Page 216 of Sienna Rossi: Beyond Shattered Trust

A low growl rumbles from somewhere deep in my chest.

Because I don’t know what hurts more.

The fact that he’s my fucking son, or the fact that when I finally found him, he was already lost.

I throw my head back, the roar finally tearing free from my throat, shaking the forest around me as every emotion I’ve been trying to contain crashes over me at once.

Grief.

Rage.

Confusion.

Guilt for something that was never my fault.

And beneath it all...

A question I can’t escape.

If I’d known...

If his mother had only told me...

Would he still have become Vincenzo?

The monster who has my eyes, my face, my fucking blood.

“Alejandro!”

I close my eyes as I begin to shift back as Kiara’s familiar scent reaches me, and then her arms are around me, her heart thumping as she holds me, grounding me.

For a moment, I don’t have it in me to tell her, even as I take comfort in her hold. Even now, years later, it’s only her who can make me feel like this.

She kisses the top of my head as she kneels behind me, her arms sliding around my shoulders, holding me together while I feel as though I’m coming apart.

When I’ve broken, when the world felt too much, every single time I’ve needed someone, she’s been there.

“I’m here,” she whispers.

Here.

The word almost undoes me.

“Vincenzo Bianchi...” My voice catches, and I have to force the next words out. “He’s f, Amore Mio. My fucking son.”

I feel her stiffen, but it’s only for a heartbeat.

Then she’s moving, kneeling in front of me and gently cupping my face between her hands.

I search her face, expecting to find something – disappointment, confusion, betrayal. But instead, all I see is her warmth, steady and unwavering.

“You didn’t know,” she says quietly, her thumbs brushing across my cheeks, leaving behind a trail of sparks in her wake. “Alejandro, it isn’t your fault.”

I smile bitterly; she already knows what’s going through my mind. “But it is. I should have been there… Once again, I fucking failed someone who needed me.”

She tilts her head, remaining silent, but she knows I’m right, because while I raised my pups, he may have been silently watching, hearing about my life.

A child who grew into a monster whilst I didn’t even know he existed.