24. Chloe
24
CHLOE
F ranco walked away from me, shattering my heart and crushing my soul.
This was precisely why I didn’t want to tell him. This was the reason I held back. I knew, I just knew he’d react poorly. I never once imagined a happy, gleeful moment when I told the man that I’d hidden his son from him for nine years. It simply wasn’t positive news to break to anyone.
Yet, I wouldn’t regret it. Running like I ran had kept Caleb alive. Hiding like I hid had ensured that my son stayed with me, healthy and normal, not controlled or killed by my parents.
I would never apologize for keeping my son a priority. I would never stop seeing to his safety.
But I wished from the bottom of my heart that I didn’t have to hurt Franco in the process.
I wiped the remaining tears from my face and headed to the pool. Someone found a pair of swim trunks for Caleb, likely a pair from the housekeeper’s son who sometimes took a dip when Olivia wanted someone to play with.
I stood at the edge of the room, smiling slightly at the cute scene. Olivia splashed in her floatie while Caleb and Nicky, the head housekeeper’s son, tossed a ball back to her.
Caleb was having the time of his life in the water and fooling around. He’d mentioned many times that he wanted a sibling. It was the first thing he wrote on every letter to Santa. It was the one item he asked for when he was tasked with writing a persuasive letter in school.
It felt good to see him enjoy others like this, and I wished against wishes that he could always have this kind of companionship.
“How are you doing?” Nina asked as she waddled from the pool. They’d made it a group affair, and I appreciated that they’d all teamed up to help distract Caleb while I spoke with Franco.
“I have no clue how to answer that,” I said honestly.
She sat, sipping an icy glass of water, and tapped the chair next to her. “Sit. Talk. I know from experience that it is not good to bottle this stuff in.”
“Ditto,” Tessa said as she came close. We sat, and the chairs scraping over the tiles summoned Eva to draw near to our patio table too. Under the glass of the conservatory ceiling, we were warm and cozy with the sounds of the kids splashing under the watchful eyes of Dante and Romeo.
“Spill.” Eva commanded it in that one-word instruction as Dante slipped out of the pool when Liam returned to it. The Mafia Boss took a chair at our table as well, holding Nina’s hand, and I fought through the intimidation he caused me to feel.
“I didn’t want to let anyone force me to have an abortion.” I stared at Caleb, watching him play as I spoke quietly. I gave the women and Dante a condensed version of the story, and then I waited for their judgments too.
“I know I should’ve told Franco as soon as I saw him again.” I shook my head.
“But with Wes going after you, and all the active danger…” Tessa sighed. “It was a lot at once.”
“ If Wes was the one who shot up that building,” Dante argued. “We don’t know if it was Wes who ordered that attack. While we can’t trace those shooters to anyone else, it’s a possibility, not a probability, that Wes ordered the shooters to target you.”
Eva shook her head. “No. That doesn’t make sense either. Why would he kill her? If he’s so obsessed with her, he’d want her alive.”
I frowned, thinking about what Caleb said, too. “If Wes knew that I was working at that deli, he would’ve been more likely to wait until I was done working and steal me away after a shift or something like that. But Caleb said that Wes was hanging out around him at Ethan’s apartment.”
“That doesn’t mean Wes couldn’t have hired men to shoot up your workplace,” Nina argued. “He wouldn’t have to be there to see that through.”
“But why kill her at all?” Eva asked. “If his MO is to stalk her and try to own her, why hire men to potentially kill her?” She shook her head. “I bet he tracked Caleb, maybe not knowing where you were, and planned to use Caleb to make you run to him.”
I shivered and rubbed my arms. It all sounded so terrible.
“ But ,” Tessa rushed to add, “none of that will matter anymore. You’re here. You’re safe. Both of you.”
I swallowed hard and risked a direct look at Dante. He was watching me, serious and stern, but not mean.
“That’s true. You’re safe here,” he said.
But what if I don’t belong here? What if Franco can’t ever get over this and wants me to leave after my lies and hiding his son?
I winced, entertaining a worse thought. What if he tries to keep Caleb here where it’s safe but get rid of me for how I broke his heart?
After more platitudes and a little more conversation, Dante cleared his throat. “I’d like to speak with Chloe for a few minutes.”
Oh, fuck.
Nina smiled at my expression. “You look like you were just summoned to the principal’s office.” She stood but leaned over to kiss his temple.
“Just to talk,” he said as the women filed away.
Alone with the big, bad Mafia Boss, I waited for him to speak.
“Why?” he asked. “Why did you have to run when Franco could have protected you?” He shook his head. “You met me. You met many of us. You knew that we took care of our own.”
