Chương 4
I looked away.
“What else am I supposed to think?”
“That you’re a person who had one night with someone and now has to deal with the consequences.”
“It wasn’t just someone.”
“No.”
He looked at the envelope.
“It wasn’t.”
The next morning, I agreed to meet Alessandro.
Not because I wanted to.
Because refusing felt like pretending the problem would disappear.
It would not.
The meeting place was a small coffee shop in River North, the kind of place where lawyers typed on laptops and people complained quietly about meetings.
It was almost funny.
A man like Alessandro choosing somewhere so normal.
Almost.
I arrived twenty minutes early.
That was something I hated about myself.
When I was nervous, I became early.
When I was afraid, I prepared.
When I was hurt, I tried to control everything I could.
My mother used to say I organized kitchen drawers when life became too messy.
After she died, I organized everything.
Books.
Bills.
Closets.
My entire existence.
Except somehow I had never been able to organize my feelings.
The bell above the door rang.
I looked up.
Alessandro walked in wearing a dark coat over a simple sweater.
No suit.
No obvious display of power.
That almost made him more intimidating.
He looked less like the man people feared and more like the man I remembered.
The man who had laughed quietly when I admitted I hated expensive restaurants because I never knew which fork to use.
His eyes found mine immediately.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then he sat across from me.
“You look tired.”
I almost laughed.
“That’s your opening?”
His jaw moved slightly.
“I had several.”
“None seemed better?”
“No.”
That honesty caught me off guard.
A server approached and Alessandro ordered coffee.
I ordered water.
He noticed.
“You always did that.”
“What?”
“Drink water when you’re nervous.”
I looked at him.
“You remember that?”
“I remember everything about that night.”
The words made my chest tighten.
I looked toward the window.
“I don’t want to make this harder.”
“Neither do I.”
“Then why are you here?”
His expression changed.
Not cold.
Not angry.
Something closer to disappointment.
“Because you disappeared.”
I swallowed.
“I thought that was what you wanted.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because you never called.”
The answer came faster than I expected.
Alessandro went still.
“I tried.”
I looked back at him.
“What?”
“I called the number you gave the hotel.”
My stomach dropped.
The number.
The fake number I had written because I panicked.
Because I knew giving him my real information was dangerous.
“I didn’t receive anything.”
“I know.”
His voice became quieter.
“It went nowhere.”
I did not know what to say.
The guilt came unexpectedly.
Not because I regretted protecting myself.
Because I had never considered what my disappearance looked like from his side.
“I didn’t know what to do,” I admitted.
Alessandro looked down at the table.
“That makes two of us.”
The server placed his coffee down.
Neither of us touched our drinks.
“I know about the pregnancy.”
Everything inside me stopped.
The room did not disappear like it had that night at the hotel.
This time, I felt every sound.
The coffee machine.
The conversations around us.
A spoon hitting a cup.
“How?”
Alessandro did not answer immediately.
That worried me more than if he had.
“Your medical appointment was connected to a billing record.”
I stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
“Not impossible.”
“That’s private.”
“Yes.”
The way he said it made my stomach twist.
Not proud.
Not defensive.
Just aware.
“You looked into me.”
“No.”
I watched his face.
“I had someone look for you.”
“That’s the same thing.”
“Yes.”
At least he did not lie.
I hated that.
I hated how much I respected his honesty.
“Why?”
His fingers tightened around the coffee cup.
“Because after that night, I thought something happened to you.”
I looked away.
“You barely knew me.”
“I knew enough.”
The answer was too simple.
Too sincere.
And that scared me.
“You don’t know who I am.”
His eyes lifted.
“Then tell me.”
I almost did.
The truth sat right there.
My real name.
My past.
The reason I had been hiding.
Everything.
Then my phone vibrated.
I glanced down.
A message from Liam.
Call me now.
My heart dropped.
Alessandro saw my expression.
“What happened?”
I stood up.
“I have to go.”
“Emma.”
The way he said my name stopped me.
Not because it was commanding.
Because it sounded afraid.
“I’m not here to hurt you.”
I looked at him.
“I don’t know if I believe that.”
He accepted the answer without anger.
“I know.”
I left the coffee shop with my hands shaking.
Liam answered before the first ring finished.
“Where are you?”
“What happened?”
“Someone broke into the apartment.”
The street noise disappeared.
“What?”
“Nothing was stolen.”
My breathing changed.
“Liam.”
“They went through your room.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did they find anything?”
There was a pause.
A terrible pause.
“I don’t know.”
I pressed my hand against the side of the building beside me.
The fear I had been trying to control finally became something real.
Someone was not just looking for me.
Someone was searching.
And whatever they wanted was not only about Alessandro anymore.
It was about the life growing inside me.
I ran back to the apartment without remembering most of the trip.
The city moved around me in pieces.
A bus pulling away from the curb.
A woman arguing into her phone.
A man carrying a cardboard box through the rain.
Everything looked ordinary, and that made it worse.
Something terrible had happened inside a place that was supposed to be safe.
When I reached the building, Liam was standing near the entrance.
His hair was messy, and he was wearing the same shirt he had worn the night before.
He looked like he had not moved since calling me.
May you like
“What happened?” I asked.
He looked past me toward the street before answering.
