my house! Out of my life! Both of you Santegos, get the fuck out before I have you shot!"
"Dad, please..." I try.
"And you." He turns to me, and there's nothing left in his eyes but disappointment. "You're staying here. Where I can watch you. Where you can't make any more disastrous decisions."
"No." The word comes out firm, clear.
"Excuse me?"
"I said no. I'm not staying here to be punished like a child."
"You are a child! My child! And you'll do what I say!"
"I'm twenty-six years old and pregnant. I'm not a child anymore." I look at Axel, then back at my father. "And I'm leaving."
"Like hell you are."
"You can't stop me."
"Aurora, don't do this." There's pleading in his voice now. "Don't choose him over me."
"I'm not choosing him over you. I'm choosing myself." The words feel true as I say them. "For once in my life, I'm choosing what I want instead of what you've decided for me."
"If you walk out that door with him, you're not welcome back."
The ultimatum hangs in the air.
I look at Axel. His face is destroyed, blood still dripping from his split lip. But his eyes are clear and steady when they meet mine.
"Aurora," he says quietly. "You don't have to do this."
"Yes, I do."
I grab my purse from the nightstand. My phone. Nothing else matters.
"Aurora." Dad's voice breaks. "Please. Don't do this."
"I'm sorry, Dad. I'm so sorry. But I can't stay here."
"Then go!" The softness vanishes, replaced by fury. "Go with him! See how long it lasts! See how long before he gets tired of you!"
The words hurt, but they don't stop me.
Axel holds out his hand. I take it.
We walk out of my room together, down the stairs, through the foyer. I can feel eyes watching us. Marco, the guards, the staff. Everyone seeing Don Luca's daughter leave with the man who betrayed him.
The front door is heavy. Axel opens it.
Behind us, I hear Dad's voice one last time. "If you leave, you're dead to me."
I step through the door anyway.
It slams behind us with a finality that echoes in my chest.
Axel's car is in the driveway, already loaded with bags. Viktor's in the driver's seat, Sergei beside him. They don't look surprised to see me.
"Get in," Axel says gently, opening the back door.
I do. He slides in beside me.
The car starts moving, and I watch my father's estate disappear behind us. The only home I've ever known. The only family I have left.
Gone.
"Are you okay?" Axel asks softly.
Am I?
I just lost my father. Just walked away from everything I've ever known. Just chose a man I've spent less than a month with over the parent who raised me.
"No," I whisper. "I'm not okay."
He pulls me into his arms, and I finally let myself break.
Because I'm not okay. Nothing about this is okay.
But I'm free.
And maybe, just maybe, that's enough.