I nodded. “But my parents also knew how close I was to Franco and your family. If they were so determined to kill my son, they wouldn’t have stopped just because I was under your family’s protection.”
He steepled his fingers on the wrought-iron table. “Are they coming to get you here now? You’ve been under our custody, a guest here, if you would, for a week now. Do you see them breaking in to find you?”
“They wouldn’t need to find me . They’d need to find Caleb, and they almost succeeded. Wes was at the apartment building where Caleb was staying. I suspect Wes has gone rogue. He’s on his own twisted mission to track me down or to find Caleb and use him to get me to go back to him. But if he still wants to bring me or Caleb back to my parents and is working for them, he almost reached him out there.”
Just saying the words hurt. I couldn’t fathom anything happening to my son.
“I was stuck. Then and now. If I came to Franco or anyone in your organization, it would’ve been another, easier way for them to find me. I have no doubt they would find out if I was here.”
“But you have doubts that I couldn’t keep my eyes on them?”
He had me there.
“Since you showed up here in the beginning of the week, I’ve had men on them. Watching them. Surveillance and tracing their calls.”
I dropped my jaw. “You have?”
He nodded. “Want to know why?”
I swallowed hard.
“Because Franco is like my son. I treat him the same as I do Romeo. Even Liam. I don’t let many people in my circle, but the ones I do, I look out for them.” He sat up, straightening from his casual slouch. “Franco was devastated when you left. He was preparing an apartment for you two to start a new life. He was excited to provide for you, to see you go to college. Just as long as you stayed in his life and loved him, so he could love you. It’s not often that people meet their soulmates so young in life, but I always assumed that was the case between you and Franco. He was never the same, Chloe. He mourned you. He missed you all that time, and the second he saw you again, it was like coming home. He still loves you, and I didn’t want to risk your breaking him all over again. That’s why I looked into your parents.”
I cringed.
“Because I will not let you hurt him again.”
I hung my head and exhaled a long and harsh breath. “I already have. By hiding his son from him.”
“Tell me this. If you were so stuck when you were pregnant…” He tilted his head to the side, pensive. “I’ll permit you that. You were scared, defensive of your baby. I praise you for running and hiding the way you did. At first . But what kept you from coming to Franco and telling him later? At any time in the last ten years?” He shook his head. “No. I can’t understand why you didn’t just come to my front door and tell me so I could reach him at that training.”
“Because I didn’t know if he would want to be bogged down with a baby. Our plans were to stay together while he trained. I’d go to college while he started his career for you as a soldier. He already had his mind set on becoming a capo one day. Think back to what he was like back then, Dante. Yes, we loved each other, but I also recognized how eager he was to start his job, to train and be the best soldier he could be for your family. I was nervous that he wouldn’t want to start a family so young, and I didn’t want to be an obstacle in the way of his commitment and duty to the job he was so excited to embrace.”
He smirked and shook his head. “That argument won’t work, Chloe. He was dedicated to his job. Yes, he was eager to prove himself and rise in the ranks. And he did. But a Constella soldier is not just an employee duty-bound to serve and protect us. They are part of the family. A member of a family here.”
I lowered my gaze to the table. “I can see that.”
“Do you? Do you understand it and see it now since you’ve been here?” He gestured at the people in this room. “We are a family. We’re not mindless murderers like your parents are biased to assume we are. You can see now that this is a family that looks out for their own, right? We’re not all terrible people.”
I sighed and shook my head. “No. You’re right. I do see it.”
“We fight the good fight too, you know.”
“I can tell.” Why else would they go after Wes like that?
“And since Franco declared you—then and now—to be the woman he loves, that includes you. And your son.”
“I appreciate it, Dante.”
He nodded and glanced at Nina stepping into the pool. “We love each other and take care of each other because we’re family.”
“I know.” It took me too long to realize it, but I was aware of how the Constella Family operated. “And now,” I admitted on a sigh, “I need to find out if Franco can find it in his heart to forgive me.”
He raised his brows. “Talk to him,” he advised. “Don’t assume a single thing and talk to him.”
“I will.” Just as soon as he would be willing to face me and hear me out again.
He stood. “I can’t blame you for protecting Caleb. You were vulnerable and threatened, and I think, given the circumstances, you chose wisely until he was born. However, I wish you could have known that we’d always accept you and Caleb, and we’d always watch out for you. A love like what you and Franco have is not a fickle affair. It’s the forever kind of love.”
“I hope.”
He paused before stepping away. “I think the term you’ll be looking for is grovel , Chloe. Prepare to grovel.”
I sighed, knowing this Mafia Boss was one hundred percent correct in that assessment.