CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MARIA
I walked into the Russo mansion still feeling the lingering warmth of Lorenzo’s touch on my hand from earlier. For the first time in a long time, everything felt right. Like I wasn’t constantly bracing myself for something to go wrong. It was an odd feeling, a good one, but odd. I had spent so long running from my past and from my feelings that I never stopped to think that maybe happiness could be this simple.
Lorenzo had changed. Or maybe I was just now seeing him for who he truly was. Not the boy who used to tease me when I had pigtails, not the man who had disappeared when I needed him most, but someone who had sacrificed so much, his freedom and his life for the people he loved. Conversing with his mother and seeing how he adored her made me see him from an angle he tried so hard to hide. And now he had chosen me just like I did him. That thought alone sent a giddy thrill through me.
And my son adored him. That had always been my biggest restraint, the thing that held me back from even considering another man. I needed someone my son would love and someone who would love my son. And Lorenzo had slipped into our lives effortlessly as if he had always belonged there. Maybe he did.
Of course, Luca would grumble about me being with his best friend. But he would learn to live with it. Maybe this would finally force him to stop hovering over me like an overprotective bodyguard and find a girlfriend for himself.
“Maria, sit,” Uncle Enrico’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts the second I stepped into the living room. Luca was already seated, his arms crossed, his expression unreadable. That was never a good sign.
“What is it?” I dropped my bag on the chair, feeling a slight unease creeping up my spine.
Enrico’s expression was grim, but there was something else there, something unsettling. Excitement? Anticipation? “I have something to show you both.”
Luca sighed, rubbing his temples. “If this is another one of your dramatic—”
Enrico raised a hand, silencing him. “I’ve been looking into who killed your father, as you and Luca already know. I know Luca was given the condition to do the same, but I felt it was my obligation.”
Obligation? Since when had Enrico ever cared about morality? The man thrived in murky waters. Now, he wanted to act like he had a moral compass? I almost laughed but decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
“And?” My voice came out more impatient than I intended.
Enrico’s lips curled into a smirk. “I found out who Shade is.”
Shade.
That name alone sent a chill through me. It had been hovering over my life for years like a dark cloud. The ghost of a man who had haunted my family and destroyed it. My heart pounded against my ribs.
Shade. He was also the same man I had slept with and was the father of my son—I think. Considering there were a lot of bleary facts about that night, I wasn’t sure.
I could barely breathe with the number of times his name had been mentioned in a single minute. And now Enrico was saying he had a face to put to the name? I gripped the edge of the couch, feeling like the air had been sucked out of the room.
Luca straightened. “You’re serious?”
Enrico reached into a small bag and pulled out a tape. He held it up, waving it slightly. “See for yourself.”
My stomach twisted into knots as he placed it into the player. The screen flickered, and the grainy video played. There was a lit room and a man standing in the center. He wore a black mask, the same mask I had seen him in that night. Shade.
I gritted my teeth, watching the screen, waiting for the moment that would change everything.
And then it happened.
Slowly, almost methodically, the man reached up and pulled off the mask.
A face was revealed. The air left my lungs so violently that I thought I might pass out. The room around me faded. The voices blurred. All I could see was the screen. It was him. Lorenzo.
This is not true. I stared, frozen in a single moment that felt like an eternity. Lorenzo was Shade.
The man I had just kissed, the man who had just told me he wanted me, was the same man responsible for my father’s death.
A choked sound escaped me. I wasn’t sure if it was a gasp or a sob. My fingers dug into my thighs. No. No, this couldn’t be right. There had to be an explanation. There had to be a mistake. But the image on the screen told me otherwise.
Luca shot to his feet, his chair scraping against the floor. “No. No way. This has to be fake.”
Enrico leaned back, watching us like a predator enjoying his prey’s panic. “It’s not. That’s the truth. Your best friend has been lying to you, Luca. And Maria…well, I think we both know what this means for you.”
I wanted to scream. To cry. To run.
Memories rushed back in fragments, colliding like a storm in my head: he nights I had spent wondering about Shade, the pain, the betrayal, the loss, my father’s lifeless body, and the anger that had swallowed me whole.
And now, Lorenzo.
The man I had let into my life and had trusted with my son. The man who had held my hand just minutes ago and made me feel safe.
I felt sick.
Luca turned to me, his face filled with shock and confusion. “Maria…”
I stood up too fast, the room tilting for a moment. “I need air.”
“Maria, wait—”
But I was already moving out the door and down the hall. My hands were shaking. My heart was shattering.
Lorenzo was Shade. The man I loved. He was the man who had killed my father and who might be the father of my son.
I was trying to catch my breath when I saw Luca run past me. I knew that look, the darkness in his eyes.
Shit.
“Luca, wait,” I called out to him, but he didn’t listen or even turned back. He got into his car and drove past me. I knew if I didn’t go after him, someone was going to die tonight.
But considering Lorenzo was stronger. I knew who. I quickly got into my care and chased after him.
My hands were shaking on the steering wheel. I could barely see the road through the blur of my own shock. My foot slammed against the gas pedal, the tires screeching as I sped after Luca’s car.
This couldn’t be happening. Lorenzo.
Lorenzo was Shade, the man I was about to marry and who I might have had a one-night-stand with years ago. He was the man who might be the father of my son and possibly the man who killed my father. He had acted like he wanted me and cared for me and my son. Was that all part of his act—to hide in plain sight so we never suspected him? But I had known Lorenzo since I was a young girl. He had shown me care. Or was I just imagining that?
