Chapter 4: The Man Who Stayed
Luca didn’t leave.
Even after I told him to go, even after I locked the bakery door and turned off the lights, he remained outside. He stood across the street under the old oak tree, getting soaked by the rain, his eyes never leaving the windows of the apartment above the bakery.
I watched him from behind the curtain for nearly an hour.
Lena and Leo kept asking who the “big sad man” was. I told them he was someone from Mommy’s old life and that he would be leaving soon. The lie tasted bitter on my tongue.
Around 8 p.m., Luca finally moved. He walked across the street and knocked on the bakery door again. When I didn’t answer, he spoke through the glass.
“I’m not leaving, Isabella,” he said, his voice carrying through the rain. “Not until we talk properly. I can stand out here all night if I have to.”
I knew he meant it.
Luca Moretti was not a man who made empty threats — or empty promises.
After another twenty minutes, I gave in. Not because I wanted to see him, but because I didn’t want the twins to keep seeing him standing there like a ghost.
I opened the door just enough to speak.
“You can come in,” I said coldly. “But only for thirty minutes. And you’re not going upstairs.”
Luca stepped inside without a word. Water dripped from his coat onto the floor. He looked around the small bakery like he was trying to understand the life I had built without him.
We sat at one of the small tables. I kept my arms crossed tightly over my chest.
“You have thirty minutes,” I said. “Start talking.”
Luca leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. For the first time since he arrived, he looked uncertain.
“I didn’t cheat on you,” he said.
I let out a sharp, bitter laugh.
“Don’t insult me, Luca. I saw you. With my own sister.”
He shook his head.
“You saw what someone wanted you to see,” he said. “Your sister came to me that night. She said she needed to talk about you. She was crying, saying you were in danger. I let her into the penthouse. The next thing I knew, she was trying to kiss me. I pushed her away. That’s when you walked in.”
I stared at him, my heart pounding.
“You expect me to believe that?” I asked. “After three years?”
“I don’t expect you to believe anything right now,” Luca said quietly. “But it’s the truth. I’ve never touched your sister. Not that night. Not ever.”
I wanted to believe him. God, I wanted to. But the image of them in our bed was burned into my mind.
“Even if that’s true,” I said, “it doesn’t change what happened after. You let me disappear. You didn’t look for me for months.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“I looked,” he said. “I looked everywhere. But you covered your tracks too well. And your sister… she made sure I believed you left because you hated me. She told me you said you never wanted to see me again.”
I closed my eyes.
Sophia.
Of course she did.
My own sister had always been jealous of my relationship with Luca. I just never thought she would go that far.
Luca continued, his voice lower now.
“When I finally found out the truth six months ago, I started searching again. I never stopped. And then… I found out about the twins.”
He looked up at the ceiling, toward the apartment upstairs.
“I have children, Isabella. Two children I never knew existed. Do you have any idea what that does to a man?”
I stayed silent.
Luca leaned forward.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me right now,” he said. “I’m not even asking you to let me into their lives immediately. But I am asking you not to shut me out completely. They’re my blood. They’re my responsibility.”
I felt tears sting my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.
“You lost the right to call them your responsibility the night you destroyed our marriage,” I said.
Luca didn’t argue. He simply nodded.
“I know,” he said. “But I’m still their father. And I’m not going anywhere.”
He stood up.
“I’m staying in town,” he said. “I’ve already rented a place nearby. I won’t force myself into your life, but I won’t disappear either. I want to get to know them. Slowly. On your terms.”
I looked at him for a long time.
Then I said the only thing I could.
“If you do anything to hurt them, Luca… I will kill you myself.”
May you like
For the first time that night, a small, sad smile touched his lips.
“I would expect nothing less from their mother.”
