The rain taps softly against the high glass windows. The house is asleep. Or pretending to be.
Sam sits alone in the velvet room — the one space in the mansion not soaked in power or politics. Just silence. A low-burning fire. A couch he used to fall asleep on when he was little.
He doesn't hear the footsteps, but he feels them. That steady pull in his chest.
Papa Leo.
Dressed in black silk and shadows. No guards. No warnings. Just him.
Leo:
quiet
"You're not sleeping."
Sam:
without looking up
"No one sleeps after almost being dragged into a back alley."
Leo's jaw tightens, but he doesn't interrupt.
Sam finally lifts his head. His voice is calm — too calm.
Sam:
"Do you want me to say it didn't hurt? That I should've known better than to wander off? That being intersex is a weakness in this family, and I need to toughen up or die trying?"
Silence.
Then Leo walks forward. He kneels in front of Sam — the one man in the entire world who never kneels for anyone — and reaches out slowly, resting a warm hand on his son's knee.
Leo:
"No."
Sam's breath catches.
Leo:
"You're not weak. You never were. You're mine. You're blood. And what they tried to do to you — it should've never happened."
Sam:
"You punished me."
Leo:
"I punished myself, too."
He looks up, eyes fierce and burning.
Leo:
"When I couldn't find you, I thought I was going to lose my mind. I imagined the worst — over and over. And when I saw you again, broken but breathing, I panicked. I thought if I crushed the softness in you, it would never happen again. That no one would ever touch you without your permission."
Sam swallows. The truth tastes like salt.
Sam:
"But I needed comfort. It's not a cage."
Leo:
softly
"I know."
He wraps his arms around Sam, then — strong, warm, protective. And for the first time in what feels like years, Sam lets himself cry. Not because he's weak. But because he's safe.
Leo:
"They're ten feet under now, Sam. Every last one of them. No one touches my son and walks away."
Silence.
Then, Leo pulls back just enough to whisper:
Leo:
"And if anyone — even Elias — ever tries to make you feel like less than what you are again… they'll answer to me first."
Sam nods into his chest.
A broken piece of trust begins to stitch itself back together — slowly, silently — in the arms of the one who once broke .