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She'd named him. My son. With no input from me. But the name Lucian has always been ours. She had always loved it. Her mother's father had been named Lucas.
And we had decided Lucian was a better variation for us, for our child, when we had one. The feeling was rising again, the rage, only this time, it was piercing, like salt on open wounds.
"You named him Lucian?"
"I did." She inhaled a shaky breath. "I'm sorry."
"You're sorry? You're fucking sorry, Mel? What the fuck does that even mean? Does he know me? I've missed years of his life. How the fuck old is he?"
She's shaking, tears swimming in her large eyes, sparking outrage in mine. She had no right to make me feel guilty for raging about her betrayal because keeping my son from me is one. But when have I ever reacted as I should to her?
"Five years."
A startling truth finally pierces the veil of anger, clouding my consciousness. "You'd been pregnant when you left? That's why you disappeared, wasn't it?"
She nods, and I fall into the chair behind my desk. She bites her lips and takes a step towards me. My eyes flash, a snark curling my lips.
"You don't get to take a step closer to me, or I swear to God, Mel..." I stop and let her complete that sentence as she will.
She shivers, and a line of sweat makes its way across her neck, disappearing into the swell of her heaving cleavage, and I groan.
Stupid. That's what I am.
"Can we talk? Please? I didn't know what to do. You were just beginning to take a more active role in the business; your attention couldn't be divided. Not with a son on the way. It was never the right time." She pleaded, her voice catching in her throat.
I clench my fists under the desk. "And if this had never happened. If our parents hadn't forced us together. Would you have ever found the right time? Would I have been good enough to know my son?"
She jerks her head up, and her eyes track mine. "It was never that. I wanted to protect him, just for a little longer. I wanted him to have a childhood. There was none for him here."
My heart seizes. "Did he?"
She nods, her hands balled into fists at her sides. "With father's help."
Of course. It made sense. Sedric knew. He'd kept his grandchild a heavily guarded secret. I wonder how they'd done it, how it had been possible. And then I think of my inability to track her after she'd left the country with Gianna.
It would've been easy enough to keep her stowed away in some little countryside far away from me and the dangers of my existence.
I snap up in my chair. "I want him. He's my son. My heir."
Her eyes tighten. "That's rather fortunate, Xander. We're to be married. I'm sure you'll have enough time to be with him. But he is our son, and you do not get to hold him over me."
Oh, is he now?
I feel fury unfurl in my chest, and I fight a losing battle to leash it. "And you just had that epiphany now? Not six years ago when you stole my son from me?"
Her face creases and crumbles, and I bite back the urge to go to her, to pull her into my arms and tell her it'll be fine.
She doesn't deserve it.
13
MEL
I can still hear Xander on the phone raging. He's mighty angry. I have a feeling it's going to stay that way since he can't take out his rage on the subject that had caused it.
Namely me.
Knox is beside me on the balcony. He's watching me, his green eyes glittering, flicking between me and his brother inside his house.
