Chapter 88

ELENA

Aiden was awake.

I should have felt nothing but joy, and I did. I did.

His eyelashes fluttered like bird wings before they opened, and his little fingers twitched around mine like he was afraid I might disappear. But with the joy came something else—an ache. Because some of the first words out of his mouth were, “Did Derek save us?”

He remembered the rogue. The blood. The fear. But more than anything, he remembered Derek.

That’s why, after I’d sat with him through breakfast and tucked him back in to rest, I found myself pacing in the kitchen, staring at my phone.

Derek deserved to know. More than that—Aiden deserved to see him.

It didn’t matter what history existed between Derek and me, or how messy our dynamic had gotten. Aiden had bonded with him before he even knew what that bond meant.

I pressed call before I could overthink it.

The phone rang twice.

“Hello?” Cassandra’s voice was an unexpected slap. Light, chipper, like she belonged.

“Cassandra?” I frowned. “Is Derek there?”

“He’s in the shower,” she replied smoothly. “This is Elena?”

I hesitated. “Yes. Can you please tell him… Aiden woke up this morning. If he wants to see him, he can come.”

There was a beat too long before she responded. “Of course. I’ll be sure to give him the message.”

I hung up without saying goodbye.

I told myself he’d call back within the hour. When he didn’t, I told myself he’d stop by by nightfall.

By the next morning, when I hadn’t heard a single word, I was less patient.

This time, when I called, he picked up on the second ring.

“Elena?” His voice was rough with sleep, but alert. “Is everything okay?”

I bristled. “I called yesterday. Aiden’s awake. He’s been asking for you.”

Silence on the other end, then a low, angry curse.

I sighed. “Are you coming or not?”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

True to his word, Derek arrived exactly fifty-three minutes later. I heard the roar of the engine from the driveway and knew—before I even saw him—that he hadn’t come empty-handed.

The door swung open with a gust of warm air. Derek stepped inside with a giant white teddy bear in one arm, a bouquet of metallic blue balloons tied to the other, and a bag slung over his shoulder so full it looked like it might burst.

Behind him, one of his enforcers wheeled in a brand-new dirt bike.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered under my breath.

Aiden’s eyes lit up like fireworks. “Mom! Look!”

Derek dropped to one knee beside the bed, setting the gifts down one by one with the reverence of a showman. “Hey, bud,” he said, voice gentler now. “I heard you were awake. Thought I’d bring a few things to celebrate.”

Aiden gasped as he spotted the dirt bike. “Is that for me?”

Derek grinned. “It’s yours when you’re feeling better.”

My son’s joy was genuine, infectious—but already I saw the flicker behind his eyes. That tiny edge of disappointment creeping in as he remembered the IV in his arm and the machines he was still hooked to.

“But I can’t ride it yet,” he mumbled. “I can’t even get out of bed.”

His voice cracked on the last word, and I felt my heart seize.

I reached for his hand. “Sweetheart, you will soon. But it’s okay to rest for now.”

“I don’t want to rest,” he muttered. “I want to ride.”

Before Derek could respond, I motioned to him. “A word. Now.”

He blinked, surprised, then followed me out into the hallway, leaving the dirt bike and the balloons behind.

The second the door clicked shut, I turned on him.

“What the hell was that?”

“What?” he asked, genuinely baffled. “He’s a kid. I thought he’d like the stuff.”

“That’s not the point.” My voice was low, sharp. “You think you can just walk in with gifts and toys and buy your way into his heart?”

Derek flinched.

“He’s not a prize you win. He’s a child. A sick, hurting child who just wants someone to hold his hand when the pain comes back. Someone who tells him he’s brave even when he’s scared out of his mind. That’s what parenting is.”

“I didn’t—”

“You should have been here yesterday,” I snapped, the words rushing out before I could stop them. “You should have been here when I called to tell you he was awake.”

His expression shifted from defensive to resigned. “I didn’t get a call.”

