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Chapter Seventeen

L ILA WINTER

A few hours ago, my biggest worry was winding up in bed with Alaric.

Now?

Now it feels like the world is collapsing in on itself, and I’m standing dead center, gripping at straws while the earth threatens to swallow me whole.

Lina is in the hospital. Lina is not okay.

My baby, my whole fucking world, is lying in that bed, unconscious, tiny arms limp at her sides, her skin too pale, her breaths too shallow. And I can’t stop thinking…

If I had arrived just afew minutes later, would she still be breathing?

Would I have had the opportunity to bring her to the hospital?

I can't breathe.

Every single beat of my heart is laced with guilt.

Guilt that I didn’t know sooner.

Guilt that I wasn’t there fast enough.

Guilt that maybe, just maybe, I failed her.

And as if that isn’t enough to shred me alive, Julian’s venom still clings to the air like the proverbial sword of Damocles hanging above my head.

His words keep echoing in my skull, louder than the machines that beep and hum around us, louder than the footsteps of nurses and doctors as they move past us in the waiting area.

“I’ll take her because she’s mine.”

The bastard didn’t even flinch when he said it. He just looked me dead in the eye and delivered that line like a death sentence.

I should’ve slapped him.

Instead, I froze. For a beat too long, I froze. Not because he scared me, but because deep down, I know what kind of damage a man like Julian can cause.

He doesn’t make threats for the fun of it. No, Julian plays the long game. He manipulates, twists, poisons, until there’s nothing left of you but the version he created.

And I’m not sure I want that kind of evil to be Lina’s father. I would rather die than think about it, let alone allow him to be close to my girl.

I glance at Alaric, who’s standing in front of me like a wall, his body a shield against Julian.

But even with him here, even with all his silent promises that Lina will be okay and I’m safe, all I see is the man who once tore me apart and now wants to do the same to my daughter.

I’d rather die than see Julian accomplish that.

I snap.

“She’s not yours!” My voice rips through the hallway like a gunshot. “You don’t get to come here and act like I’m some villain when you weren’t even in her life.”

A few patients turn and murmur at my commotion, and yet their faces are all blurry because I don’t care what I look like at the moment.

“You don’t get to blame me for being a bad mother when I was the one raising her. I fed her. I clothed her. I held her through every fever, every nightmare, every scraped knee. She’s mine, Julian. Not yours. Mine. And I will never let you come near her.”

My hands are trembling. My chest heaves.

But I won't stop.

Because if I stop now, I’ll break. I’ll crumble. And I can’t afford that, not when Lina needs me whole.

Julian narrows his eyes, mouth curling into that same cruel smirk he used to wear when he wanted to make me doubt myself. “You’re not denying she’s mine.”

I flinch.

Because I can’t.

Not completely.

“I don’t owe you anything,” I spit. “No answers. No explanations. Not even the time of day.”

He tilts his head. “That’s enough reason to fight for my girl.”

My girl.

The audacity of him to call Lina that makes my blood boil.

The sheer gall it takes to look me in the face and call her that when he hasn’t lifted a single finger for her in years makes me want to rip him apart.

It’s a miracle I haven’t thrown him through the nearest wall.

I know what he wants. He couldn’t get me through his sick methods, so he’s using my daughter instead to hurt me.

I look at him and think back to all the things I loved about him, and come up with nothing.

The Julian I knew might have been a tad too much, but hurting me? Drugging me? Using my baby as a buffer for his punches toward me?

That’s stooping too low even for him.

I’m already thinking of something to say. I’ll probably insult him and let Alaric kick him out of here with a couple of punches.

Deep down, though, I know that there’s nothing I can say that will deter Julian. He’s like a fucking dog with a bone and if he decides to get that test, it might come up as positive.

He might be Lina’s father, and he might take her away from me using his family’s power.

I’m too caught up by the what-ifs to see the man standing in front of me, cornering Julian.

My chest caves in on itself when Alaric’s hand holds mine, but his eyes remain laser-focused on Julian.

“You are not fighting for anyone because Lina is not your daughter.”

“Right, and you know that how?” Julian scoffs.

