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I cross the room and place a hand on his cheek. “What happened?”

He shakes his head, his cloudy gaze on mine. “My ex-wife is in town. She’s been talking to Ayla for weeks now. Can you believe that? Ay never said a thing. She’s been lying.”

She didn’t tell him. I need to help her fix this.

I hug him tight. “She wasn’t trying to lie to you. It was just hard for her to talk to you about it.”

He pulls back from me, his eyes pinning me in a way that makes the hairs on my skin soldier up in attention. Oh no.

“You knew.” His words are soft but reverberate like thunder in the middle of the night.

My hands are still around him, clinging to the backs of his arms. I let them drop. Yeah, this was a mistake.

“Let me explain.”

His shoulders go up slowly as his eyebrows draw together. His gaze focuses deeper, magnifying me. The temperature in the room shifts again, rolling in intervals of hot and cold.

“You knew,” he repeats.

The booming in his voice dries all the moisture in my throat, but I manage to nod.

“You knew Ayla was in contact with that irresponsible, cruel, bi—” He pauses, as if struggling. He looks around, as if trying to find something, but his eyes return to me. “I trusted you, Lux. I…she’s my child, the most important thing in my life. She’s my life.”

My stomach drops, my hand flying to hold it in place. And the cramping begins. “I know. I was going to tell you. I was giving A the chance to talk to you first. She begged me to let her be the one to tell you.”

“She’s a child. You’re an adult. Children have no secrets. You should have no secrets from me when it comes to my daughter. That woman is trying to take her from me.” His face goes blank, all the emotion evaporating from his face like the blood from my body.

I hurt him.

“Did you do this on purpose?”

“What?” The single word flies out of my mouth in a painful croak.

“I don’t know. You’ve been fighting for us to be a couple in public. You don’t tell me her mother has been calling her, asking her to come stay with her. Why would you keep something this big from me? Did you think this may be a way for us to gain time without her?”

The flash of pain breaks over my chest, making me stumble back while he stands still, six feet away, like he didn’t strike me with his words.

“No.” My throat clogs, and I’m struggling for air because I can’t believe he would even think that. I clear my throat. “Don’t ever say that. I love Ayla. I would never hurt her in any way.”

He doesn’t move, just stares at me with those cold, enraged eyes. “Your actions say different, Luciana.”

My name on his lips holds the softness of sandstone.

“I’m sorry. I made a mistake. I thought she should be the one to tell you. She just wanted to talk to her mom, Ollie…”

As if possible, his eyes grow colder, and I wrap my arms around my body, bracing against the chill.

“The mother who abandoned her, the one that walked away, not looking back, to go after some man she met online. The one who didn’t even wait for me to get home but called to tell me I needed to get there because the baby was alone. The one who didn’t care when I texted her to tell her Ayla had a fever. The cold-hearted bitch that didn’t answer me even as I begged her to come back, not for me but for our sick kid. That’s the woman you think Ayla should be talking to?”

Another wave of pain rushes through me. I made a huge mistake. He won’t forgive me. I don’t know what to say to make this better. I’m sorry sticks in my throat.

“Make me understand what the fuck you were thinking. Tell me how you can justify the damage you’ve caused.”

I rear back, my chin tilting up. I’m not going to cry or beg for forgiveness. It’s obvious the time for that has passed, but I need him to understand. “I walked in on the conversation between Ayla and Bron. She just wanted to talk to her and was afraid you wouldn’t let her. She said you tighten up when Noris’s name is mentioned. I’ve seen that myself. She promised me she was going to tell you. I couldn’t say no when she begged me while crying.”

“Children beg for all sorts of things, most of the time for stuff that’s not good for them. You are the adult. You should know better than to hide things from her father that could potentially damage her, but that’s on me. I should’ve known better.”

My back stiffens. “Known better how?”