Chapter 41: Heartbreak

I woke up to silence. Not the frightening silence from earlier when machines screamed and nurses ran around me with panic written across their faces. This silence felt softer, heavier somehow, like exhaustion had settled over the hospital floor itself. For a few seconds I stayed still, staring at the pale afternoon light stretching across the ceiling while my body slowly caught up with consciousness again. Everything ached faintly. My chest. My head. My stomach. Even breathing felt tiring now, like my body was still recovering from fighting too hard to keep the twins safe. The memory of earlier hit me all at once. The argument. The panic. Luca shouting for Dr Reyes. His voice breaking when he told me he loved me. My eyes shifted instinctively toward the chair beside the hospital bed, but it was empty. Something in my chest tightened immediately. Then the bathroom door opened quietly and Luca stepped out, sleeves rolled up again, dark hair damp like he had splashed water on his

Last Updated : 2026-05-26

Chapter 42: Gone

The room stayed quiet for a long time after Bryan left, not peaceful quiet but the kind of silence that settles after something breaks. I kept staring at the closed hospital door like maybe he would walk back through it if I looked long enough, like maybe this entire conversation could still somehow be undone before the damage settled permanently between all of us. But he didn’t come back, and deep down, I knew he wouldn’t. Luca remained beside the bed without speaking, his hand still loosely wrapped around mine while tears continued slipping silently down my face. He wasn’t trying to stop me anymore. Wasn’t trying to tell me everything would be okay. Maybe because he understood this wasn’t something anyone could fix with reassurance. Bryan loved me and I had just watched his heart break in real time. The guilt sat so heavily in my chest it almost made me nauseous. “I should go after him,” I whispered finally. Luca’s thumb paused briefly against my skin before continuing its slow

Last Updated : 2026-05-26

Chapter 43: Her Place

The room felt wrong after Bryan left. Not empty, wounded. I kept staring at the closed hospital door long after it clicked shut behind him, my chest aching with the kind of guilt that settled into bone instead of passing through cleanly. Everything still felt suspended in the aftermath of his voice, his expression, the devastating softness of the way he had looked at me while his heart quietly broke in front of both of us. I really thought it was gonna be me someday, Bryan had said, and the words refused to leave my head. They replayed endlessly beneath the steady beeping of the monitors around me, threading through every exhausted thought until even breathing felt heavy. Luca stayed beside the bed without speaking for a while after Bryan left. His hand remained wrapped loosely around mine, warm and steady, though the silence between us had changed shape. It no longer felt tense in the way it had before. Now it felt sad, not because of us, but because Bryan mattered to both of

Last Updated : 2026-05-27

Chapter 44: When He Chose Her

The silence after Selene’s words felt unbearable. But I will be if you take what was supposed to be mine, she had said, and the sentence lingered heavily in the hospital room long after she stopped speaking, settling into the space between all of us like something alive. I could still feel it pressing against my chest while the monitors beside my bed continued their steady rhythmic beeping, cruelly normal against the tension swallowing the room whole. Luca went still beside me. Not ordinary stillness, but dangerous stillness, the kind that felt like the sharp inhale before something exploded. “Selene,” he said again, quieter this time, though somehow that made it worse. “Enough.” But Selene did not look at him. Her eyes stayed on me with a calmness that unsettled me more than anger would have. “I’m only being honest,” she replied smoothly. “Everyone keeps pretending this situation appeared from nowhere, but it didn’t.” Luca moved before I even realized it. One second he

Last Updated : 2026-05-28

Chapter 45: No More Waiting

The room stayed silent long after I said it. I remember, It was Selene. The words seemed to settle heavily into the hospital air, pressing against everything around us until even breathing felt difficult. Luca had gone completely still beside me, his hand still resting against my face from the kiss, though now the warmth of it felt different somehow. Tense. Focused. Dangerous. I could actually see the shift happen inside him. Not emotionally this time, but strategically. The mafia heir in him was waking up. “Tell me exactly what you remember,” he said quietly. I swallowed hard, trying to steady the sudden racing in my chest. “I didn’t see her face properly before. That’s why I couldn’t place it.” My fingers tightened around the blanket instinctively. “But after she left just now, after hearing her voice again…” Luca’s jaw hardened immediately. “It clicked,” he said. He stared at me carefully, studying every expression crossing my face like he was trying to determ

Last Updated : 2026-05-29

Chapter 46: Choose Me

The door burst open hard enough to slam against the wall behind it, and Luca walked in first with Bryan directly behind him. For one strange second everything in the room froze around the sight of them standing there together again, both visibly tense, both breathing hard, both carrying completely different kinds of fear across their faces, and then another contraction hit me with a violence that ripped through my stomach and forced a cry from my throat before I could stop myself, and the entire room snapped back into motion immediately. “Natalie,” Luca said, and he crossed the room instantly, panic overtaking every other emotion on his face the second he saw me bent forward against the hospital bed gripping Maya’s hand hard enough to hurt her, his expression losing all color in a way that made my chest tighten. “What happened?” he demanded sharply. “Labor happened,” Dr Reyes replied without looking at him. “And unless you can stop biology, you need to get out of my way.” Luca

Last Updated : 2026-06-01