Page 96 of Immaculate Corruption (Romanoff Bratva)

“Lukas,” I correct, eyes narrowed. “His name is Lukas.”

“My wife didn’t give birth to him,” Nick says, “but he is ours. We adopted him.”

Dima snorts. “From where? The black market. You can’t buy a baby.”

“We didn’t buy him! We found him.”

That gives me pause. Dima, too, apparently. He pulls back his chin slightly, brows furrowed. “Youfoundhim?”

“At our church,” Jody adds. “He was abandoned. Left there by someone. Our church is a safe haven for unwanted children.”

My jaw clenches. “He isn’t unwanted. I wanted him. Iwanthim.”

Jody looks to her husband. “Nick, do something!”

“Don’t talk to him!” I snap. “Talk to me. I’m his mother. You need to explain yourself.”

I feel unhinged and I’m sure I look it, too, but my son is mere feet away from me and I can’t touch him and it’s tearing me apart.

“This baby was a gift from God,” Jody says, tears brimming in her eyes. “We’ve been trying to start a family for years and we were running out of options. We had just broached the topic of adoption and then we got the call from our pastor that a baby had been left on the doorstep. A man walked up to the church, dropped off the car seat, and walked away.”

“That’smybaby he dropped off.”

Nick runs a hand through his thinning hair. “Have you called the police? How did you even find us?”

“The police can’t help us. We had to track him down ourselves.”

Jody lays a protective hand over Lukas’s head. “I can’t hand my son over to you just because you say so. We don’t know anything about you. You broke into our house. You seem like criminals.”

She isn’t too far off, though I doubt that would earn us any points.

“We aren’t here to ask,” Dima growls. He lifts his hand just high enough to remind them of the gun he’s holding.

Jody and Nick pull closer together. For the first time, Lukas turns to look at me. His neck is still wobbly, and Jody has to hold him steady with her hand. But my baby boy is looking at me and when he does, my heart cracks and melts and dribbles down my rib cage.

All of the emotions I’ve been holding onto funnel into the only emotion that truly matters: a mother’s love.

“Hi, baby boy,” I coo, wagging my fingers at him. “I love you.”

Jody turns him away from me, but that little look from Lukas is enough to ground me.

“Listen, I can tell you whatever you want to know,” I say, voice soft. “I can tell you about the birthmark he has on his thigh that’s shaped like a four-pointed star. I can tell you that he reaches for every mirror he sees. When he smiles, the right side of his mouth goes up first and then the left.”

“None of that means anything,” Nick snaps.

Dima steps forward—but before he can, Jody lays a hand on Nick’s arm. She shakes her head.

“You’re not listening to this, are you? It’s crazy!” Nick isn’t a big man, but the angrier he gets, the more space he seems to consume.

“He had a blanket that I haven’t seen since he was taken. A blue one with a yellow duck stitched in the corner. Did he have that when you found him?”

Jody gasps and then looks at her husband. “She knows things about him, Nick. How would she know that?”

“Anyone could have told her! Maybe whoever dropped him off told her! Maybe it’s a plan.”

“A plan for what?” she asks. “Why would someone go to these lengths to abandon a baby and then steal him back? It doesn’t make sense.”

Her logic seems to hit Nick hard. His shoulders sag, but his face is still contorted in anger. “He’s our son. Ours. We took him in and he’s ours. If we call the police, they’d side with us over these… these… thesehome invaders. He was abandoned.”

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