CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
MARIA
I had spent days avoiding Lorenzo, ignoring his calls, blocking his number, and dodging his attempts to reach me like he was a plague I couldn’t afford to catch. But deep inside, I knew he wouldn’t stop. Not Lorenzo. Not the man who had somehow found a way into my heart when I wasn’t looking.
It wasn’t just about him being Shade. It wasn’t just about the fact that the man I’d fallen for and the man I had a son with was the same person who had unknowingly caused my father’s death. There was still the doubt that came with it all and the question of how it could be the same person.
It was the weight of everything, the mess of it all, the way my life had been turned inside out.
Yet, despite my best efforts, despite telling myself over and over that I owed him nothing, I found myself here, in front of his house.
He opened the door before I could knock, like he had been waiting.
“Maria,” his voice carried a thousand emotions, yet I tried to ignore every single one of them.
“I’m just here to tell you not to show up at Matteo’s school again,” I got straight to the point. “I don’t want you near him or near me.”
Lorenzo ran a hand through his hair, looking exhausted. “I know. I’m sorry I had to go that far, but you weren’t listening. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“That doesn’t make it okay,” my voice was sharp. But the truth was, I did still have a soft spot for him despite everything. That was the problem.
He sighed, stepping aside. “At least come in. Let us talk, even if it is for a minute.”
I hesitated. If I walked in, I knew I would hear things I wasn’t sure I was ready for. But I also knew that if I walked away now, I’d spend the rest of my life wondering. So, I stepped inside, arms crossed, heart braced for impact.
“Do you want water?” he asked, and I stared at him.
“Can you please go straight to the point?”
Lorenzo took a deep breath. “The night your father got set up, I got a tip. Someone was trying to steal my merchandise. I hadn’t been in contact with you or Luca for a while. Not since I came back as...” he hesitated as if the word itself tasted bitter, “as Shade.”
I wanted to ask him why he became Shade. But something inside me already knew the answer. I had seen the scars life had left on him and the way the world had forced him to become someone he never wanted to be.
“Go on.”
He exhaled. “This is the hard part, Maria, because I know how it sounds. But I need you to believe me.” His hands clenched into fists as if he were holding something too fragile to break. “That night, I wasn’t anywhere near where your father was. I was at a club with someone. A stranger.”
My stomach twisted. “A stranger.”
“I was there for business, but I was being distracted, and she walked in. My men and I had a deal outside of town. I had spent the evening with her till Dante called. He wanted me to leave the city, the deal, ….”
My mind was spinning. “So, you’re telling me that your alibi...the thing that could prove your innocence...is some mystery woman from a club?” I was struggling to put it all together because I knew what that meant. But my brain was all over the place.
Lorenzo gave a short, humorless laugh. “Yeah. Pretty ridiculous, right? I have no proof. No name. Just my word.”
I remained silent because my mind was already wandering far. “Maria, please.” His voice was raw. “I can’t lose you. Not like this. Not without you at least believing me.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. Because I had no idea what the truth was anymore. And for the first time in my life, I wasn’t sure if my heart or my mind was leading me into more danger.
I felt Lorenzo’s gaze on me. Everything inside me crashed at once.
For days, my mind had been tangled in a mess of emotions, but now, standing in front of Lorenzo, everything clicked into place with terrifying clarity. The man I had been with that night, the man who had haunted my dreams, the man who had unknowingly changed my life, he wasn’t Shade.
He was Lorenzo.
The realization knocked the breath out of me. My fingers curled into fists at my sides as my heartbeat pounded in my ears.
“You were the man that night,” I whispered, but my voice came out broken. I had known he was Shade for days, but somehow, I had convinced myself that he wasn’t the Shade I had spent the night with because there was no way the same person could be in two different places at the same time. Somehow, I had convinced myself that he had killed my dad but was not the man I was with.
Lorenzo’s brows furrowed. “Maria?”
I was supposed to say it. Just say it. Get it out like ripping off a bandage. But the words tangled in my throat like thorns. How was I supposed to explain this?
How was I supposed to tell him that I was his alibi? That the woman from that night, the mystery girl, was me.
I took a shaky breath, staring at the ground. My brain screamed at me to walk away, but my heart was stubborn, my body frozen in place.
Lorenzo moved a step closer, his voice softer now. “Maria, what is going on?”
Just tell him.
“I—” My throat closed up. I swallowed hard and forced myself to meet his gaze. “That night at the club, I was there.”
His jaw tensed. “What do you mean, there? Like you came there?”
“No,” I said quickly. “Not like that. I wasn’t just there. I was her.”
Confusion flickered in his eyes. I saw a man who was struggling to comprehend and catch the bomb I was about to throw at him. “What are you saying?”
I licked my lips, my heart hammering against my ribs. “I was the girl. The mystery girl.”
Lorenzo went still.
Not just still—frozen.
He didn’t blink. He didn’t breathe. It was as if my words had slammed into him and buried him beneath it.
“No,” he finally whispered, shaking his head. “No, that’s not—” He let out a sharp breath like he was trying to clear his head. “You can’t be.”
A humorless laugh bubbled in my throat. “Believe me, I wish I wasn’t.”
His hands twitched at his sides, his entire body visibly shaking. “Maria… you—”
“That night, I was reckless,” I cut in before I lost my nerve. “I did something I’d never done before. I wore a mask. I let myself be someone else. Just for one night.” I sucked in a deep breath, blinking away the heat in my eyes. “And then we… and it was…”
Lorenzo’s lips parted, but no words came out.
I laughed, but it sounded hollow. “It was the best night of my life,” I admitted, my voice raw. “But then I heard Dante say your name. Shade. And I realized I had just—” My breath hitched. “I had just given myself to the man my father hated most.”
Lorenzo flinched like I had slapped him.
I hated myself for how my voice broke, but it was too late to take it back.
“I ran,” I continued, barely above a whisper now. “Because I knew I had messed up in so many ways. And I knew that if I looked at you again, if I let you explain yourself, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from falling.”
Then Lorenzo exhaled a shaky breath and dragged his hands over his face. “Jesus Christ, Maria.”
His voice was hoarse, strained. He paced once, twice, then stopped right in front of me. “You were her?”
I nodded.
A rough chuckle escaped him, but it wasn’t amusement. It was disbelief and frustration, and it felt numb and aching at the same time.
He raked a hand through his hair, his fingers trembling. “That night haunted me for years. Years, Maria.” His voice cracked, raw emotion seeping through. “I couldn’t understand why you left. I thought I’d done something—” His breath hitched, and suddenly, his hands were on me, gripping my arms. “And now you’re telling me that the woman I’ve been chasing, the woman I can’t get out of my damn head, was you all along?”
I barely had time to nod before his hands slid up to my face. He cupped my cheeks, fingers firm yet gentle. His eyes searched mine, desperate and wild, like he needed to find the truth written there.
“Even in a mask,” he whispered, voice thick, “you have always been the one.”
My breath caught.
“Both consciously or not,” he went on, eyes dark with something dangerously close to longing, “I’ve always gravitated towards you.”
My heart clenched, my entire body tingling under his touch. His face was so close, his breath warm against my lips.
“I can believe it,” he murmured.
His lips were inches from mine.
And then—
“I have one more thing to tell you.”
Lorenzo stilled.
His brows pulled together, but he didn’t pull away. “What?”
My entire body went cold. This was the real storm. The one thing that would change everything forever.
I sucked in a breath. “Matteo.”
Lorenzo’s expression shifted. “What about him?”
I looked up at him, my eyes burning. I knew that there was no going back now, so I let the words fly out of my mouth without thinking about it.
“He’s your son.”