Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Leila’s POV
My breath caught in my lungs. My entire brain and nervous system short-circuited. The air suddenly vanished from the room.
For a second, I thought I was hallucinating.
But no—I wasn’t. He was really there.
Sitting in my living room. With his son.
Every muscle in my body went tight. My fingers twitched at my sides, unsure whether to reach for something or grab Ollie and disappear.
They hadn’t seen me when I walked in.
Not Luca. Not Ollie.
They were both completely immersed in the LEGO set I’d gotten Ollie a few months ago. He’d always loved puzzles and a good challenge, but even after all this time, he hadn’t made it a quarter of the way through building the car.
Until today.
Half the car was done. And I was willing to bet it had everything to do with Luca.
I’d never pictured him as the puzzle type.
He didn’t exactly scream patient—not the Luca I knew.
His mind was always ten steps ahead, locked in on strategies, power plays, and profit margins.
If it didn’t affect the ROI of his company or the welfare of his pack, I doubted it got more than a passing glance.
Yet here he was.
Calm. Grounded. Sitting cross-legged on the floor—yes, the floor—taking slow, careful turns placing one piece after another.
“I don’t think this is supposed to go there,” Ollie murmured, his brows scrunched in concentration. He squinted at the instruction sheet. “It looks…out of place.”
Luca leaned back slightly, one elbow braced on his knee, steepling his fingers under his chin as he studied the puzzle. His eyes narrowed on the unfinished car with the kind of intensity you’d expect from someone performing a delicate surgery.
“You’re right,” he finally said. “That piece does look out of place. Let me see the picture again.”
Ollie handed him the photo card, and for a few moments, neither of them spoke. They just sat there in focused silence, heads bent together, reading the instructions like they were decoding a treasure map. Something about the way they moved—so in sync, so easy—hit me harder than I was ready for.
It was natural. Effortless. Like they’d done this a hundred times before. Like this wasn’t the first time Luca had ever sat beside his son, helping him build something out of scattered parts.
Ollie, who usually grew impatient halfway through a project and tossed the instruction sheet aside to create his own version, was calm. Because Luca was beside him—present, engaged, treating that little LEGO car like it mattered more than anything else in the world.
It should’ve been beautiful. But all I felt was a sharp twist in my chest. Because I knew better than to trust the beauty of it. I knew how dangerous it was to believe, even for a second, in the fantasy of what could have been. What should have been.
A world where Luca never accused me. Never humiliated me.
Never walked away. A world where Ollie knew his father.
Where I didn’t have to lie or deflect or carry everything on my own.
Where I wasn’t standing in my own living room like a stranger, watching a life I should’ve had play out in front of me.
But that world didn’t exist.
What did exist was the cold, hard truth of what had happened between Luca and me—the betrayal, the scars. The very things that brought us to this exact moment.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Valerie stepping out of the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn. She froze when she saw me, mid-chew, like someone who’d just been caught shoplifting.
“Leila,” she said, her voice just a little too high.
That’s when Luca and Ollie noticed me.
Their heads turned at the same time. And when Ollie saw me, he lit up.
“Mom!”
He ran to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I dropped to my knees, instantly cupping his face, then pressing the back of my hand to his forehead and neck.
He was warm. Not hot like yesterday. No sweat clinging to his skin. Just his usual warmth. Still, I asked, “How are you feeling, baby? Does your head still hurt?”
He shook his head. “I told you I couldn’t be sick for long. You were just getting worried for nothing.”
I chuckled and ran my fingers through his curls. “That’s my job, Ollie. To worry about you.”
He grinned, then glanced back at Luca, who was watching us quietly.
“I hope you don’t mind that Uncle Luca helped me with the puzzle,” Ollie said. “He came to drop something off for you, and I was working on the car, and he offered to help me while he waited.”
My eyes flicked to Luca. I forced a polite smile. “It’s okay, Ollie.”
Valerie stepped in. “Ollie, why don’t we go upstairs and watch some cartoons on my phone while your mom talks with Luca?”
He agreed easily, and she took his hand, leading him up the stairs.
And just like that, I was alone. With the elephant in the room.
Luca stood as I shrugged off my coat and hung it on the rack. I kicked off my shoes, letting the silence stretch between us before I spoke.
