When Leila looked at Roman, she knew he was thinking about the past.

He stood tall in the middle of the bakery, same storm-gray eyes, same impossible presence but distant, colder now. As if the years had sanded down every soft part of him.

About cinnamon mornings and flour-dusted kisses.

About the night everything crumbled.

“Well?” he said, voice sharp enough to cut through rising dough. “I don’t like my time being wasted.”

The words punched the air out of her lungs.

She glanced to the side. Eli was still perched at the corner booth, building a crooked tower out of sugar cubes.

“Eli,” she said, swallowing her nerves. “Go help Aunt Carmen in the kitchen, okay?”

He looked up, frowning. “But I’m not done—”

“Please, sweetheart.”

He studied her for a beat, he was perceptive, too perceptive for a five-year-old then slid off the seat and padded toward the swinging door.

When the door flapped shut behind him, Leila turned to Roman again, pulse thudding hard in her throat.

“I... I know this isn’t how you wanted to find out.”

He arched an eyebrow. “About what? That you’ve been lying for five years, or that there’s a child with my eyes living in your house?”

Before she could reply, Talia’s voice cut through the tension like a blade.

“She’s been sleeping with both you and Nathan.”

Leila’s stomach dropped.

Roman’s expression didn’t change, but something behind his eyes shifted.

“Talia,” Leila hissed.

“What?” Talia said, planting herself on a nearby stool with smug satisfaction. “I’m just speeding things along. Your dramatic stammering was taking forever.”

Roman turned to Talia, voice like ice. “Explain.”

“Oh, gladly.” She folded her arms. “Back in the day, Leila had two shadows, one in a suit, one with a guitar. You” she nodded at Roman “were the suit. Nathan was the best friend with the underdog charm. She loved you both. But Grandma didn’t approve of Nathan. Thought he wasn't good enough. So he left for law school to make something of himself, and she... she picked you. For a while.”

“That’s not how it was,” Leila said, voice shaking.

“But you were seeing both,” Roman said, low and deadly.

Talia smiled like she’d won. “And now she’s back with Nathan. Sweet little reunion. I heard wedding bells might be in the works.”

Roman’s jaw clenched.

“And the boy?” he asked.

“Oh, Eli?” Talia shrugged. “They’re raising him together. So... draw your own conclusions.”

Silence stretched like a chasm.

Leila could feel her whole body trembling. “Roman, don’t listen to her—”

“Is he mine?” Roman asked, eyes locked on hers.

“I—”

The tension snapped with the shrill ring of his phone.

He glanced at it, jaw ticking.

“Hello.” A pause. “What? Okay. I’m coming.”

He hung up, eyes still fixed on her. “I’ll be back. And when I return, you better have something more than half-truths and stammering, Leila.”

“Roman, it’s not—”

He held up a hand, silencing her, then cast one long, unreadable glance toward the back door Eli had gone through.

Then he left.

The door slammed shut behind him, but the echo of him remained, heavy and unforgiving.

Leila slammed the pantry door shut so hard the shelves rattled. A bag of flour teetered on the edge and fell to the floor in a plume of dust, but she didn’t care. Her hands were shaking. Her heart, hammering. Her sister, her own sister, had just set fire to everything she was barely holding together.

Talia stood at the sink like she'd done nothing more than misplace a spoon, twisting the cap back on a bottle of water. Her movements were infuriatingly calm.

“You lied,” Leila hissed, her voice sharp enough to cut. “You told him Eli wasn’t his. You told him I was sleeping with both of them? What the hell, Talia?”

Talia looked at her, blinking like she wasn’t sure what the big deal was. “It was the only way.”

“The only way to what?” Leila stepped closer. “Humiliate me? Wreck any chance I had of explaining the truth?”

“No,” Talia snapped, her voice finally rising. “The only way to protect you. To protect Eli.”

Leila’s breath caught. “From what? From Roman?”

Talia leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. “Yes. From Roman Vance and whatever storm he’s about to bring down on this place. On you. On that little boy.”

The door creaked open, and Nathan stepped in, closing it quietly behind him. He glanced between them, tense. “He left?”

“He’ll be back,” Leila muttered. “As soon as he’s done putting out whatever fire pulled him away.”

“And when he comes,” Talia said, turning toward Nathan, “he’s going to come angry. Suspicious. Dangerous.”

Nathan folded his arms, jaw tight. “I agree with her.”

Leila turned to him, wide-eyed. “You what?”

“I don’t want to, Leila. God, I hate this. But Talia’s right. The second Roman saw Eli, he knew something didn’t add up. He looked at him like he was staring into his own damn mirror. If you had said he was his son right there and then, what do you think would’ve happened?”

“I don’t know,” Leila choked. “But lying to him, twisting things,Talia made it sound like I was cheating on him. Like Eli was some messy result of my indecision!”

Talia held up her hands. “I had to distract him. He was about to explode. He’s not the same man who used to bring you flowers and sneak into the back kitchen just to watch you ice cupcakes. That man is gone. This one? He’s colder. Sharper. And he’s rich enough to ruin lives with one signature.”

Leila turned away from both of them, gripping the edge of the counter until her knuckles turned white.

“So what’s the story now?” she asked quietly. “We just let him believe I was juggling you two? That Eli’s Nathan’s kid?”

Nathan hesitated. “It doesn’t have to be forever. Just… until he cools down. Until you can decide what you want to do.”

“I want to tell the truth,” she snapped. “That I turned Roman down because you, Talia, were in love with him. That Nathan is only my best friend, and I chose to let him go so I wouldn’t destroy our family. That I found out I was pregnant alone, and I raised my son without help or interference because I was terrified of this exact moment.”

Talia’s eyes softened, just for a second. “But the truth doesn’t protect you, Lei. The truth makes you vulnerable. And I know Roman, if you tell him now, while he’s still bitter and wounded, he might try to take Eli from you. Legally. Financially. Out of spite.”

Leila looked at Nathan. “You really think he’d do that?”

Nathan hesitated. “If he thinks you lied to him all these years? Yeah. He might.”

She sank into the stool by the prep counter, her legs suddenly weak.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked numbly. “What lie buys us time?”

Talia exhaled. “You and Nathan were childhood sweethearts. You broke things off with Roman because Grandma never approved of him. You and Nathan reconnected shortly after he left. Got pregnant unexpectedly. Raised Eli quietly together.”

“That’s… that’s insane,” Leila muttered.

“But it sounds plausible,” Nathan added. “Especially to a man already convinced you betrayed him. He won’t like it, but it’ll make him back off. At least for now.”

“And when Eli starts asking questions?” Leila asked, looking up at them, her eyes glassy.

“We’ll deal with it later,” Talia said. “Right now, you need to survive the storm knocking on your front door.”

Leila leaned back against the wall, staring up at the ceiling like it held answers.

A lie, to protect the truth.

A secret, to protect a child.

And a heart already cracked too many times to count.

She closed her eyes.

Roman was coming back.

And this time, she had to be ready