Page 86 of Accidental Doctor Daddy

Goddamn it, Leonardo.

He sprawled on a battered couch, hair a mess, eyes red-rimmed. A bottle of cheap whiskey perched on the scarred coffee table, full-to-spilling ashtrays scattered around. The sight made my chest tighten, but I kept my expression calm.

This was the kind of chaos that made me lose my calm. “Leonardo.”

“Dad,” he said, voice slurred. “Didn’t expect you to come.”

I scanned the chaos, forcing a steady tone. “You buzzed me in, so here I am. You haven’t answered my calls. I needed to check on you.”

He let out a bitter laugh, fumbling with the whiskey bottle. “Because you’re worried, right? About your new babies, your new…everything else. Thought you’d see if your old son’s still alive?”

“You’re my family,” I said flatly. “That hasn’t changed.”

He swigged from the bottle, dribbling whiskey down his chin. “Oh, sure. Family. Since when, Dad? You’re off playing hero doctor, hooking up with my ex, having babies, and only now you remember you have a son.”

“Stop with the cheap shots. You know that’s not how things are. You’re not a child anymore. I’m here because I care.”

He sneered, eyes darting away. “Care. Right. Where was that care when Mom was coughing up blood?”

The old accusation, but it landed every time he wielded it. “She hid it from me. By the time I knew, it was too late. You know this.”

He lurched upright, unsteady. “You’re a doctor. You should’veknown.Mom died because you were never around. You were always at the hospital. You saved strangers but not her. That tells me what you think of family.”

“I can’t rewrite the past. If I could, I’d have saved your mother a thousand times by now. But I won’t apologize for trying to save lives. I have provided for you and Gina as best I could.”

“Sure. Vacations, toys, all the latest shit. You gave useverything.” He barked a mirthless laugh. “Everything except yourself. We needed you, and you vanished. Now you’ve got new kids—kids withMariella.”

“She’s the mother of my twins, yes. But that doesn’t change who you are to me.”

“Why did you have to tell me, anyway?”

“How would you have reacted had you found out on your own?”

He snorted derisively but said nothing. He knew I was right.

I sighed. “And because honesty is the only way to keep a family alive. If you’re mother had told me?—”

“That’s on you!” he barked, pointing at me. “Don’t lecture me about honesty when it’s your fault she was neglected to death!”

I closed my eyes for a moment. Not to ignore him, but to stop seeing what he had become. A bitter, angry man who hated everyone in the world, including himself.

“Leonardo, you are my son. You will always be my son. I love you?—”

He flung the whiskey bottle across the couch, liquid sloshing. “Oh spare me. I told Mariella all about the asshole father who never gave a damn. Guess she’s into older men with hero complexes. Good for you, Dad. Round two of fatherhood. But she’ll realize I wasn’t lying about you soon enough. And then where will you be? A sad old man, all alone.”

Pain twined with irritation. “I’m not here to fight about the past, Leo. I’m here to see if you’re all right.”

He lunged forward, eyes bloodshot, breath reeking of stale liquor. “Go to hell. And take your new babies and my pretty ex with you.”

My jaw clenched, but I refused to lose my temper. “I won’t leave you in this pit. Drink some water, let’s talk.”

“I don’t need your help or your guilt trips. Go play doting daddy with those brats. I’m done.”

A flicker of cold rage pulsed through me at him calling the twins brats, but I reined it in. He was drunk, lashing out. “I won’t beg, but I’m not walking away from you either.”

“Get out,” he repeated, voice cracking. “You should’ve saved Mom, but you didn’t. So don’t pretend you can save me.”

I knew he was hurting. But that didn’t stop the barb from landing.“I did what I could. I’m doing what I can now. Let me help you.”

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