CHAPTER 22 —UNCLE RHYS OR DAD

"Car man? Is that you? You said you would come back!"

Leo's voice cracked over the speaker, small and wet.

Lorenzo's hand was still on Aria's desk. White knuckles. The whole office was silent except for that hiccuping breath on the phone.

"It's me, champ," he said, his voice dropping. That cold billionaire boardroom voice was gone completely. Just soft. Raw. "I told you I'd come back. I never lie about cars. Remember? Fast car and strong car stay together."

Aria covered her mouth. Tears were already there, burning her eyes. She had not cried in front of Rhys in three years. She was crying now.

On the other end, Leo sniffled hard, trying to be brave. "Mama left me! Mrs. Jenkins said you would come but I didn't believe! I saved strong car all day for you! In my pocket! It was warm!"

Rhys flinched beside Aria like he'd been physically slapped. He had picked Leo up from that same preschool for two years. Never once had Leo saved a car for him.

Lorenzo looked at Aria, not at Rhys. His grey eyes were red.

"We're coming to get you. Five minutes. You keep strong car safe for me, okay? Keep him warm."

He hung up before Aria could answer.

Aria grabbed her bag, her hands shaking so hard she dropped her keys. "Lorenzo, you don't have to come, I can—"

"We do this tonight," he said, pulling the small white kit from his inner pocket. The DNA kit he had bought at 2 AM after the gala. He had been carrying it all day. "No more hiding, Aria. No more almost-four birthdays without me knowing."

Rhys stepped between them, his chest out. "You are not swabbing him like evidence. Like a crime scene. He's three. He's scared."

"I'm not swabbing him like evidence," Lorenzo said quietly, looking past him to Aria. "I'm swabbing him like my son. Like a father who has waited three years without knowing he had a son."

He took a breath. "Private loft. Not the main house. Per Ch 9-10 rule you wrote. No one goes to the main house until the DNA is back and Seraphina's lie is exposed. Tonight only. For Leo to sleep. Just tonight."

Aria nodded, tears falling fast now. "Just tonight. Loft only. Then Paris tomorrow."

---

The preschool smelled like crayons and rain and floor cleaner.

Leo sat on the tiny blue plastic chair, knees pulled to his chest, backpack bigger than him on the floor. Two red cars clutched tight in one fist. Almost four. Grey eyes. Storm-grey exactly like Lorenzo's.

When the door opened with a bell, he didn't look at Aria first.

He looked past her. At Lorenzo.

"Car man!"

He launched himself off the chair so fast the chair tipped over.

Lorenzo knelt and caught him mid-run, one arm around him. Leo wrapped his legs around Lorenzo's waist, small arms around his neck, the two red cars digging hard into Lorenzo's expensive suit jacket. He smelled like little boy shampoo and playground sand.

"You kept strong car safe?" Lorenzo whispered into his soft hair, his own eyes closed.

Leo pulled back, deadly serious, his grey eyes searching Lorenzo's face. "All day in my pocket. For you. I didn't let Tommy touch him. I told him strong car is for car man only."

Behind them, Mrs. Jenkins smiled, but her eyes were wet. "He talked about you all day, Mr. Blackwood. Non-stop. He told the class you have eyes like his. He drew you. Two stick men with grey eyes holding cars."

Lorenzo closed his eyes for one second. Just one. When he opened them, they were shining.

"Hey champ," he said, voice a little hoarse. "Can I do a quick tickle test? Inside your cheek? Like a dinosaur roar? Big ahhh?"

Leo frowned, suspicious. "Why?"

"To see if we have same dinosaur teeth," Lorenzo said, pulling out the white swab. "Strong car drivers need same teeth."

Leo giggled, instantly convinced. "Okay! Ahhh! Like T-Rex!"

Aria knelt beside them, her hand on Leo's back. "Open big, baby. Like a lion for Mama. Big, big."

Lorenzo's hand shook as he swabbed gently inside Leo's soft cheek. Quick, soft. Leo's eyes crossed trying to look at it.

"Tickles!" Leo laughed, wiggling.

Lorenzo sealed it with shaking fingers. Then swabbed the inside of his own cheek. Sealed that one too. Two white kits side by side on the tiny blue chair.

Done. He had his son's DNA. He didn't need the lab to know.

Leo looked between the three adults, suddenly quiet and too smart for almost-four. His grey eyes — Lorenzo's grey eyes — darted from Aria's tears to Rhys's pale face to Lorenzo's hand on his shoulder.

"Mama, why you crying?" he whispered.

"Not crying, love," Aria whispered, kissing his forehead. "Mama is just happy car man came."

Leo turned. "Uncle Rhys! You came too!"

Rhys forced a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He knelt. "Of course I came, buddy. Always."

Leo looked at him, then at Lorenzo holding him. His little brow furrowed, that intense thinking face he got from Aria. He had been asking this question all week at preschool, Mrs. Jenkins said.

"Uncle Rhys is Uncle Rhys," Leo said slowly, thinking out loud, his voice echoing in the empty hallway. "He reads stories and brings dinosaur band-aids."

He looked up at Lorenzo, up close, studying the grey eyes that matched his own in the fluorescent light.

"But you are car man. You have my eyes. Same eyes. Are you my Dad too? Can I have two?"

Silence. The rain hit the preschool windows.

Aria stopped breathing. This question was supposed to be Chapter 76 in your bible. _Mama, who will be my dad forever?_ That was the final arc, the last choice before Epilogue. Not now. Not at almost-four years old on a cold preschool floor.

Lorenzo held Leo tighter. His voice broke completely.

"Who do you want me to be, Leo?"

Leo held up his two red cars, one in each hand, like always. Thinking very hard.

"This one is fast car. This one is strong car. Uncle Rhys is fast car. He comes quick when I fall."

He pushed the strong red car — the one he had kept warm all day — into Lorenzo's large palm and closed Lorenzo's fingers over it.

"You are strong car. You stay. Strong car doesn't leave."

Rhys went pale. He understood.

Lorenzo stared at the little red car in his hand. The strong car Leo had saved. His shoulders started to shake.

"Dad car man," Leo declared, proud and loud, inventing a new title for a new category. "You be Dad car man! Fast car and strong car!"

Lorenzo laughed — a broken, wet, beautiful laugh. He pressed his forehead to Leo's small forehead, grey eyes to grey eyes.

"Dad car man. I like that. I like that more than anything anyone ever called me."

He stood, Leo on his hip like he had done it for three years, like muscle memory. Leo yawned, suddenly exhausted from crying, his head dropping to Lorenzo's shoulder, his two cars finally back together.

Lorenzo looked at Aria, Leo asleep on him.

"Loft. Now. He needs to sleep. We all need to sleep."

Aria nodded. Couldn't speak.

As they walked out into the rain, Leo lifted his heavy head and waved sleepily at Rhys over Lorenzo's shoulder.

"Bye Uncle Rhys! See you tomorrow! Dad car man is carrying me!"

Rhys stood alone in the hallway, staring at the empty blue chair that had tipped over.

The chair where Leo had waited all day.

Not for Uncle Rhys.

For Dad car man.