The Don Prayed for Me, Then Betrayed Me Chapter 08

Paternity excluded.

Lorenzo’s hand jolted violently. The DNA report slipped from his fingers and fluttered to the floor.

Mara lunged forward to snatch it back, only to be blocked by his security team.

Lorenzo slowly lifted his head to meet her eyes, his expression terrifyingly empty. “Mara. You lied to me for five years.”

Word of the abandoned mountain wedding and Mara’s deception spread rapidly through every old-money circle on the East Coast.

For the first time ever, the Vitale family’s consigliere openly questioned Lorenzo’s judgment during a formal council meeting.

Mara completely unraveled into hysterics. “I never meant to deceive you! I was just so deeply in love with you. If I hadn’t claimed the boy was yours, you never would’ve stayed with me. Elena had everything already—your love, the universally recognized title of Vitale Donna across the entire coast. That child was the only thing I had to hold onto.”

Lorenzo let out a raw, burning laugh, his eyes flooding with tears. “She had everything? Mara, she has nothing left now. Not even the baby we were supposed to raise together.”

With those words, every ounce of strength drained out of him. He crumpled back down onto the sofa, utterly defeated.

Halfway across the world, snow was falling over Helsinki when my plane touched down.

I’d chosen this city deliberately; the Vitale family’s shipping routes and old-money connections barely reached this corner of Europe.

I dragged my suitcase out of the airport terminal.

Bitter cold wind cut across my cheeks, and I instinctively pulled my scarf tighter around my neck.

This city was quiet—blessedly quiet.

No echoes of Lorenzo’s voice, no frantic messages from Mara, none of the suffocating web of lies that had choked me back in New York.

Lorenzo tracked me down three months later.

He’d exhausted every last Vitale contact scattered across Europe, until he traced payment records from a flower import supplier to this tiny corner café.

By then, Helsinki’s snow had melted away entirely.

I stood behind the counter sorting fresh flower shipments when the shop’s wind chime jingled at the front door.

I glanced up, and there he stood.

He’d wasted away drastically. His custom black suits, always crisp and perfectly pressed, were crumpled and unkempt. Deep purple shadows hung under his eyes; he looked hollow, as though his soul had been ripped out of his body.

Staring at him, I felt none of the crushing heartache I’d anticipated—only a strange, distant fog.

The man who’d once filled every inch of my heart had turned into a complete stranger overnight.

Lorenzo crossed the small shop step by step until he stood directly in front of me, his voice barely audible from how raw and broken it was.

“Elena.”

I dropped my gaze back to trimming flower stems. “Mr. Vitale. What can I do for you?”

That cold, formal address drained all remaining color from his face.

He stared at me, his eyes slowly glistening with fresh tears. “I know everything now. Mara lied to me. The boy isn’t mine. I’ve seen all the photos and cruel messages she sent to torment you.”

My trimming motions faltered for a split second, then I offered a faint, detached smile. “So what?”

Those two words struck him like a physical blow, stiffening every muscle in his frame.

“So I was wrong. Elena, I’ve never been more wrong about anything in my life.”

He dropped to his knees right there on the café floor. Every patron inside turned to stare, but Lorenzo paid them no mind whatsoever.

He knelt before me, craning his neck upward to meet my eyes.

“I never should’ve lied to you. I never should’ve turned those sacred mountain pilgrimages into excuses to be with her and that child. I never should’ve worn that red prayer bracelet you wove for me by hand to see her. Worst of all—when you clung to my wrist and begged me to stay home that night, I still walked out the door.”

His voice trembled uncontrollably as he spoke. “And I will never forgive myself for leaving you alone to go through that hospital procedure by yourself. Elena, our baby…”

His throat locked up completely, and hot tears spilled down his cheeks.

“I’m the one who lost him.”