Chapter 15 Luca #2
"I believe you." The words should bring relief, but instead they just make the weight on my chest heavier.
"You're too fucking loyal to betray me deliberately.
And Giulia—" He stops, his expression darkening.
"Giulia is smart enough to pull off a deception like this.
To create an entire identity just to get what she wants. "
"I'm sorry." The words feel inadequate, but I say them anyway. "I'm so fucking sorry, Romeo. I never meant for any of this to happen. I never meant to—"
"I know." He cuts me off, his voice tired.
"I know you didn't. But that doesn't change what's happened.
That doesn't change the fact that my sister is pregnant with your child while she's engaged to another man.
That doesn't change the fact that our father is going to lose his fucking mind when he finds out. "
The mention of Dante makes my blood run cold. Romeo might believe me, might be willing to hear me out, but Dante is a different story entirely.
Dante doesn't forgive betrayal or give second chances, and he’s already given me one when I stepped out of line. He kills people who threaten his family, and I've just become exactly that.
"We need to tell him." Romeo's voice cuts through my spiraling thoughts.
"We need to tell him before Giulia does.
Before he hears this from anyone else. Because if he thinks you deliberately betrayed him—if he thinks you knew who she was and touched her anyway—he'll kill you.
No hesitation. No mercy. Just a bullet."
My blood feels like ice in my veins. "I know."
"But if we go to him together… if I vouch for you. If I tell him that I believe you didn't know—" Romeo pauses, his expression grim. "Then maybe—maybe—there's a chance he'll let you live long enough to figure out what the fuck we're going to do about this."
The fact that Romeo is willing to stand by me, to vouch for me, to put his own credibility on the line to save my life means more than I can put into words. But it doesn't make the situation any less catastrophic.
"When?" I ask, my voice tight.
"Now, before Giulia has a chance to spin this her way. Before she can make it look like you're the villain and she's the victim."
"She is a victim." The words come out before I can stop them. "I mean—she's not innocent. She lied. She manipulated me and created this entire situation. But she's also trapped in an engagement she doesn't want. She's desperate and scared and—"
"And pregnant with your child." Romeo's voice is hard. "Which means she's not just my sister anymore. She's your responsibility. Your problem. Your catastrophe to manage."
I shut the fuck up. He's right. Everything else is secondary to figuring out what we’re going to do about this.
"Let's go." Romeo moves toward the door, and I follow him, my heart pounding so hard I can feel it in my entire body.
"And Luca? When we get there, let me do most of the talking.
Dante respects you, but he loves Giulia.
And right now, you're the man who got his daughter pregnant while she was engaged to someone else.
That's not a position you want to be in without backup. "
We take Romeo's car, driving through the empty streets toward the Ciresa estate in silence. He sends a text to someone, probably to make sure Dante knows we’re coming and will speak with us.
I stare out the window and try to prepare myself, but there's no way to prepare for facing a man like Dante Ciresa when you've betrayed him in the worst possible way.
The estate is quiet when we arrive, most of the lights off except for the security stations and Dante's office. Romeo parks in front of the main house and kills the engine, and for a moment, we just sit there in the darkness.
"You ready?" he asks.
"No. But it doesn't matter. We have to do this."
"Yeah." Romeo opens his door and steps out into the night. "We do."
I follow him up the steps and into the house, past the guards who nod at Romeo. Romeo leads me down the familiar hallways to Dante's office, and with every step I take, I feel like I'm walking toward my own execution.
He knocks once, and Dante's voice comes from inside, telling us to come in.
Romeo opens the door and steps inside, and I follow him into the office, where I'm about to confess that I've betrayed everything I care about.
Dante is sitting behind his desk, reading something on his computer. He looks up when we enter. "Romeo. Luca." His voice is calm and controlled, giving nothing away. "This is unexpected."
"We need to talk to you." Romeo's voice is steady, but I can hear the tension beneath it. "About Giulia."
Dante's expression doesn't change, but something shifts in the air. Something dangerous and cold that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "Sit."
We sit in the chairs across from his desk, and I force myself to meet Dante's eyes even though every instinct I have is screaming at me to look away, to submit, to show deference to the man who holds my life in his hands.
"Talk."
Romeo runs his tongue over his lower lip.
“Giulia has made a mistake,” he says finally.
“She’s involved Luca in it, but he wasn’t aware of what she was doing.
He was misled, deceived, and forced to do things he wouldn’t have otherwise done.
She confessed tonight, and he came straight to me. I believe he’s being honest.”
Dante’s attention lingers on his son for only a moment before he looks coldly at me. “And?”
I take a deep breath, and I give him the shortest possible version of what happened: Valentina, the club, the time I spent falling for a woman who didn't exist. I tell him about tonight, about the revelation, and finally, that Giulia told me she was pregnant.
The word lands in the office like a wrecking ball, and I watch his face for any sign of what he's thinking and feeling, what he's planning to do to me.
But Dante's expression remains perfectly neutral throughout my entire confession. He doesn't interrupt, doesn't react, doesn't give any indication of the fury that must be building beneath that controlled exterior. When I finish, the silence in the office is absolute.
Then Dante leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers, his eyes fixed on me with an intensity that makes my skin crawl. "Is the pregnancy confirmed?" His voice is soft. Conversational. It’s more terrifying than if he'd been shouting.
