Chapter 3

Here, Matteo wasn’t the husband who occasionally came home.

One word from him put everyone against her.

“Move!” Leah pushed at the guard. “I want my child!”

The surgical doors opened.

A doctor hurried toward them, his expression tight.

“The donor has developed a bleeding complication. We’re treating it, but we need blood immediately.”

Leah could barely hear through the ringing in her ears.

“Finn? How is he?”

Before he answered, a nurse arrived from the other corridor.

Nico’s condition had changed, too. He urgently needed blood support.

Bianca burst into tears.

Matteo caught her first.

Then he looked at Leah.

“Your previous tests showed your blood type is compatible with Nico’s.”

She stared at him.

“My son’s still in there. You want me to help yours?”

“Finn has doctors.”

“I want to see him!”

Matteo pulled her aside, his voice low.

“The people here follow my instructions. Cooperate, and I’ll have the best team brought in for Finn.”

Her hands went cold.

She understood what he hadn’t said.

“You’re using your own son’s treatment to force me to help another child?”

He didn’t answer.

He looked at the nurse.

Leah stared at the closed doors until her fists slowly loosened.

“Save Finn.”

She lifted her chin.

“I’ll go.”

In the donation room, her face quickly drained of color.

The nurse glanced toward the door more than once.

“She isn’t tolerating this well. We shouldn’t continue.”

Through the glass, Matteo asked only one question.

“How much more does Nico need?”

Leah closed her eyes.

As everything grew hazy, she listened to footsteps in the corridor.

She was afraid the next person through the door would bring bad news about Finn.

When she woke, tape covered her arm.

“Mom.”

Finn sat beside her bed, his eyes swollen.

She struggled upright and pulled him close, terrified of hurting him if she held too tightly.

“Where does it hurt? Tell me.”

He buried his face against her neck.

“Dad said we’d get ice cream when I woke up.”

Her tears fell.

“But there wasn’t any ice cream.”

His voice broke.

“And Dad wasn’t there.”

She stroked his damp hair. Her throat hurt too much to answer.

“Can we leave?” he whispered. “I don’t want to go anywhere with him again.”

“Yes.”

She kissed his forehead.

“Once the doctors say you can go home, I’m taking you away.”

The door opened.

Matteo stood in the doorway, looking at them.

“Taking him where?”

Finn immediately hid behind Leah.

Matteo paused.

Before, the boy had rushed to greet him, even insisting on carrying his jacket.

Now, one step closer made Finn clutch his mother’s hospital gown.

“Answer me.”

Leah pulled the blanket around Finn’s waist.

“Somewhere no one will trick him into surgery.”

“He’s fine now.”

“So you can pretend nothing happened?”

“Bianca just got out of a terrible marriage. Nico’s sick. I can’t abandon them.”

“What about Finn?”

Matteo’s impatience showed.

“Do you have to make this ugly?”

Leah looked at him.

“You said your family took everything because you married me. I believed you. I believed every payment I made was paying off your debt.”

His gaze sharpened.

“You know?”

“I was the clown at Nico’s party.”

Silence.

She gently moved Finn’s hands from his chest. Tape marks still covered his wrist.

“The child you threw money at was Finn.”

Matteo said nothing for a moment.

Then, without an explanation, he spoke.

“I gave you a chance to leave. You chose to stay with me. Keeping the baby was your choice, too.”

Leah’s breath caught.

Five years of exhaustion, reduced to an arrangement she’d willingly accepted.

“Yes,” she said. “I chose the wrong man.”

She didn’t cry.

Her calm unsettled him more than tears would have.

He looked at Finn, who still wouldn’t face him, and left.

Leah didn’t see him again during their hospital stay.

Voices in the corridor reminded her that Bianca and Nico occupied a private suite on the other side.

Nico wanted pastries from a particular restaurant. Matteo had them delivered.

Bianca couldn’t sleep. Matteo stayed late.

Leah stopped listening.

She shut the door and helped Finn with his recovery exercises.

After his discharge and a further period of rest, she took him to the seaside amusement park he’d wanted to visit for months.

She bought cotton candy and a new toy car.

Finn kept checking the unopened package, holding it against his chest.

At the ride ticket booth, the attendant smiled.

“Is Dad coming, too? There’s a family rate for three.”

Finn shook his head.

“Just me and Mom.”

A familiar voice came from behind them.

“I’m standing right here, aren’t I?”