Chapter 4 - The Confrontation in the RainI stopped at the bottom rung of the iron ladder, holding my broad frame between Alessandro and the twins, my hazel eyes burning with an unshakeable, lethal hatred that made him pause six feet away.
"Don't take another step, Alex," I said.
My voice didn't shake. It was cold, razor-sharp, and completely stripped of the quiet submission I had offered him for seven years.
Alessandro stared at me. He took in my simple rain jacket, my wet hair, my pale face, and finally, the two tiny, dark-haired infants peering out from the fleece blanket against my chest.
His hands—hands that had signed multi-million-dollar shipping contracts and ordered street wars—began to shake violently.
"They... they are mine?" Alessandro rasped out, his voice cracking into raw, disbelieving fragments as he took a slow, hesitant step forward. "My God, Elena... you had twins...?"
"They are my children, Alessandro," I corrected flatly, stepping backward against the brick wall. "You gave up the right to call them yours the night you brought Valentina Russo into our home."
A dark, agonizing spasm of pure remorse passed across Alessandro's severe features. Tears—real, heavy tears—mixed with the rain cutting down his stubbled cheeks.
"I kept you in the dark to protect you, Elena!" Alessandro choked out, taking another frantic step toward me, his hands hovering near my arms, desperate to touch us, yet terrified that his touch would make us disappear. "The Russo family was threatening my terminals! I had to make them believe I didn't care about you! I had to draw their attention away from you!"
"By holding her hand in front of hundreds of news cameras?!" I screamed, three years of buried rage bursting from my throat like a storm. "By letting the entire country believe I was a forgotten, discarded ghost while you walked her down red carpets?!"
Alessandro squeezed his eyes shut, letting out a low, agonizing groan of self-hatred that vibrated straight through his chest.
"It was a trap, Elena!" Alessandro wept, dropping onto one knee flat on the wet asphalt before me in the rainy alleyway. "The New York gala was a setup! I used Valentina to lure her father into executing a fraudulent wire transfer! I exposed their entire syndicate two hours ago!"
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He looked up from the wet pavement, his storm-gray eyes shining with a desperate, groveling plea that I had never seen in all my seven years of marriage.
"I never touched her, Elena," Alessandro swore into the rain. "I never loved her. I have only ever loved you... My God, Elena, forgive me... please... let me bring my family home."
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