Chapter Two — He Wants What He Shouldn't Have

The bell above the diner door didn’t ring again that night.

But somehow, his presence was still there.

Every time I turned around, I half-expected to see him leaning against the counter with that mocking smirk and those eyes—sharp, calculating and hungry.

I cleaned the same table three times.

“Nova,” Georgia, my manager, said from the register. “Go home. You’ve been off since that guy showed up here.”

I forced a smile. “Yeah… just didn’t expect to see a ghost tonight.”

“Is he your ex?” she asked, raising a brow.

Something bitter twisted in my chest. “Something like that.”

“Well, he looked like trouble,” she said, handing me my tips. “And baby, you’ve already got enough on your plate.”

I gave her a nod and tucked the money away. She had no idea how full my plate actually was.

By the time I walked out into the cool night air, the street was already quiet. 

I held my keys tight in my fist like a weapon and scanned the parked cars.

No way he was still out here.

Right?

I headed towards my battered Civic, with my heart heart hammering like it always did when I felt watched.

And I wasn’t wrong.

He was leaning against the hood of my car with his arms crossed, like he belonged there and anywhere near me.

“Seriously?” I hissed.

Cruz’s gaze swept over me slowly. “Still walk like you’re being chased.”

I froze. “You’ve made sure of that.”

He pushed off the car, closing the space between us in two long strides.

“You gonna keep pretending like I don’t exist?” he asked, with a low and cold voice. 

I didn’t move. “I’m going home.”

“Then let’s go.”

“You’re not coming with me.”

“I’m not asking.”

The silence between us pulsed. 

“You don’t get to show up and start making demands,” I snapped.

He took a step closer. “Don’t I?”

“No.”

“I let you walk once,” he said. “Never again.”

His words hit me like a punch in the chest.

“You let me?” My voice cracked. “I left because I was pregnant and terrified! You were drowning in blood and gang wars, Cruz. You chose that life over me!”

He blinked.

There it was.

The crack in his armor.

“You were pregnant?” he whispered.

I froze and my stomach dropped.

I’d said too much.

“You were…” he started again, then laughed, but it wasn’t a happy sound. “Wow. So that’s what you were hiding.”

I turned my back. “Just leave.”

“Is it mine?”

I said nothing.

Cruz grabbed my wrist—not hard, but enough to stop me. “Is it mine, Nova?”

“Let go.”

He did.

But only because he didn’t need to hold me to make me feel trapped.

He stepped back, dragging a hand down his face. “I’m not doing this here.”

“Then don’t do it at all,” I snapped. “You think you can just walk back into my life and demand answers? You lost that right the day you chose blood and leather over me!”

His head lifted. “You think I had a choice?”

“I know you did.”

“And I know what they would’ve done to you if I hadn’t pushed you away.”

That shut me up for a moment.

“What?”

“You think I wanted to hurt you? That I didn’t know you were pregnant?”

My heart skipped.

He did know?

“I did what I had to do to protect you,” he said. “Even if it meant losing you.”

I hated how much a part of me wanted to believe him.

I shook my head. “You don’t get to rewrite the past.”

“I’m not trying to. I’m just trying to know if you really had my kid.”

I swallowed hard. “Go home, Cruz.”

“I don’t have one,” he said. “You were it.”

For a second, the world went quiet.

Just his voice.

And that was the problem.

He meant it.

But meaning something didn’t fix anything.

The apartment was silent when I got home.

Lena had already put my daughter to bed.

I stood at the edge of her little bed and watched her sleep, 

She looked like him.

Too much like him.

The strong eyebrows, the mouth that curved up on one side, even the way she slept with one arm flung above her head like she had nothing to fear.

If Cruz saw her, there’d be no hiding it because he’d know instantly.

Lena stepped into the room, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders. “He came?”

I nodded.

“And?”

“He knows.”

Lena’s eyes widened. “Everything?”

“Not about her,” I said. “Just that I was pregnant when I left.”

“Nova…”

“I slipped,” I muttered. “I said too much.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I don’t know.”

Lena sat on the edge of the couch. “He’s not going to back down.”

“I know.”

“And you still love him.”

I looked away, “Yeah, that’s the worst part”

The next day, I tried to pretend everything was normal.

I got her dressed, braided her hair and packed her lunch ready for school.

I kissed her little forehead and whispered, “Be good for Auntie Lena,” before walking out the door like my heart wasn’t being ripped in two.

But Cruz was already waiting outside the diner.

This time, on a black motorcycle with his helmet in one hand, and sunglasses hiding his eyes.

“I need coffee,” he said casually as I walked past.

“Then go to hell,” I replied without stopping.

He followed me in.

Sat at the counter like he’d never left.

The diner was busy, but all I could hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears.

He watched me work, serve pie, move through my shift like everything was fine 

He didn’t say a word until the lunch crowd cleared.

Then he said, “Where is the kid?”

I dropped a spoon.

He didn’t react.

“I said,” he repeated slowly, “where is the child you ran off with?”

I turned on him, shaking. “Don’t.”

His voice dropped. “She’s mine.”

I didn’t deny it.

And that was all he needed.

“I want to see her.”

“No.”

His jaw tightened. “She’s my daughter.”

“You don’t get to just show up and claim her now.”

“You think I wouldn’t have been there if I knew?”

“I think you would’ve dragged her into the same hell that nearly destroyed me!”

He stood, then every customer turned to look. The air grew thick.

Cruz stepped in close.

So close that I had to tilt my head to look up at him.

“I didn’t know, Nova. You robbed me of that.”

And there it was.

The truth, the wound and the war between us.

I couldn’t speak.

He turned to leave.

“I’m coming for her, he said quietly. “And for you too.”

And then he was gone.

But this time, he didn’t leave fear behind.

He left fire.