Chapter 2 A Son He Never Knew

For a heartbeat, Audrey couldn't breathe.

The lights, the music, the laughter around them all of it faded into a blur. It was just Vincent's voice. Low. Unshakable. Piercing through the walls she'd built for years.

"Is he mine?"

Ethan shifted uneasily beside her, clutching the hem of her dress. Her pulse thundered so loudly she was sure everyone could hear it. She could feel his eyes on her not just looking, but searching, trying to dig through the years of distance, lies, and silence.

"Vincent..." she whispered, trying to steady her voice. "Not here."

But he didn't move. His eyes stayed locked on hers, hard and searching. He had always been intense but this was different. This was a storm she couldn't talk her way around.

"Answer me," he said quietly, but the weight behind his voice made her legs shake.

Laughter echoed somewhere across the room, glasses clinking, oblivious to the world cracking open in one corner of the ballroom. Audrey took a breath that burned her chest, the kind that reminded her she was still alive, still fighting, still hiding from a truth that had waited too long to be spoken.

"Ethan," she murmured, kneeling to his level. "Can you go sit with Aunty Zara for a minute?"

He tilted his head, confused. "Why?"

"Please, sweetheart. Just for a little while."

Zara's eyes widened, but when she saw Audrey's face, she didn't ask. She took Ethan's tiny hand with a soft smile and guided him into the crowd. The moment he disappeared, Audrey felt a tiny release, though fear still coiled in her chest.

Vincent stepped closer. The faint scent of his cologne wrapped around her like a trap she had once loved and still did, whether she wanted to admit it or not. The years had sharpened him, but that essence, that magnetic pull, had survived everything.

"Five years," he said, voice rougher now. "Five years, Audrey. And you show up here with a child who looks exactly like me."

Her chest tightened, memories clawing at her nights of laughter, whispers, a love that had promised forever. "Vincent, please" she began, but he cut her off, jaw clenched.

"No. You owe me the truth"

The man she had once trusted, the boy who had loved her so fiercely, was gone. In his place stood a man carved out of control, quiet fury, and years of unanswered questions.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Audrey whispered, her voice breaking slightly.

"Then tell me how it was supposed to be," he shot back. "Because from where I'm standing, you disappeared. You left without a word. And now... now I find out you've been hiding my son?"

She flinched at the way he said "my."

"I didn't hide him to hurt you," she said softly. "I did it to protect him."

Vincent's eyes narrowed, the storm behind them barely contained. "Protect him from what? Me?"

Audrey bit down on her lower lip, the old ache rising like a tide. "From everything. From the mess. From that night. From the man I thought I knew."

His expression faltered just for a second but she saw it. Pain. Regret.

"Why, Audrey?" he whispered. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I couldn't trust you," she shot back before she could stop herself. Her voice shook, but the words poured out like they'd been waiting for years. "That night broke everything. I thought you betrayed me. I thought I didn't matter to you anymore. How was I supposed to raise a child in the middle of that?"

Silence. Heavy and sharp, like the pause before a storm.

Vincent stepped even closer, his gaze piercing her soul. His body was taut, every movement precise, yet there was a tremor in his fingers as if the truth she held could shatter him entirely.

"He's mine," he said finally not a question, but a statement. "I can see it. The eyes. The mouth. Audrey... you can't deny this."

Tears burned at the back of her throat. "No," she whispered. "I can't."

The world around them continued laughter, music, glasses clinking but it all felt distant, irrelevant. Nothing mattered except the truth hanging between them like a live wire.

Vincent exhaled slowly, almost like he'd been holding his breath for years. "Four years old?"

She nodded.

"His name?"

"Ethan." Her voice softened. "Ethan Cole."

His head jerked slightly at the sound of his last name. A muscle twitched in his jaw, but he didn't speak.

"Why did I have to find out like this?" he asked, voice low and aching.

"Because I didn't know how to face you," she whispered. "I didn't know how to face the man who broke me."

He looked away, jaw tight. "I didn't break you, Audrey. Someone made sure you believed I did."

Her breath caught. Something in his tone wasn't anger anymore. It was darker. Sharper.

"What do you mean?" she asked carefully.

Vincent's eyes met hers again, blazing with something she couldn't quite name. "You think you know what happened five years ago," he said softly. "But you don't."

He stepped back slightly, letting the gravity of his presence fill the space. His voice dropped to a dangerous, steady level.

"You kept my son from me. Fine. But now, Audrey... I'm not letting you walk away again."

Her breath hitched. And for the first time in years, it wasn't just fear she felt it was the terrifying pull of everything she'd tried to escape. The pull of a love she had never stopped feeling, tangled with rage, longing, and the weight of years lost.

For a heartbeat, the ballroom ceased to exist. There was only Vincent. Only Ethan. Only the raw, unvarnished truth that had waited far too long to surface.