16. Elio

16

ELIO

" Y ou have no right to judge me for my choices," Piper seethes.

I sit up, startled by the sudden shift in her demeanor. "I'm not judging?—"

"Aren't you? I have every right to protect my daughter from the man who decided he didn't want her." She laughs bitterly, tears welling in her eyes. "You have no idea what it's like, Elio. No idea how hard it was to find out I was pregnant, to have my entire life uprooted because the father of my child decided he wanted nothing to do with us."

My heart clenches at the pain in her voice, and I reach for her, but she jerks away from my touch. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize?—"

"Don't patronize me. How could you possibly think I'd tell her about her father who didn't want her?"

Her words hit me like a punch in the gut, and I stare at her in stunned silence. I can't imagine any man walking away from Piper, from the chance to be a father to a child as amazing as Elysse.

Piper's tears flow freely now, and she covers her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. "You have no idea what it was like," she chokes out. "To be so young and scared and alone, to have the person I loved most in the world abandon me when I needed him most."

My heart aches for her, and at the same time, I wonder about the man she loved most in the world. I thought that had been me.

I exit the bed and slip on my boxer briefs. "I'm sorry that happened."

She laughs humorlessly, wiping at her tears. "Yeah, right."

I shake my head, frustration building in my chest. Why the hell is she so mad at me? I didn't abandon her.

"You just walked away like a coward, leaving me to deal with the fallout on my own."

What the fuck? "Piper, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. "

Piper shoves my chest, her eyes blazing with fury. "You have some nerve, coming back into my life like nothing happened, like you didn't abandon me when I needed you most."

I grip her wrists, holding her in place as I search her face for answers. "I swear to God, I have no idea what you're talking about. I never abandoned you. You're the one who left me, remember? You disappeared without a word, without even saying goodbye."

She wrenches her hands from my grasp, her lips curling into a sneer. "Yeah, you tell yourself that if it helps you sleep at night."

Anger surges through me at her accusations. "Damn it, Piper, I'm telling you the truth. I have no idea what you're so pissed off about."

"Well, it's too late now. I want you to leave. I want you to stay the hell away from me and my daughter."

My temper flares. "What the fuck, Piper? One minute you're hot, falling into bed with me, and the next you're cold, telling me to leave and stay away. What the hell do you want from me?"

"I want you to leave me and Elysse alone!" Piper shouts, her face flushed with anger as she jabs a finger at my chest.

I stare at her completely confused. "Is this about your husband?—"

"No. He's just proof that I make terrible choices in men. First you, and then him."

"Me? All I did was love you." I feel like I'm in an alternate universe. Nothing she's saying is making sense.

"Until it was inconvenient. Then you sent your parents to do your dirty work, to pay off my parents and send me away so you wouldn't have to deal with the consequences of your actions."

My heart stops at her words, and I feel like I can't breathe. "My parents? They… they paid you to leave town?"

Piper nods, her eyes brimming with tears. "They showed up at my door the morning I learned I was pregnant. Offered my parents a fortune to take me away."

I run a hand through my hair, my mind spinning with this new information. I can't make sense of it. "They wouldn't do that." Would they?

She scoffs, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you really want to know the truth, why don't you go ask them yourself? I'm sure they'll be more than happy to fill you in on all the sordid details."

I shake my head, a humorless laugh escaping my lips. "I can't. They're dead."

She flinches.

The pain of the last few years, of all I've lost, pierces my chest. "Should I ask Lazaro? Oh, wait, he's dead too. Do you think Lana knows? She's all I have left."

Her eyes widen in surprise, and for a moment, I see a flicker of sympathy in her gaze. But it's quickly replaced by anger once more. "Well, then I guess you'll never know the truth since you don't want to believe me."

All the information is swirling in my head. I'm fighting to make it coherent. I think back to eight years ago. I'd made a promise to Piper, and the next day she was gone.

They showed up at my door the morning I learned I was pregnant. Offered my parents a fortune to take me away.

Piper's words hit me like a punch to the gut, and I stagger back, my mind reeling with the implications. My parents paid her to leave town, to hide her pregnancy from me.

I look up at her. "I'm Elysse's father?" I feel like the world is tilting on its axis, like everything I thought I knew has been turned upside down. I have a daughter. A beautiful, amazing little girl whom I've already fallen in love with. And I've missed seven years of her life because of my family's brutally cruel act.

"Don't act like you didn't know."

Betrayal cuts through me, and I can't breathe. They took everything from me. The woman I loved, the chance to be a father to my child. And for what?

I close my eyes as I remember right after Piper disappeared, I was told that I'd be marrying Ava Rinella when she came of age. Did my parents really pay Piper's family off to secure some bullshit alliance with the Rinellas?

I look at Piper, really look at her, and I see the pain and anger in her eyes that I'm only now beginning to understand. If this is what she believes, then of course she'd be angry.

Except… I would never do what she's accusing me of. How could she believe I would? The pain of that is beyond anything I've ever felt, worse than when she disappeared.

I shake my head as a toxic brew of anger and hurt swirl. "I loved you. How could you think I would abandon you, abandon our child? Fucking hell, Piper. I promised you everything. I gave you all of me."

She watches me, blinks as if she wasn't expecting that response.

"No… this isn't on me. What you and your parents and my parents did… that's on you. I bet that was it, wasn't it? All that time, you and your family struggled. You saw a way out. My father was an asshole, but he knew people. He took one look at you and your family and knew money was all you wanted."

