Page 9 of Ruthless Secrets (Alpha Mafia Daddies #6)

I park my Mercedes on the street outside her apartment building, not caring that I might get a ticket. I never need to pay them anyway.

The building is pretty nondescript with its red-bricked exterior and large rectangular windows. The neighborhood seems fairly quiet for a Wednesday evening, which I’m glad for.

I don’t like the idea of Clara coming home late at night as it is, but at least she’s not coming home to one of the rougher parts of the city.

Just as I’m heading up the front steps of Clara’s building, someone is coming out, so I quickly dart inside before the door has a chance to close me out.

There’s no elevator, so I take the stairs up to the third floor and find Clara’s apartment at the far end of the hall.

I take a steadying breath before wrapping my knuckles against the dark brown door.

At the sound of footsteps, my heart rate spikes, but I try to keep my expression neutral and my posture relaxed.

She’s going to be surprised to see me, but I hope it turns out to be a good surprise.

But when the door opens and Clara locks eyes with me, her complexion instantly pales.

Bad surprise it is.

“Marco? W-what are you doing here?”

She’s changed out of her work clothes into a pair of leggings and an oversized jumper.

Her blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and her face is free from makeup.

She looks just as beautiful as she did when I saw her a few hours ago and yet, something is different about the look she’s giving me.

Gone is the soft pink blush on her cheeks or the slightly flirty bite of the lower lip she does when I look at her a little too long .

There’s something close to fear in her eyes, which is exactly what I was afraid of.

“I need to talk to you. Can I come in?”

She glances anxiously over her shoulder and adjusts her body so I can’t see past her into the apartment.

“I, uh…I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Fuck. She definitely overheard my conversation with Andre. There’s no other explanation for why she’s being so standoffish toward me.

“Clara, please let me explain.”

The sound of a baby crying suddenly filters out of Clara’s apartment, and I instantly tense.

“You have a baby?”

The last of the color in Clara’s face drains as she looks up at me with such sadness in her eyes. “Yeah.”

It feels like a knife has been stabbed into my chest.

“I didn’t realize you were in a relationship.” My voice comes out colder than I intend it to, and Clara flinches.

“I’m…not.” Clara looks like she’s about to burst into tears at any moment.

I frown. “What is going on?”

“The baby… It’s yours, Marco.”

It takes me a moment for her words to fully register in my mind. But when they do, the knife in my chest starts to multiply, and it hurts to breathe.

“Mine? A baby?”

Clara’s lower lip trembles as tears start to stream down her cheeks.

She nods.

“How the fuck could you not tell me I have a kid?”

“I wanted?—”

“Were you ever going to tell me?”

“Marco, please. You have to understand?— ”

“You lied to me. You… I… I can’t even look at you right now. I…I can’t. I have to go.” I turn my back on Clara.

I’m about to throw up, and I sure as hell am not going to do that in front of her.

“Marco, wait!”

I can’t do this right now, so I don’t stop walking until I reach my car.

My body is vibrating, and I’d be half tempted to put my fist through the window if it weren’t for the fact it’s reinforced glass, and the impact would probably break my hand.

Instead, I throw open the door and climb into the car.

Clara’s apartment is less than a ten-minute drive from my own, which only makes this hurt more.

All this time I’ve had a child living only a few blocks away, and Clara didn’t even bother to fucking tell me.

How the hell did this happen? I’m always careful, always used protection.

Except the night I met Clara.

I was too caught up in the moment to think rationally. All I could think about was how much I wanted her, and how much she seemed to want me too.

Because of that, we now have a child, and Clara is tied to my family forever, and that scares the shit out of me.

“Fuck!” I slam my hands against the steering wheel.

It’s not that I didn’t see myself having kids, but it was never supposed to be like this .

Our child must be coming up on six months, and I don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl.

The realization that I’ve missed so much already has my chest tightening.

Clara took that away from me.

She must have chosen not to tell me for a reason because she could have found me if she really wanted to.

I know I left her that night without telling her my name or a way to contact me, but all it would have taken was for her to pick up a newspaper, and my face would have likely been on the front page.

Maybe she did, and that only made her want to keep our child a secret even more.

Whatever her reasoning, I had a right to know.

And even if she hadn’t known who I was before, she has known since she came to Nox.

She’s had days to tell me the truth, and yet she still kept it from me, and that hurts like hell.

If there was any chance of something happening between us, it’s gone, because I don’t know how I’m going to be able to look past a betrayal like this.