Page 38 of Mafia Don's Secret Baby

Mundane.

Mundane was the one thing I’d been striving for, and Callum deserved that. I deserved that. Matteo crouched beside Callum as he reached for a table full of shirts, and I paused as I watched them interact. Matteo held Callum’s wrist gently, guiding him away from destroying all the folded shirts. Whatever he said had Callum smiling and nodding profusely. Callum said something back, and Matteo tipped his head back, laughing genuinely.

I moved forward, taking in every facet of the scene before me. With both of them smiling, the resemblance was uncanny.

Fortunately, Matteo didn’t look at him any differently, or with any realization on his face.

“What are you two doing over here?” I asked, crouching beside them both.

“Shirts,” Callum said.

“We made a deal, isn’t that right?” Callum looked at Matteo as if he had two heads. “You ask before picking up shirts, and we’ll get them for you. We don’t mess up the table.”

Callum giggled and flung himself at Matteo.

Matteo took a small step backward when the weight of Callum landed in his arms, but he accepted the hug nonetheless.

Matteo’s eyes moved to the rack behind Callum, and he reached for it, grabbing a bright green shirt with a large T-rex roaring on the front.

Matteo presented it to Callum with a smile. “Do you like it, buddy?”

The look in our son’s eyes melted my heart. He took the shirt and held it to his chest, shouting, “Mine!”

“Callum seems to like you,” I whispered with a shaky voice, not sure if I wanted him to hear the words.

“He has good taste,” Matteo teased.

“’Teo, daddy.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I lost the ability to breathe as the words came from Callum’s lips. He had no idea that Matteo was his biological father. At two years old, Callum only really understood what it meant to have friends. He knew I was his mother, and he’d never once asked about a father.

“What?” Matteo asked, his mouth falling agape.

“Daddy,” he repeated, pressing a hand to Matteo’s chest.

Matteo smiled sadly. “You have a daddy, little guy, and I’m not him.”

Matteo had no idea, and guilt overwhelmed all of my senses as he looked toward me. I saw his silent plea for backup, but I couldn’t find the words to help him.

“He’s never met his dad,” I told Matteo. The lump in my throat nearly silenced me. “He doesn’t know him.”

But he did know him. He knew and loved him. I was depriving Callum of a relationship that had the potential to be so damn good. I knew it. I had no doubt Matteo would be phenomenal as a father.

But it was too late to tell the truth.

It would do nothing but harm our relationship. The lie would kill Matteo. Matteo already treated Callum like his child, and he didn’t even know the truth. Would it make a difference if he did know the truth? Matteo’s relationship with Callum could be incredible, even if he didn’t know it.

“Hey,” Matteo spoke beside me, resting a hand on my shoulder. Shit, he’d stood up, and I hadn’t even realized it. Why the hell was I nervous? I’d made this decision, and it had been a good decision at the time. It had kept Callum safe for two years. That was the reason I’d made the difficult choice, even if I knew it had caused me a lot of pain.

“Sorry,” I forced myself to say.

“Lili, take a deep breath. I know his father isn’t in the picture, but that doesn’t make you a bad mother. I’m not judging you for that choice.”

You would be judging me if you knew the whole truth.

“I know.”

“A deep breath,” he demanded more fervently this time. I did as he asked, but with him so close, I couldn’t fully breathe. Not with the weight of the truth on my chest.

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