Alaric doesn’t back down, not even an inch.

“Because she’s my daughter.”

My heart almost falls to the floor, my lungs seizing.

“I get that the thought of you playing hero and daddy excites you, uncle, but you are the guy she screwed a few years later after I’d dumped her. That makes me the girl’s father.”

Alaric squeezes my hand tighter, not enough to hurt, but enough to say, I’ve got you, enough to say, don’t move. His body angles forward, chest to chest with Julian, and then he smirks.

It’s that smirk that gets him everything he wants.

That smirk tells me he’s gunning to be the winner in this war.

I know what he’ll say before he says it, but that doesn’t mean I’m not surprised by the way he phrases it.

“That’s where you are wrong, kid. Six years ago, when you let the most wonderful woman to ever exist walk out of your life, I had her.

Lila and I spent the night together. I made a mistake, and she was gone the next morning, but we found each other again.

Lila introduced Lina as my daughter and the product of what happened between us that night. ”

Julian’s face pales like he’s seen a ghost. He looks at Alaric, then at me in betrayal.

He’s about to speak too but Alaric cuts him off with a growl, “So for your own fucking sake, you better get out of here while I’m being nice. Otherwise, I'll be forced to protect my girls again, and I can’t guarantee this time that you’ll walk out of here alive.”

My girls?

Julian opens his mouth to argue, but the steel in Alaric’s eyes, the promise of violence that simmers under his control, makes even a bastard like Julian pause.

“I’ll see you both in court,” he mutters and turns away, stomping down the hallway like a dog with its tail between its legs.

I don’t breathe until he’s gone.

Then I whirl on Alaric. “What the hell was that?”

“You needed protection,” he says simply. “So, I gave it to you.”

“You lied—”

“I did what I had to. To keep him away from you. From Lina.”

My hands are shaking. My heart’s a fucking mess. “You don’t get to just decide that. She’s not—”

He cuts me off, gentler now. “Maybe she is.”

That shuts me up.

Because the truth is? I don’t know.

The truth is that there has always been a fifty-fifty chance that Alaric might be Lina’s father, too.

Taking my silence as my defense against him, Alaric steps even closer, his hands on my cheeks, wiping the remnant tears still left on my cheeks.

“Let me protect you both, wild one. Let me help you.”

I want to tell him that Lina and I have been fine on our own. We’ve never needed anyone to protect us. We’ve never needed the man who hurt me to be there for us.

But wasn’t it Alaric who came through for us today? Wasn’t it he who protected us against Julian a few minutes ago?

“You’ve helped enough.” The words feel like sandpaper against my tongue.

“I’m not taking no for an answer, Lila. Call me a bastard, get upset with me, but I'm not leaving you and Lina to Julian’s madness.”

Right, because we are his girls?

“What if he’s the father? What if the truth comes out and Julian—”

“Then we deal with it then. Right now, let me do this for you.”

I bite my lip, torn about giving in and letting him in when I've been trying so hard to keep him out.

I don’t want to need him. I don’t want to fall into his orbit again. But Lina…she needs peace. She needs safety. And Goddess help me, I need to stop feeling like the floor might cave in at any second because Julian is going to come after us again. I just know it.

“Fine,” I give in. “We play pretend. But this doesn’t mean I forgive you. Or trust you.”

His jaw tightens, but he nods. “Understood.”

“And I’m only doing this for Lina,” I add, and that earns me a warm smile from Alaric.

“Then let’s do it right. Move in with me.”

I blink. “What?”

“I have the space. The security. You and Lina will be safe there.”

My stomach twists. I know what this is. I know it’s smart. Logical. The right move to keep Julian away.

But Goddess, the idea of living with Alaric…of waking up under the same roof, of seeing him every day, of pretending to be something we’re not?

It’s terrifying.

And bound to be intoxicating, because part of me already remembers what it felt like to fall asleep wrapped in his powerful arms. Part of me still aches where he touched me.

“Just until this blows over,” I say tightly.

He nods. “Just until then.”

But we both know that’s a lie.

Because this? This is how everything changes.

And deep down, we both feel it.