Chapter 168: Too Late to Fix Us.

Leonardo’s POV
The look on Aurora’s face showed me everything: shock, disbelief, and disappointment.
It hit me like a punch to the chest.
“Lena… pregnant for you?” She repeated, her voice low, almost like she couldn’t believe the words had actually come out of my mouth.
I nodded slowly, unable to meet her eyes.
“It happened before everything… before the kidnapping, before I realized how far I’d fallen.
I didn’t even know until recently. She told me right before Uncle Raymond’s plan came crashing down.”
Aurora leaned back in her seat, her expression unreadable now. That scared me more than if she had screamed.
“I don’t even know what kind of father I’d be,” I continued quietly.
“I never wanted this with her. It was a mistake.
But the child… the child is innocent.”
She didn’t respond, and the silence that followed was deafening.
I looked at her again, really looked at her, and realized what I had lost, what I had broken beyond repair.
“I’m not telling you this to get sympathy, Aurora. You deserve the truth.
All of it.”
She still didn’t say anything and just looked away from me.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” I blurted out, needing her to understand.

“It was a time when my head wasn’t right. I wasn’t out to replace you, I—”

“Leonardo,” she cut in, her voice stronger now.

“Stop, please.”

That stung. But I earned it.

I ran my fingers through my hair, mad not at her but at me.

“She told me two days back,” I went on.

“And I’ve been lost on what to do next. She’s going to keep it. And I know I need to step up.

I can’t be like my dad, cold and far. Always in charge.”

Aurora stayed silent. She just gave me that look, and I wished I could know her thoughts like before.

But our link, whatever bond we had, seemed gone.

“I’m sorry, Aurora. For all of it. For the lies, the cheat, and for picking duty over us.

For not keeping you safe. For not trusting you. For hurting you over and over till you gave up on me.”

She looked away then, and that hit me even harder than her words.

“I know I shouldn’t ask for anything,” I said, my voice softer, more open.

“But… could you maybe find it in you to forgive me?”

She didn’t reply. She didn’t need to.

The look in her eyes said it all: shock, disappointment… the kind of heartbreak that cuts deeper when it’s no longer fresh, just quietly lingering.

I knew the answer before I even said it.
But I wasn’t done. Not yet.
“Aurora…” I said, my voice lower than before, strained.
“I thought I was protecting you. I thought by pushing you away, I was keeping you safe.
But I was wrong. And because of my stupid mistakes… I lost you.”
She let out a breath, slow and weary, before finally speaking.

“Leonardo… Honestly, I’m shocked. And disappointed.”
She paused, the weight of her words heavy.
“I really thought you loved me back then. I thought you were fighting for us… being faithful to me.”

Her eyes dropped to the table, and she shook her head softly.

“But it turns out you weren’t. You were lying, and I was holding onto something that wasn’t even real.”
Another sigh left her lips, this one deeper, more tired than the last.

“I don’t even know what to say to you anymore. Only that I’m glad we’re no longer together.”

She looked up at me, her gaze firm but calm.

“Because hearing this now, knowing Lena’s carrying your child, I… I wouldn’t have survived that while still loving you.”
Silence fell between us again, but this time it was final. Like the door to something long dead had finally closed.
And maybe… maybe I deserved that.

Her words hung in the air, each part a sharp cut to my hurt heart.
"I wish you find calm and do good for your kid. But we are done. Really done."
She got up, her chair making a soft sound on the floor, and left without a look back. I sat still, feeling the big weight of her leave.
As if the world aimed to show my pain, the café's music began a known song.
The soft piano of Toni Braxton's "Yesterday" with Trey Songz filled the space. The song's words hit home:
"I gave you the benefit of the doubt
Till you showed me what you were about
Your true colors came out..."
I shut my eyes, the song cutting into my mind. Each word showed my wrongs, my failures.
"You, you are so yesterday
Never thought you'd lose my love this way
Now you come begging me to stay..."
The twist was clear. I had not seen her love's worth, and now, with the song on, I saw how badly I had messed up.
I looked at the empty seat facing me. Aurora was gone, and with her, any chance to fix things. The song kept going, each sound a hard hit of what I had lost.
"I just don't love you, don't love you no more..."
I sat, alone, with the song playing on, wrapping me in a wrap of sadness. 
I stayed frozen in that seat long after Aurora left, her words echoing louder than the music.
She was right.
Every single thing she said was true. I had broken her. Torn down what we had, piece by piece, and for what?
A title? Approval from a father who never truly saw me?
And now, she was really gone.
As the final notes of “Yesterday” faded, a different kind of silence settled in.
The kind that wasn’t just empty but hollow. Cold.
I stared into my drink again. It was watered down now, untouched, like a metaphor for the life I’d built.
All surface, no substance. Just bitter remnants of what used to be something strong.
I thought I was done breaking.
But then my phone buzzed.
A message.
From Lena.
“We need to talk. It’s urgent. It’s about the baby.”
And just like that, the air felt thinner. Heavier. Something was wrong.
I stood up quickly, threw some cash on the table, and walked out of the café, the weight of everything pressing harder with each step.
Maybe the past had finally caught up to me.
Or maybe this… was just the beginning.
Ensnared by My Stepbrothers' Realm
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