Chapter 135 A Bad Way To End The Night
GIOVANNI’S POV
The silence was oppressive. Just me and the ghost of what could have been.
Enzo was going to be a father and he was going to live a life with the woman he loved.
While I was sitting in an empty room, talking to shadows.
"Hey, baby," I whispered to the silence.
The words felt foolish but I said them anyway.
"I don't know if you can hear me. I don't even know if you exist yet, or if…." I stopped, unable to voice the fear that Arya might have lost the pregnancy.
"I'm sorry," I continued, my voice rough. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. I’m sorry for everything I did that drove you both away."
The room offered no response. Just silence and the faint scent of jasmine that might have been my imagination.
"Your uncle Enzo is having a baby," I said, because the silence was too heavy to bear. "You'll have a cousin soon. And aunt Jasmine is going to spoil you rotten and if….”
I paused releasing a weary sigh and leaned my head back against the chair.
"I'm looking for you," I promised the empty room. "I'm going to find you and your mother, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life proving that I can be better.”
Even if Arya never forgave me.
Even if all I ever got was supervised visits and child support payments.
I would whatever scraps of fatherhood she was willing to give me.
Because the alternative was unbearable.
I stayed in Arya's room as darkness fell completely, the city lights beyond the window casting long shadows across the floor.
"I wish you could hear me," I said to the emptiness. "I wish I could tell you all of this to your face instead of talking to ghosts."
The silence pressed in, but I kept talking anyway.
"I was so convinced that everyone was out to destroy me, that trust was weakness." My hands clenched into fists. "I looked at you and saw a threat instead of… instead of what you actually were. Someone who deserved better than what I gave you."
I thought about that last night. The night I had gone to her drunk and taken what I had no right to take. The shame of it still burned.
"I hurt you," I whispered. "In ways I can't take back. And I know that 'sorry' isn't enough. That nothing I say or do will ever make up for what I put you through."
But I would try anyway. I would spend the rest of my life trying.
"I hope our baby has your eyes," I continued, my voice rough. "Everything good about you and nothing of me."
Though from the pregnancy test timeline, the baby was probably already born. Somewhere out there, I had a child that I had never seen or held.
"Are they healthy?" I asked the room. "Are you taking care of yourself? Do you have enough help, enough money, enough…"
The questions were endless and unanswerable.
"I'm going to find you," I promised. "I know you probably don't want to be found. I know you'd rather raise our child alone than let me anywhere near either of you.”
My throat tightened unbearably but I swallowed the ball that had formed and kept talking. “But I need to know you're safe. I need to see with my own eyes that you're okay."
And then what? Would I respect her wishes and walk away? Could I?
"Maybe you've moved on," I said quietly. "Maybe there's someone who treats you the way you deserve. And if that's true, if you're happy, then I'll-“
I couldn't finish that thought. There was no way I could imagine stepping back and watching another man raise my child, love my woman.
Even though I had no right to call her mine
anymore.
"I just want you to be happy," I forced out. "Even if that happiness doesn't include me. Even if I spend the rest of my life on the outside looking in."
The lie tasted bitter, but I said it anyway.
Because Arya deserved happiness. She deserved served everything I had failed to give her.
"I love you," I whispered to the darkness. "I know I never said it when it mattered. I know I showed you the opposite of love. But I do. I love you, and I'm sorry, and I-"
BANG BANG BANG!
The sound of fists pounding on wood shattered the moment. I stared at the door in bewilderment but the loud knocking did not stop, if anything, it intensified.
Rage flared hot in my chest. Who the fuck would dare interrupt me?
"Mr. De Santis!" Maria's voice, high with panic. "Mr. De Santis, please!"
The fear in her tone killed my anger instantly. I was on my feet and across the room in seconds, yanking open the door.
Maria stood in the hallway, her face pale and her hands shaking.
I frowned. "What happened?"
"It's Mr. Vitale." She was breathing hard like she had run up the stairs. "He's been shot at his home. His wife called and she's asking for you. She said they need you there right now."
The world tilted for a moment and I staggered back. I quickly caught myself, puzzled that I would act this way.
If anything, I should be excited but the hard drumming of my chest didn’t reduce.
Robert was shot… in his own house nonetheless.
"When?" I asked.
Maria shakily responding. "Twenty minutes ago. She just called."
Twenty minutes. Depending on the wound, he could already be dead.
"Get the car ready," I ordered, already moving past her toward my room. "And call for guards. Six of them. Armed."
She bobbed her head. "Should I call Mr. Enzo?"
"No time." I grabbed my gun from the safe, checked the clip, holstered it. "Call him once we're on the road. Tell him about the situation and tell him I said there’s no need for his presence.”
Jasmine needed his support and I wouldn’t take that away from the two of them. I could handle this myself.