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Lifting my grief-stricken face to his, I have only one word. “Frankie.”
Then I scream, collapsing into his arms as I sob uncontrollably, my heart shredding into jagged ribbons at my feet.
“Baby, who’s Frankie? Tell me.”
Alessandro presses on and as I lift my eyes to his, I watch the concern change to disbelief as I whisper, “Our son.”
“What the fuck?” Angelo hisses beside me and somebody screams, a woman I think, but I can’t tear my eyes from my son’s father as he learns of his existence for the very first time.
“Our son.” The emotion in his eyes tears my heart to shreds and I sob, “We have a son. Frankie. Massimo used him to control me.”
The anguish in Alessandro’s eyes breaks me apart as he stares at me in utter disbelief.
Angelo says firmly, “Winter, focus. Where did Massimo place your son?”
I can’t stop staring at Alessandro, who looks as broken as I am, and I whisper, “In the mansion. Locked in the nursery.”
I hear more crying and the pain that is surrounding me right now is unbearable and Alessandro says sharply, his eyes never leaving mine for a second. “Tell me the place was empty when you arrived.”
There is silence, and then he roars. “Tell me!”
The response appears to hover suspended in time and when it finally arrives, it drives a knife through my heart.
“There were no survivors.”
For a moment, the words don’t register and then as the terrible truth strikes me hard, I start screaming and nothing in the world can stop me.
CHAPTER36
ALESSANDRO
The room erupts into confused chaos. I hold my screaming woman in my arms, her life destroyed along with mine as we face the death of our son. The son I never knew I had and as I hold her pain wrecked body, I feel numb. I have a son. Ihada son. It’s too much to comprehend and as the activity increases in the room, I can’t move. I hold Winter as if I’m afraid to let go and try to wrap my head around something I never saw coming.
We have a son. Frankie.
I barely register Angelo’s strong hand on my back and as the seconds turn to minutes, I am frozen to the spot. Then something kicks in, a natural instinct to protect what’s mine, and I say angrily, “I want to discover where my son is.”
The awkward silence is not what I need right now, and I raise my eyes to the only person I trust with this and growl, “I need to know everything.”
Malik nods, looking as emotional as the rest of us, but it’s not emotion I need right now, it’s action.
Standing, I drag my sobbing woman to her feet and sweep her into my arms and say roughly, “We need a moment.”
As I stride from the room, nobody dares stop me and as Winter weeps like a broken angel in my arms, I want answers and I want them yesterday.
* * *
Winter is inconsolable,but I have no time to waste, so I place her gently on the bed and take her hand, saying firmly, “I want you to tell me everything.”
“Please, Alessandro, we must go to him.”
I exhale sharply and say with the deepest pain etching my words. “I don’t think you understand, Winter. There is nothing left to return to.”
Her wide eyes fill with grief, and she shakes her head. “No, he must be somewhere; he must be.”
Her voice breaks and I growl, “I want it all. From the moment you realized you were pregnant and every minute of my son’s life. Everything you tell me is for a reason, because I refuse to accept that he is gone, and we must place ourselves in the mind of madness to work out what could have happened.”
Through heart wrenching sobs, Winter tells me her harrowing story and I hang onto every word and commit it to my memory. I crave every small detail of a life I never knew existed until now. We talk for hours, and we grieve like any parents would, but I grieve for more than the son I never had. I grieve for the fact I never met him and the life we were denied because of one man.
