41. Chapter Forty-One Dante
Chapter Forty-One: Dante
B ut Jade didn’t want to give me five minutes.
She ran, which made me feel like shit. The door slammed shut behind me, a sound that echoed like a verdict in the tiny living room of Jade’s apartment. My heart was pounding, but I kept my voice even as ice. “Jade, I’m serious. We need to talk.”
She wasn’t there in front of me, probably holed up somewhere in this cramped excuse for a home. The place was a stark contrast to the grandeur and calculated opulence I was raised in. Here, the furniture seemed to absorb the weak light from the lamp, making the shadows stretch long and thin across the walls.
I shifted on my feet, my jacket protesting with a soft creak, and my gaze landed on the worn-out couch. It was then that I saw them—the books and that damn prenatal vitamin bottle that made my stomach drop. Pregnancy guides looking like they’d been read a dozen times over and prenatal vitamins carelessly left out in the open.
The realization settled deep in my stomach before I managed to speak.
“Are you pregnant?” The question shot out of me before I could reel it in, my voice betraying the shock that was slamming into me. It wasn’t supposed to go this way. Nothing about this night was going as planned.
But there was no answer.
She emerged like a specter from the shadows, standing near the window with the city skyline painting her in light and darkness. The silhouette of her body was outlined against the glass, arms crossed over her chest—a fortress of one.
“Jade,” I said, my gaze darting between her and the books. “Tell me the truth.”
“Yes,” Jade confirmed, her tone flat but with an undercurrent of something I couldn’t quite place. Was it fear? Defiance? All I knew was that the sight of her standing there, poised to flee, ignited a fire inside me.
“Yes? You’re pregnant?”
“I am,” she said.
“Jade, look at me,” I commanded, my voice low and dangerous. She turned slowly, her eyes meeting mine. There was a flicker there, an uncertainty that she tried to mask with a hard set to her jaw.
“Was that your plan?” I nodded toward the open suitcase teetering on the edge of the couch, stuffed with clothes that screamed of quick decisions and desperation. “Were you planning to tell me or just disappear?”
For a moment, she said nothing, letting the question hang heavy between us. Then a cold silence spread through the room, only broken by the distant hum of traffic filtering in from the streets below. It was a familiar sound, one that usually brought comfort, but tonight it was just a reminder of all the ways life could go wrong.
“Answer me, Jade,” I demanded, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. I had to fight to keep my composure, to keep from shaking her until the truth came out. My world was spinning, the foundations cracking, and she stood there, the catalyst of it all.
“Would it have made a difference?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it hit me like a punch to the gut. Would it have? I didn’t know, and that uncertainty was the most terrifying thing of all. “You have your life and I have mine.”
“Of course,” I snapped, feeling the raw edge of betrayal slice through me. “Of course it would have made a difference!”
My thoughts churned like the East River during a storm, dark and unrelenting. The idea of her leaving—without a word, without a trace—stung worse than any wound I’d taken in the streets.
Jade’s defiant spark didn’t waver as I scrutinized her, trying to decipher the enigma wrapped in that curvy frame. She was an open book when it came to her research, but outside the lab, she was a fortress. And right then, her walls were up, the drawbridge pulled tight.
“Well, I can raise this baby by myself—“
“Doesn’t matter now,” I grumbled, stepping back as if the distance could dull the sharpness of the situation. “Look at me.”
Jade’s shoulders squared, her body language shifting into something more combative. It was clear she was readying for a fight, perhaps the most important one she’d ever faced. And damn if that didn’t make her even more compelling.
“And what is it to you?” she shot back, those words edged with a defiance that sent a ripple of both anger and admiration through me.
“Everything,” I admitted, the weight of my own confession anchoring me to the spot. “It’s everything to me, Jade.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke, the tension strung between us like a high wire. Outside the window, the neon glow of the city painted everything in surreal hues.
“Then you shouldn’t have fucking used me,” she said, her voice slicing through the silence. Her eyes never left mine, challenging, demanding—seeking an answer I wasn’t sure I had.
“It just happened,” I replied, the harsh truth of it tasting bitter on my tongue. “It would have been so much easier if I had just been using you, but I wasn’t just using you, Jade. I…fuck, I care about you, okay? I love you.”
She tilted her head. “If you loved me, you wouldn’t have jeopardized my life’s work…for what? Money?”
“It isn’t just money,” I said. “You don’t understand. Biotechnology is my legacy. It’s a way to get the Moretti name legitimacy. It’s a…”
“A way to steal my research and use it for what, exactly?” Jade said, venom creeping into her voice.
“To do good, Jade!” The words burst from me. “I’ve been trying to change the Morettis, trying to find a way out of this life for myself, for you and now...for our child.” I threw my hands up in frustration, raking them back through my hair.
She scoffed at that, her laughter a bitter sound slicing through the room. “Good? You think dragging BioHQ into this is good?”
“Will it make things better? No. But it’s a start,” I said slowly. “We can use my family’s resources to advance your research beyond anyone’s expectations. We can build a life together.”
Jade glared at me. “You lied to me, Dante. You pretended you were someone you weren’t. And now you’re acting like I want this—what if I don’t want this?”
My heart pounded in my ears at her words, each one a stinging slap. We stood staring at each other, both of us wounded, lashing out from fear and confusion.
“It’s not pretending if the feelings are real,” I said quietly, the truth of that hitting me like a freight train. It was true - the lies were a front, but what I felt for Jade was achingly, confusingly real.
She let out a harsh laugh, shaking her head. “It’s clear you’ve made all the decisions here, Dante. You decided to get involved with BioHQ, you decided to hide your true identity from me, and you decided to risk everything I’ve worked for. You don’t get to play innocent now.”
A flood of guilt washed over me at her words. She was right. I had made those decisions, not thinking about the potential fallout, only seeing the benefits they could bring. I’d gambled with her trust, using it as collateral without her knowing.
“But this is my body. This is my baby. I get to make this decision,” she continued.
I shook my head as I looked at her. And in that charged space, I realized that regardless of her reasons, I couldn’t let her slip through my fingers—not now, not ever. Because whatever Jade was running from, or to, it was my job to make sure she faced it with me by her side. Whether she liked it or not.
And this wasn’t just her baby.
They were my baby, too.
I took a step closer, the hallway seeming to shrink with the intensity of my purpose. The door to her bedroom was ajar, revealing the hastily packed bags that betrayed her plans to run. “You’re coming with me, now,” I commanded, my voice as hard as the resolve setting in my bones.
“No, Dante.” Her refusal was a whisper, but it might as well have been a shout for the way it stoked the fire in my chest. I reached out, my fingers curling around her wrist with an iron grip, and I pulled her toward me.
She tried to wriggle out of my grip.
“Don’t make a scene,” I said. “I can do this nicely or I can do it hard, but I need to keep you safe. You and our child.”
“You’re hurting me,” she hissed, trying to pull her wrist back.
I loosened my grip but didn’t let go. The last thing I wanted was to hurt her, but circumstances called for desperate measures.
I pulled her out of her apartment. “Where are you taking me?”
I only had a vague idea. I needed to hide her away from my own family, away from the Carusos. I needed to make sure she had this baby.
I needed to keep her safe.
And if that meant locking her up in one of my apartments so she couldn’t leave until she had our baby…well, then that was exactly what I was going to fucking do.
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