I felt like I was choking on my own thoughts, unable to grasp onto a single one before another crashed into me like a tidal wave. My heart was hammering so loud in my chest that I almost didn’t hear the honking behind me as I swerved to follow Luca.
I knew where he was going.
Lorenzo’s house.
I saw Luca’s car screech to a stop in front of the driveway, and I barely had time to park before he was already storming out. I yanked my door open, stumbling out, my lungs burning as I shouted his name.
“Luca! Wait! Just stop for a second!”
He wasn’t listening. Of course, he wasn’t listening. His fists were clenched at his sides, and his shoulders were rigid with rage. Luca wasn’t thinking. He was reacting.
I ran after him, nearly tripping over my own feet as he shoved the front door open without knocking.
Lorenzo was standing in the middle of the room, a glass of whiskey in his hand, his face tense like he already knew what was coming.
Luca didn’t hesitate.
The glass shattered to the ground as Luca’s fist met Lorenzo’s jaw with a sickening crack. Lorenzo barely moved, his head snapping to the side, but he didn’t hit back. He just stumbled, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as a drop of blood smeared across his knuckles.
“You—” Luca’s voice was shaking. “You son of a bitch”
Another punch. This time, Lorenzo’s back hit the wall.
“I swear on everything, Luca, I didn’t kill your father.” Lorenzo’s voice was steady, but there was something in his eyes. I expected him to punch back, but he didn’t. He held back.
I ran between them, pushing against Luca’s chest, but he was a rock.
“Luca, stop it! Just—stop! Listen to me!”
Luca shoved me gently to the side, his hands shaking. His eyes were wild and filled with betrayal, fury, and a pain so deep that it made my stomach twist into knots.
“You were my best friend,” Luca’s voice cracked. “You were my best damn friend, and you lied to me every day.”
Lorenzo took a step closer, hands raised. “I never lied to you.”
Luca’s laugh was bitter. “Oh? So you just forgot to tell me you were Shade?”
Lorenzo exhaled, running a hand through his hair. “I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you so many times.”
“You don’t get to stand here and act like you had no choice. You let us believe some ghost was responsible for everything, and the whole time, it was you. You were that fucking ghost. You are Shade.” Luca’s breathing was ragged. “You let Maria….”
Lorenzo’s eyes darted to mine, and my heart stopped.
I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to demand answers. I wanted to hate him.
But I couldn’t.
The man in front of me wasn’t a monster. He was the same man who held me when I couldn’t sleep and the same man who took care of me when I was sick. He was the same man who kissed me like I was the only thing that mattered.
But the truth was still the truth. And I couldn’t ignore it. He lied to me.
Luca’s fists clenched. “I swear to God, Bianchi, I’ll find the evidence. I’ll make sure you rot in prison and die there. You deserve the same fate.”
Lorenzo flinched like the words had hit harder than any punch. Luca turned on his heels and stormed out, slamming the door so hard that the entire house seemed to shake.
And then it was just me and Lorenzo. Silence. The kind of silence that suffocates.
He turned to me, his eyes pleading. “Maria.”
I took a step back. My throat burned. “Don’t.”
His chest rose and fell, his hands twitching like he wanted to reach for me. “Please. Don’t do this.”
I stood there, looking at the man I thought I knew. The man whose touch once felt like safety, whose laugh I could find in a crowd, whose voice used to calm the storms inside me. And yet, in that moment, it was like I didn’t recognize him at all.
How was it possible for someone to feel like home one day and a stranger the next?
I had trusted him. No caution. No fear. I let my walls down. I let myself believe in something soft and something steady.
But now, standing in front of him, I felt like I had been holding hands with an illusion.
And maybe that was the part that hurt the most—realizing that I didn’t lose him today. I might never have fully had him in the first place.
There was a time when I could read every flicker in his eyes and when his silence spoke louder than words. But now? His face held pieces I didn’t understand and shadows I hadn’t seen before. Secrets, maybe. Or maybe just distance. Whatever it was, it chilled me.
I swallowed hard. My heart was breaking into a million pieces, and I didn’t know if I could ever put it back together again.
“I can’t marry you.”
Lorenzo sucked in a sharp breath, like I had just ripped the air from his lungs.
“Maria,” his voice was hoarse. “Please. Don’t do this. Don’t walk away.”
Tears welled in my eyes, and I bit down on my lip so hard that I tasted blood.
“I trusted you,” my voice cracked. “I trusted you with everything. And now I don’t even know who you are.”
Lorenzo took a step closer, but I took another back.
“I’m still me,” his voice was barely above a whisper. “I’m still the man you grew up with. The man who you know,” his voice broke. “I’m still the man who would do anything to protect you.”
I let out a choked laugh. “Protect me? Is that what you were doing? Protecting me by keeping me in the dark? Letting me fall and live in a lie?”
His jaw clenched. “I wanted to tell you. I was going to tell you.”
“But you didn’t.”
His hands fell to his sides, defeat washing over his face.
I wiped my tears angrily, shaking my head. “I can’t…I just… I can’t do this.”
Lorenzo’s voice cracked. “Maria, please. I am sorry. Just hear me out. I had—”
I turned away, my entire body shaking. If I stayed, if I let him hold me, I knew I would break. And I couldn’t afford to break. Not now. Not with everything falling apart around me. So, I left, and Lorenzo didn’t stop me.