“I’d appreciate it if you informed me before coming over to my house,” I said, not looking at him as I walked into the living room.
“Why?” he asked casually. “You’ve got something to hide?”
I blinked. Was he serious right now?
“It’s called basic fucking courtesy,” I snapped. “You don’t just show up uninvited like you own the place. Not that you’d know anything about courtesy.”
Arrogance practically dripped off him. It might as well have been his middle name.
I rubbed my temples, a dull ache building behind my eyes. I was exhausted. Physically, mentally, emotionally. Fighting with Luca was the last thing I had energy for.
“What do you want, Luca?” I sighed. “Why did you come here?”
He gestured to a brown file sitting on the coffee table, right next to the scattered LEGO pieces. I hadn’t even noticed it earlier. I was too caught up in that picture-perfect moment between him and Ollie.
I picked it up and flipped it open.
“Vaughn Industries is searching for a lead tech designer for the upcoming smart hub district,” he began, slipping into CEO mode. “It’ll be presented at the Grand Alpha’s Summit. We’re inviting a select few to submit proposals, and knowing your potential—”
I didn’t let him finish. I slammed the file shut, hard enough to send the corner jabbing into my thumb. The sting barely registered. Rage had already taken over.
This wasn’t an opportunity. It was an insult.
“Are you out of your mind?” I asked, my voice low. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
He looked at me, unfazed. “Offering you a chance to fulfill your dreams.”
He said it like I should be grateful. Like he was some benevolent god dropping crumbs at my feet.
I laughed, a bitter, sharp sound that felt like it was ripped straight from my ribs. “You actually think I’d ever go back to Vaughn Industries? After what you did to me? After you accused me of stealing, humiliated me in front of your entire pack, and tossed me out like garbage?”
“If you’d just set your pride aside for once,” he bit out, “you’d realize this is more money than you’ve ever made. You could move out of this shabby apartment, give Ollie something better. Pick up where you left off with those fierce dreams you used to chase like your life depended on them.”
My hands curled into fists before I even realized it.
“This shabby apartment, Luca, is my home. Mine. And Ollie’s. And you don’t get to stand here and insult it just because your life is wrapped in glass towers and leather seats and chauffeurs.”
“This isn’t just about money, Leila,” he groaned, frustration edging into his voice. “I’m trying to help you.”
“And I didn’t ask for your help!” My voice cracked, volume rising despite every effort to stay calm. “I don’t want your pity. I don’t want your charity. I don’t want anything from you.”
“You say that,” he whispered harshly, “but your body says something else.”
My heart stuttered.
“I feel it, Leila. Every time we’re near.
The tension. The pull. I feel something crack open in me the second you walk into a room.
Your scent wraps around me like a fucking blanket I shouldn’t want, but I do.
My wolf won’t stop pacing, growling, clawing at me to get closer.
To have you.” His voice was rough and hungry. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel it too.”
I froze.
His chest was rising and falling like he’d just run ten miles. Mine wasn’t much better.
For a second, neither of us spoke. The room pulsed with everything unsaid.
Then he seemed to realize what he’d said, what he’d let slip. He stepped back, dragging a hand through his hair. “Fuck,” he muttered. Like the word could undo what had already shattered between us.
And maybe I should’ve felt something other than this dizzy ache in my chest. Maybe I should’ve screamed at him again. Pushed him out. Told him to go to hell. But instead, all I could think was…he feels it too.
I wasn’t the only one going insane trying to bury the emotions that never died, trying to pretend I didn’t still want something from a man who once broke me.
I sucked in a breath and stepped back, putting space between us like it might save me from myself. “You have to leave now, Luca.”
“Fuck, Leila—that’s it? That’s what you have to say?”
“What the hell do you want me to say?” My hands flew up, helpless and furious.
“Do you want me to admit that I feel it too? That every time I see you, I get these goddamn butterflies in my stomach? Fine! There! I said it. But tell me, Luca, what would that change? Would it magically erase everything? Would it change the fact that you’re getting married in three weeks? ”
Silence.
He didn’t move. Didn’t speak. He just stared at me like the words knocked the air out of him.
I bit my lip and gave a small nod. “Exactly what I thought.”
“Leila—”
I lifted a hand, cutting him off before he could say anything that would make it harder to breathe.