The Secrets She Kept

Chapter 22

"This is why you can't leave the house alone!" Luca immediately started to yell at me. Once we were back home and in his office. "I didn't do anything wrong." I defended myself. "What were you two talking about?" He glared at me as if trying to accuse me of something. "Did you know?" I asked in anger. He froze and squint his eyes thinking for a moment. "Know what?" He raised an eyebrow. "Did you know about Leah!" I snapped. He hesitated. "Of course not!" He turned his back to me. "Luca!" His shoulders relaxed as he exhaled. It was true. Antonio was telling the truth. "We're leaving!" I turned and stormed out, only for him to grab me and spin me around. "Stop running away all the time!"

"Stop giving me reasons not to trust you!"

"You want to know the truth, Lana? Fine! I knew about Leah! I found out when she was two!"

"You piece of shit! You made me feel guilty, when this whole time you knew!"

"Yes I knew Lana, but I was at war with someone! They threatened Leah, it's how I found out! I had no clue I had a daughter until she was two when someone was sending me pictures of my child, and you, they threatened to kill you both!" I was being stalked? The idea of it made me sick to my stomach. "I couldn't contact you! I didn't want them to hurt you!" I didn't know what to say. I felt so guilty for hiding Leah, only to find out I didn't do a very good job at it. "I was going to come for you two, I swear I was Lana, I just didn't know if it was safe to. Then you just showed up here." Luca tried to explain. "You left your daughter out there when you knew that people knew she was yours?" Kate's voice boomed from behind us, startling us both. I turned around to find Kate rushing towards Luca. She raised her hand and slapped him across the face. Luca did nothing. He kept his eyes on the ground, with his jaw clenched, and red from the hit. "I raised you better than that! And your father taught you to be smarter than that!" Kate turned and left the room angrily. Luca quietly sat down and ran a hand through his hair while exhaling deeply. As angry as I was with him, seeing him like this hurt me. "I'm sorry Lana, like you, I thought I was doing what was best." He finally spoke. "I just don't understand why you were so hard on me when you knew." My voice cracked a little thinking about how he made me feel like a terrible mother. "It was the anger that I felt when I first found out. I guess the anger I felt when I found out, came back up when I saw her here. I'm sorry for that Lana."

"Luca, if we are ever truly going to have a chance at being together, we both need to be able to trust each other."

"How?" Luca seemed as stressed about this as I was.

"Let's just lay it all out on the table now." I suggested. It seemed best to just get it all over with now. Antonio was causing too many problems between us both. Luca gave me a worried look as if it were a bad idea.

"Okay, I'll go first. Antonio told me not to trust you or my mother."

"Your birth mother?"

"Yes. Your turn." I took a seat across from him, ready to hear it all.

"I've known where your mother is since we were seventeen, she works with the Moray, and I couldn't tell you." My heart broke a little at that. He knew how badly I wanted her. I waited for her, I passed up getting adopted for her. "I'm sorry." He mumbled. We both sat there in silence. "Anymore?" Luca finally asked.

"I'm afraid that you're hiding a dark side of yourself, and that Antonio is actually right, it's you I should be scared of." I admitted.

"I'm afraid that you're about to run away with my second child but this time you'll really disappear." The silence fell over us again. For some reason, I felt like laughing. So I did. And the more I did, Luca began to join in. We both laughed until we cried. "Lana, I am hiding a darker side from you, but that side of me, I promise you and our children will never see." Luca whispered lightly.

"I'll never take your children from you again. Unless you ask me to. I can't promise that if you're putting them in immediate danger I won't run."

"I will do everything in my power to keep you and our children safe. I just need you to truly trust me." Something about this conversation felt like a new beginning. Like we were finally starting fresh. "Just promise me one thing." Luca started up again. "Promise me you won't let Antonio in anymore. He was always good at manipulating you, don't let him use you anymore. I knew it was what he was doing when I was away, before you ran. I always knew he wanted to be with you. I know he's the reason we can't move forward, he keeps setting us up for failure." Luca's eyes pleaded with me. "I promise." I reassured him. He was right, I really needed to avoid Luca. Every time I start to trust Luca, Antonio ruins it. A knock at the door grabbed our attention. "Hey guys, we're all set up for the ultrasound." The doctor poked her head in. I looked at Luca who was smiling happily. I held my hand out to him. I knew this would be special for him. It would be the first time we see the baby. "Oh, we need Leah!" I reminded him. I knew it was important for Leah to come as well. Luca and I held hands walking to the, well, I'm not sure what it's called. It's just a room in the mansion set up like a doctor's clinic. Once Leah arrived, we started. "Momma, what are we doing?" Leah walked in with wide eyes looking around. "Come on. You'll see." I grabbed her hand, as we entered the room. Anxiety filled the air. Luca looked so vulnerable, he reminded me of a child. He looked all around the room and watched the doc intensely. It was very cute. He and Leah were making the same facial expressions. Within minutes, my life changes completely.