"I—" I swallow hard. "I don't know. She told me she was pregnant, but I haven't seen proof. I haven't seen a test. I just—I took her word for it."
"I see." Dante picks up his phone and dials a number, his eyes never leaving my face. "Giulia. My office. Now."
He hangs up without waiting for a response, and the silence that follows is suffocating.
"Sir—" I start, but Dante holds up a hand.
"You'll speak when I tell you to speak." The words are quiet, but each one lands heavily. "Right now, you'll sit there and wait for my daughter to arrive. And then we'll determine exactly how much of what you've told me is truth and how much is a desperate attempt to save your own life."
I close my mouth and nod, my hands clenched into fists on my thighs. Romeo shifts beside me, and I can feel the tension radiating from him.
We wait. Five minutes pass. Then ten. Then fifteen.
Finally, there's a knock on the door, and Dante's voice cuts through the silence. "Enter."
The door opens, and Giulia steps inside.
She's wearing a pair of shorts and a long t-shirt that nearly covers them. Her eyes are red-rimmed, and her feet are bare, her hair loose. She looks so beautiful that even now, even after all the lies and how much I hate her in this moment, seeing her sends a jolt like a shock thrumming through me down to my bones. I don’t know if I want to hold her or slap her or fuck her, or some mixture of all three.
She looks at me first, and I see the flash of panic cross her face when she realizes I'm here. Then she looks at her father, and the panic turns to resignation.
"Sit." Dante gestures to the chair beside me, and Giulia moves to it on shaking legs. She sits down, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes fixed on the floor.
"Look at me." Dante's voice is soft, but I can hear how angry he is. I know him too well to think he’s truly calm, and so does she.
Giulia raises her eyes to meet her father's, and I can see her trying to compose herself, trying to slip into the role of the dutiful daughter who does what's expected. But it's too late for that.
"Luca has told me an interesting story," Dante says, his voice still conversational. "About a woman named Valentina and a club in Manhattan. About deception and lies. Would you like to tell me your version?"
Giulia's throat works as she swallows. "It's true." Her voice is barely above a whisper. "All of it. I created Valentina. I went to the club. I—I've been seeing Luca, but he didn’t know. I disguised myself. And I'm pregnant."
The confession hangs in the air between us, and I watch Dante's expression for any sign of reaction. There is none. He just sits there, perfectly still, and that stillness is more terrifying than any rage could be.
"You created an entire false identity," Dante says slowly, "to seduce one of my soldiers. You lied to him. You lied to me. You lied to your brother. You got pregnant while engaged to another man. And you thought—what? That this would somehow work out in your favor?"
"I didn't think—" Giulia's voice breaks. "I didn't think I'd get pregnant. I didn't think he'd find out. I didn't think—"
"No. You didn't think." Dante's voice is sharper now, the fury finally bleeding through the control.
"You acted selfishly and recklessly, with no regard for the consequences. No regard for what this would do to Luca. No regard for what this would do to this family. I expected you to resolve the chaos your brother created, and instead, you’ve only destabilized us further. "
Her eyes well up instantly. "I'm sorry—"
"Sorry doesn't fix this." Dante stands up, and both Giulia and I flinch. "Sorry doesn't undo the deception. Sorry doesn't make you not pregnant. Sorry doesn't solve the catastrophic mess you've created."
He moves around the desk, and I tense, preparing for violence. But he doesn't come toward me. He goes to Giulia, standing in front of her chair, looking down at her. "Is it true?" he asks flatly. "Are you pregnant?"
"Yes." Giulia's voice is small, broken. "I think so. I'm late, and I've been sick, and I took a test—"
"You think so." Dante's voice snaps in the air. "You've destroyed multiple lives based on something you think is true?"
"I'm sorry—"
"Stop apologizing." He turns away from her and moves back to his desk, picking up his phone again. "Dr. Murdock. I need you at the estate immediately. Yes, now. I don't care what time it is. Bring a pregnancy test. Multiples. I need confirmation of something."
He hangs up and looks at Giulia, his expression unreadable.
"You'll take a test. Tonight, supervised by Dr. Murdock.
And if it's positive—if you are actually pregnant—then we'll discuss what happens next.
But until I have confirmation, until I know for certain that this isn't just another manipulation, another lie—" He stops himself, his jaw clenching.
"You'll wait here. All of you. Until Dr. Murdock arrives. "
The silence that follows is suffocating. Giulia is crying quietly, her hands pressed against her stomach. Romeo is staring at the wall, his expression grim. And I'm sitting here, trying to process the fact that in the next hour, my entire future will be determined by the results of that test.
If it's positive, everything changes. The wedding to Alessandro is off. Giulia and I will be forced together, bound by a child neither of us planned for. The plans for the Marchesi family will be destroyed. And I'll spend the rest of my life trying to earn back the trust I've shattered.
If it's negative—if she's not actually pregnant—then this was all for nothing. All the lies, all the deception, all the destruction, and I’ll just have to…
I don’t even know what. I won’t be tied to Giulia from it, and that would be a relief. But it won’t change everything else that’s been destroyed.
Dante sits back down behind his desk and returns to his computer, dismissing us without words. We're not allowed to leave, but we're also not worth his attention right now. We're just problems waiting to be solved.
I glance at Giulia, and she's staring at her hands, tears streaming down her face.
We sit there in silence and wait for Dr. Murdock to arrive.