Chapter 2 After the Wreckage

Chapter Two: After the Wreckage

The rain hadn't let up.

Alessia stood just outside the church, her hands trembling as she lit a cigarette she hadn't touched in years. Her coat was soaked, her heels ruined, and the adrenaline that had carried her through the explosion inside was now draining fast.

She heard the door creak open behind her.

"I didn't think you'd really do it."

She didn't turn. "I didn't think you'd really marry someone else."

Ethan stepped beside her, not touching, but too close all the same. He looked good-too good. Black tux, tie undone, like he'd just walked off a magazine cover instead of leaving a trail of destruction behind him.

"You humiliated me," he said.

She let out a bitter laugh. "You abandoned me. I think we're even."

His jaw flexed. "You didn't have to come to the church."

"Oh, forgive me. Would you have preferred a private message? Maybe an email?" She turned to him then, her eyes sharp with fury. "You don't get to be mad. I raised our son alone. I cried over your silence. And I swallowed my pride for five damn years."

"I didn't know," he said quickly. "About the baby. You didn't tell me."

"Because you disappeared!" she shouted, her voice cracking. "One day you were there, promising me forever. The next day, gone. New number. New job. New city. And now this?" Her voice dropped. "You moved on. While I stayed frozen."

Ethan didn't speak. The weight of what he'd done, or hadn't done, hung heavy in the space between them.

"What's his name?" he asked softly.

Her heart twisted.

"Luca," she whispered. "His name is Luca."

He closed his eyes. For a moment, she saw it-the guilt. The man he used to be, buried somewhere beneath the lies and the tuxedo.

"I want to meet him."

She stepped back. "You don't get to want anything, Ethan. Not now."

"I'm his father."

She laughed - short, sharp, hollow. "You're a stranger. And you made me one, too."

He reached for her arm, but she jerked away.

"You don't get to touch me," she snapped. "You don't get to fix this with a sad look and a broken engagement."

"Then tell me what to do," he pleaded. "I can't undo the past, but I want to be there now."

Tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them back. "You think you deserve redemption? You haven't earned forgiveness."

"I'll earn it."

"You can't."

A long silence passed. The wind picked up, cold and cruel.

"I'll find a way," he said quietly. "Even if it takes the rest of my life."

She looked at him-really looked-and saw the man who once held her heart, now standing in the wreckage of his own choices.

"I didn't come to get you back," she said, voice shaking. "I came so I could finally let go."

Then she turned and walked away, the rain swallowing her figure-one step at a time.

But Ethan Carter wasn't done.

And neither was fate.