His Merciless Redemption novel Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Isabella’s POV

Mateo was finally asleep.

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His small hand still clutched the corner of his blanket, curls wild across the pillow, lips parted in a soft sigh. I brushed my fingers gently over his hair before slipping out of the room, leaving the door cracked just a sliver.

The apartment was dim, lit only by the warm glow of the kitchen light. I had just poured myself a glass of water when the intercom buzzed, sudden, sharp, unwelcome.

My stomach dropped.

Who could come to my apartment so late at night?

I pressed the button with a hand that wasn’t quite steady. “Yes?”

“It’s me.”

Dominic.

My breath hitched.

“What do you want?” I forced out. “It’s late.”

“If it wasn’t urgent,” he said, voice low, “I wouldn’t be here.”

Silence stretched between us. Heavy. I felt the weight of every unanswered question pressing down on me.

“Let me up,” he said.

“No.”

On the other end, a quiet exhale, not quite frustration, but determination.

“You’re not safe,” he said. “Neither is Mateo.”

My heart stumbled painfully.

He knew.

There was no doubt in my mind that he knew.

He had said Mateo’s name so casually, like he had the right, like he had always been saying it.

Anger surged within me.

“You don’t get to say his name,” I hissed.

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Chapter 15

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“I’m coming up,” he replied. “Or I’m standing here all night and trust me, more eyes than mine will notice.”

His voice held no threat. Just brutal, immovable reality.

I closed my eyes.

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Okay. I’ll let him come up, say what he wanted to, and then throw him out within minutes. It was better than having him loom over me and my son like an unwanted ghost.

I pressed the buzzer.

The lock clicked.

The knock that came minutes later was soft but unyielding.

I pulled open the door just enough to face him. Dominic stood there, no suit tonight, just dark clothes that seemed to blend with the shadows. But nothing could soften the intensity in his eyes.

Those eyes

used to own me.

But not anymore.

“You have two minutes,” I said coldly.

Dominic stepped inside without waiting for permission, scanning every inch of the apartment like danger seeped from the walls. He moved with purpose. Predatory or protective? I didn’t know anymore.

“There’s a Vitelli car tailing you,” he said. “For two days.”

I stared. Ice slid into my bloodstream.

“How do you know that?” My voice cracked. “And how-”

He looked right at me. “Because I’ve had surveillance on you since the moment I realized you were alive.”

Alive.

Like I was a ghost he’d buried.

“And on your son,” he added quietly.

Everything inside me froze. It was one thing hearing him mention my son over the intercom, but it was completely different hearing him say it in person.

“My… what?”

“Mateo,” he said the name softly this time, almost reverent. “He’s mine.”

For a moment, the world just stopped. The walls blurred. My heartbeat thundered in my ears.

“You really want to do this now?” I whispered, a laugh breaking out, bitter and sharp. “You want to claim rights

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Chapter 15

you threw away?”

Dominic’s jaw clenched. “Isabella-”

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“No,” I cut in. “Don’t. You think just because you show up here and say the word danger, we should run into your arms? You think I should thank you? Forgive you?”

His eyes darkened with something like pain.

“I didn’t know,” he said slowly. “If I had-”

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“But you did know, Dominic,” I spat. “I told you. And you called our baby a trap. You warned me not to push you. You made me think you’d rather see me gone than be a father.”

His chest rose and fell harder, his composure fracturing. “I was wrong.”

“That’s the understatement of the century.”

“I’m trying to make it right,” he argued, stepping closer. “Let me protect you. Let me protect him.”

“Protect us?” I laughed again, but this time it shook. “You are the danger, Dominic. Every second you’re here, you bring your world to my door.”

His voice lowered to a raw whisper. “I would burn that world down before I let it touch you again.”

The words cut deep, too deep. Because I wanted to believe them. I hated that I wanted to believe them.

But before I could speak again—

“Mommy?”

The small voice behind me made my heart stop.

I spun around.

Mateo stood in his dinosaur pajamas, rubbing his sleepy eyes with a tiny fist. “Why are you yelling?”

I swallowed hard, panic and love tangling in my throat.

“It’s okay, baby,” I said softly. “Just go back to bed.”

But Mateo’s gaze had already drifted past me to the man standing in our living room.

When Dominic saw him, something in him seemed to shatter.

His knees simply gave out.

He dropped down slowly, as if gravity had claimed him, until he was kneeling in front of our son. His eyes widened, not with shock, but with awe. Raw, unfiltered awe.

Mateo blinked at him, curious and unafraid.

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Chapter 15

“Hi,” he said.

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Dominic’s breath faltered, like that tiny word had knocked the wind out of him. His voice, when it came, was low and filled with something I’d never heard from him.

“Hello,” he whispered. “Mateo.”

Hearing his name spoken like that, like a prayer, nearly broke me.

Dominic’s eyes glistened. He didn’t reach out. He didn’t move. He just looked at Mateo, drinking him in, memorizing every detail as if terrified it might vanish.

He opened his mouth again, but no sound came.

Mateo looked up at me. “Who is that?”

My throat nearly closed up. The question I had feared for years was right in front me.

I stepped in quickly, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Just someone Mommy used to know once. Go back to bed, sweetheart. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Mateo studied us both, too perceptive for his age, then nodded and padded away quietly, clutching his

blanket.

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Dominic stayed kneeling even after Mateo disappeared around the corner, his hands trembling. He didn’t look at me right away.

When he finally did, his voice was hoarse.

“He looks like you,” he said. Then, softer, “He looks like me.”

Emotion thickened his features, pride, wonder, grief, love, all tangled into something dangerously close to beautiful.

I forced steel back into my voice. “You need to go.”

Dominic rose to his feet slowly, eyes still burning with what that moment had done to him.

“I’m not walking away from him,” he said. “Or you.”

“You don’t have a choice,” I replied, though my voice betrayed me, trembling, wounded, and uncertain.

He stepped closer. “I’ll be here tomorrow. You’ll give me your answer then.”

I stared at him, heart pounding, a war waging inside me.

Then I closed the door.

Right in his face.

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