“I left a message with Cassandra.”

His eyes darkened. “She didn’t tell me.”

“No kidding.”

We stood in silence for a moment. A fluorescent light above us buzzed faintly, the world around us humming with tension.

“If you want to be part of Aiden’s life,” I said finally, softer now, “then you have to show up. Not just with presents. With presence. With love. With support. You have to earn his trust. His love. Not buy it.”

He didn’t argue, he just nodded slowly, like each word I’d spoken had cut through to something deeper than pride.

DEREK

I leaned back against the wall in the Moonstone hallway, every breath tight in my chest. The excitement of seeing Aiden awake and alert dimmed under the weight of what Elena had just said.

She wasn’t wrong.

Not about any of it.

I had come here thinking I could fix things with gifts—thinking that showing up now, with the biggest, flashiest tokens of affection, would be enough to make up for everything I’d missed.

It had worked before, with allies, with business deals, even with Cassandra. But this wasn’t a negotiation. This was my son.

Cassandra, I thought again.

I ran a hand through my hair, cursing under my breath. Of course she hadn’t told me Elena had called. Cassandra must have known exactly what that message meant—and what it would mean for us. She hadn’t said a word.

I clenched my jaw.

Elena didn’t need to know everything about the situation with Cassandra right now. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I understood what the hell was going on.

When she dropped the bomb about being pregnant—something I hadn’t even had time to process—it was all I could think about.

But right now, all that mattered was that I’d missed something I shouldn’t have missed.

“I should’ve been here,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

Elena didn’t nod, didn’t smile. She just looked away.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I admitted, the words scraping out of my throat. “... I don’t know how to be someone’s dad.”

Elena looked back at me, softer now, but still guarded. “You learn. You show up. And you try. You don’t disappear when it’s hard. And you don’t make promises you don’t plan to keep.”

“I want to try,” I said, voice firming. “I want to be here—for him. For you, if you’ll let me. But even if you don’t… I won’t walk away from him.”

She studied me like she was trying to see through every layer I had. “You’ll have your chance.”

I nodded. “Just tell me what to do.”

“You can start,” she said, stepping slightly closer, “by doing something harder than buying a bike or a video game.”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

She hesitated. “Aiden doesn’t know you’re his father.”

For a moment, I thought I’d misheard her.

“What?”

“He doesn’t know,” she repeated. “He thinks his father is… someone who died. I told him that when he was little. When I didn’t know if I’d ever see you again. When I didn’t know if I could trust you.”

It felt like the floor shifted beneath me. My knees went a little weak, and I had to press a hand against the wall to steady myself.

I had a son who didn’t even know I existed. A little boy who had spent six years thinking his father was gone.

I thought about the way Aiden had looked at me just now. So bright, so eager. Full of excitement. There had been something familiar in his eyes—something I’d felt without fully understanding.

And now I knew why.

“I want to tell him,” I said. “But I don’t want to confuse him. Or scare him.”

“He deserves the truth,” Elena said. “Even if it’s hard. Even if he doesn’t understand it all today, he needs to hear it from us.”

A beat of silence passed between us. I could feel it all closing in—my failure, my fear, the reality that I wasn’t just going to be a father to Aiden, but maybe to another child soon, too.

The pressure nearly crushed me. I didn’t know how to do this with one child, let alone two. Especially when one might be with a woman who had just deliberately sabotaged a message that could’ve changed everything.

I would deal with Cassandra later.

Right now, I had to be here.

Be present.

“Okay,” I said, the word trembling a little. “Let’s do it. Let’s tell him.”

Elena’s eyes widened a little, surprised maybe that I’d agreed so quickly. Or maybe surprised that I meant it.

She nodded. “All right. Then let’s do it now. Together.”

I took a breath and followed her down the hallway, back toward the little boy waiting in that hospital bed. My son.

No more gifts. No more distractions.

Just truth.

And maybe, just maybe, a chance to earn his love—for real this time.