Page 58 of Entwined Lies (Entwined #1)

Isabelle

Luca filled Jake’s doorway without saying a word. Bare chest, arms folded, head tilted like the view in front of him was equal parts a headache and entertainment.

I eased in beside him, my eyes scanning the room.

Jake was stretched out on the bed, arm flung across Casper. The puppy was curled up tight against his side, already snoring softly, nose pressed into the crook of Jake’s elbow like they’d done this a hundred times before.

“Found the kennel empty and thought Casper got himself into trouble. I checked the whole damn house,” Luca muttered. “Turns out, trouble found him… Third night in a row.”

“Didn’t we tell him Casper stays in the kennel?”

“I told him. He agreed. Then he did whatever the hell he wanted anyway. It looks like I’m raising myself.”

“Poor you.”

He smirked, his hand moving to my belly, resting on my bump.

“If she’s anything like him, I’m screwed.”

I placed my hand over his. “You’ll love it.”

“I already do. And aside from the dog drooling on Egyptian cotton, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

I huffed a quiet laugh, leaning into him. After everything we’d been through, I wasn’t losing sleep over a little drool.

It had taken more than three years for the FBI to close Parker’s case. Three years of tension, of wondering if the life we were building would be stripped away before it ever had a chance to become real.

Those years weren’t easy. Parker’s case might have been the center of it, but there were moments when things got… complicated. Twists we never saw coming. Ones Nico and Enzo handled in their own way. And choices that changed everything for them.

Luca wouldn’t even consider telling Jake the truth until it was over. Until we were safe. Until he could make Jake a promise he wouldn’t break.

I’d agreed, even when it hurt.

So we waited.

And somewhere along the way, Jake had stopped asking about his father.

I used to brace for the questions, but after we moved in with Luca, they just… stopped. He never asked again. Not once. Maybe Jake had known, on some level, that he already had the answer. He knew who was there. Who showed up. Who stayed.

And when Parker was gone and Luca was free—or as free as anyone could be when they’re still a high-ranking leader in a criminal empire—we sat Jake down and told him the truth.

That Luca wasn’t just the man who cheered from the sidelines at every soccer game, fixed his bike, or taught him how to throw a punch. He was his father. He always had been.

Jake hadn’t said much at first. He’d just nodded, like he’d been waiting for us to finally say it out loud. And when he called Luca Dad for the first time, Luca’s hands had shaken.

I’d only seen him shake twice in all the time I’d known him. One of them was that moment, when his son finally saw him for who he was, and chose him anyway .

And me? I wasn’t working the cases I used to. I’d walked away from the DA’s office for good and spent my days running my own organization, one that gave legal support to women who’d survived the kind of violence I used to fight in court. It was different work. Harder in some ways. But mine.

This wasn’t the life we’d imagined—it was so much more. Quiet proof that love could grow in even the most unlikely places, that we could create something solid out of all the broken pieces.

And now, we had what we’d never dared to believe was possible—lazy Sundays with pancakes, watching our children grow in a world we built from scratch, and the kind of love that lasts.

Our forever, unfolding quietly, one moment at a time.