She looks at me with desperation. "What? No. They made me leave."

"You could have called me. Emailed?—"

"They wouldn't let me?—"

"How convenient. So you won't believe me that I knew nothing about this deal you and my parents struck up, but somehow, I'm supposed to believe you couldn't contact me?"

"It's the truth. They told me you didn't want to be there."

"And you believed them? Just like that?" I'm seething now with so much anger and pain. "The night before, I vowed to love you forever, but instead, you believed my father whom you'd never met."

Piper's eyes fill with tears, and she wraps her arms around herself. "What was I supposed to think, Elio? We were eighteen. Your family had all the power, all the money. I was just some girl from the wrong side of the tracks who got knocked up by the heir to a Mafia empire."

I run a hand through my hair, frustration and hurt warring in my chest. "You knew me. You knew how much I loved you. How could you think I would ever agree to something like that?"

She's looking at me like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. "They… they never told you?"

"No. They never mentioned a word. One night, I was high on love, and the next day, you were MIA. I showed up at school on Monday and was told you'd moved. That was it."

"Your parents made it seem like?—"

"Every time you say that, it guts me, Piper, because it proves you didn't trust me… didn't believe in me."

She closes the distance between us, her hand coming up to cup my cheek, but this time, I'm the one who backs away.

"Elio, I'm so sorry. I… should have known better." A sob escapes her lips. "I… God…" She sinks onto the edge of bed. "Everything happened so fast. I…" She presses her hand to her temple. "I was scared and confused… and then all of a sudden, I'm on a plane to England."

I guess that explains how she met Gabriel. The idea that she gave herself and our daughter to that fucker over me cuts deep.

"You think I'm a fucking monster, so you married a man who abuses you?"

Her eyes jerk to me, and the pain and confusion I see there makes me feel like shit for being an asshole.

"I did love you, Elio. I was so scared, so alone. And when your parents showed up with that money, telling me you wanted nothing to do with me… I didn't know what to think."

I turn away, not wanting to be swayed by her words. At the same time, I have to concede that she was in a difficult position. My father was a powerful, feared man even to those not in our world. She was eighteen. Her parents didn't like me because of my Mafia connection. Neither she nor her parents could take on my parents and win. She was in an impossible situation.

I let out a sigh and sit on the bed next to her. "I'm sorry. I should have been there for you, should have fought harder to find you when you disappeared."

"I didn't know what else to do."

I brush my thumb across her cheek, wiping away her tears. "I understand. But I need you to know that I never would have abandoned you or our child. Not for anything in the world."

She nods, her eyes searching mine. "I'm sorry."

I take a deep breath, my mind still reeling from the revelation that I have a daughter. "Elysse is really mine?"

Piper's lips curve into a soft smile, and she nods. "Yes. She's yours. Ours."

Joy explodes in my chest, overcoming the pain and anger. "I can't believe it. I'm a father."

Piper leans into my touch. "I used to dream of a moment like this, of telling you and your being happy about it."

I brush my lips against hers in a soft, tender kiss. Everything is changing. Piper is mine. So is Elysse. There's nothing Gabriel can do about that. And if he thinks he's going to get his hands on either of them again, he's got another coming.

"I'm sorry," Piper says again as she pushes me back. "I'm so sorry, Elio… so sorry…"

"It's the past, baby. We're here now, together."

"I did love you. I Never stopped."

I arch a brow considering what she thought of me.

"I was angry and hurt, but… I never could stop loving the boy I knew in high school."

"What about now?"

She smiles, moving to straddle my thighs. "I feel like I have a lot to make up for."

My dick perks up at that, but I need to be sure she believes me. "Tell me you believe me."

"I believe you." She kisses me, hard, fervently, and so full of promise. There is a lot we need to discuss, decisions to be made. But right now, having her touch me is enough. I need her to soothe away the pain of what my parents did, of her failure to believe in me.

She moves off my thighs and onto the floor on her knees. She tugs my boxers off and my dick springs out, hard and proud.

"What are you doing?" I ask. It's not that I don't know what she's doing, but I want to hear from her lips what she plans to do to me.

"It's not obvious?" She strokes my dick, and delicious sensations race out.

"Tell me." I thread my fingers through her hair.

"I'm going to suck your dick." She arches a brow. "Are you okay with that?"

I feign thinking about it. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Maybe you should be sure."

My dick is aching. "Suck my cock, Piper."

She wraps her lips around my shaft, and the feeling is so fucking good. I feel it in every cell of my body. Her mouth is wet and hot, and I'm in heaven as she slides up and down, sucking, licking. Power gathers like a storm at the base, and it won't be long before I come.

"Baby…" I tug at her to stop. "Come up here." I lift her, setting her over my thighs. "Fuck me."

She wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me, and I swear I can feel it down to my toes. She rises up over my dick and then takes me in. Our groans of pleasure echo off the walls. I hold her to me, savoring this moment. For the first time in eight years, she's mine again. Finally.

She rocks, and I let go, let her take me to the place that only she's ever been able to take me. Sure, over the years, I fucked other women. But it was always like scratching an itch. With Piper, there's so much more. She rides me, harder, faster, until I hit the edge. My orgasm slams into me like a freight train. My dick pulses, pumping, pumping into her.

She cries out, her pussy squeezing, and stars blast behind my eyes as pleasure peaks again. We ride out the pleasure until I fall back on the bed, taking her with me. She kisses me, and at that moment, my world is perfection. I vow it will stay that way. I won't let anyone or anything take what's mine again.