The Five Years He Missed Chapter 12

The Five Years He Missed Chapter 12

## Dominic’s POV

I stared deathly at that ice-cold headstone, Luca’s name carved into its face.

“Impossible…” My voice was so hoarse it barely sounded human, my lips trembling uncontrollably. “Elena—don’t scare me like this. Let Luca come out and see me, please. I was wrong—everything before, I was wrong…”

I seized her arm in one desperate grip, the force of it beyond my own perception, as if clutching the last straw that could save me. “I’ll do anything—any compensation you want—just please, don’t play this kind of joke!”

Elena acted as though she hadn’t heard me. Her eyes were so unbearably gentle as she softly stroked that freezing stone. “Luca, your daddy came to see you.” Her voice was quiet, and the corner of her mouth even carried a trace of a smile. “He said he contacted another donor back then. See—your daddy didn’t give up on you.”

My eyes turned bloodshot. The last thread of my sanity snapped completely. I seized her shoulders and shook her violently. “Yes! I clearly found someone back then! Then why did Luca die? Why—!”

I knew better than anyone how much Elena cared for that child. Saying she lied to me that Luca was dead, that she didn’t want me seeing my own flesh and blood—that was possible. But for a headstone? Carry the act to this extent? Elena would never do such a thing. Even as I fought against accepting it, despair still drowned me like a tide. Luca… was truly gone.

But why? How could this have happened?!

Elena turned her head and looked at me. She smiled—a smile made entirely of shattered ice. “That’s a question for you, Mr. Gambino.”

Why hadn’t the donor I arranged shown up? Why had I known nothing of Luca’s death for five whole years? Even an idiot could figure out who had interfered.

I figured it out, too. My grip loosened, and I stumbled backward two paces. “Brianna? No… how could…” The words had barely left my mouth before they choked in my throat. How could it not be? Brianna could fake compromising photos, could tamper with a DNA report—what was there she couldn’t do? What bottom line was there she wouldn’t cross?

“She alone couldn’t have kept it from me,” I argued stubbornly, but my face grew paler and paler. Elena only watched me in silence. I knew—Brianna alone could never have covered every trace so flawlessly. Mother… Mother must have been involved as well.

The moment that thought surfaced, the blood in my veins turned to ice. Panic shot up my spine, and I nearly roared it out. “Mother would never have helped her! Mother—she loved Luca!”

Elena’s voice drifted down, weightless, yet like a dull blade sawing at my throat. “All she wanted was an heir.” One sentence, and what little hope I had left was cut clean away.

Yes. Back then, Elena was pregnant with my child again. Luca… to Mother, he was already useless. I knew my mother too well. The last shred of denial vanished into nothing.

I shook my head. The world swayed and blurred before my eyes; nothing but a ringing remained in my ears. My shoulders trembled uncontrollably. An icy chill seeped out from the cracks between my bones, so cold my teeth chattered.

My mother, and the little mistress I had spoiled and indulged the most — together, they had murdered my son. And I was the accomplice who, with my own hands, had pushed him into the abyss. How was I supposed to accept this?!

Elena looked at me in my wretched, broken state. In her eyes there was no satisfaction—only a sorrow so deep it was bottomless.

“Mr. Gambino, go back and investigate thoroughly.” She turned away, the hem of her skirt brushing through the weeds. “Once you’ve uncovered everything—remember to avenge Luca.”

She walked away decisively, without looking back. Naturally, she didn’t see me crouch down, cover my face, and let scalding tears spill through my fingers and sink into the dirt.