Chapter 42
FORTY-TWO
MASE
The sun beams down at me as I step outside and glance down at the dozens of messages on my phone.
Owen: Call me.
Owen: You there?
Owen: Mase!
Owen: I’m tracking you now. Soon as you’re back, call me.
Owen: Call me. ASAP.
Oh, shit. I hope this isn’t something to do with Reed again. Although, for all intents and purposes, his father-in-law is being tortured a slow death for his role in Gia’s sickening childhood.
“I’ve been trying to call you. Where the fuck have you been?” Owen clips out when the call connects.
“Up on the mountain.” He knows the story behind that mountain. I took him there once as a brother.
He audibly swallows. “Listen, Mase. We’ve got a problem. Multiple actually.”
The doorbell sounds, and my eyes flit around the room for a sign of Hugh to answer it. Where the fuck is he?
“Hold on, there’s someone at the door.”
I stride through the kitchen toward the front door.
“Mase, I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Owen states. “Really not a good idea, man.” Confusion swirls inside me, and I glance down at my phone and swing open the door.
Tara stands before me with tears streaking her face. My first reaction is to check outside for what’s caused her to cry.
But what the hell is she doing here? Anger boils inside me.
The last time I saw her like this, she’d had a spat with the young gardener; one I’m convinced she was fucking. He handed his notice in, but not before I witnessed his mother and Tara exchanging heated words.
There’s nobody outside.
Just the two of us.
And Summer in the house.
I step outside, and she falls against my chest, clinging to my T-shirt for support, and her touch sends a vile sensation through me. Like a billion insects are trying to burrow under my skin. Slowly, I unpeel her hand from my T-shirt.
“What are you doing here, Tara?” I bite out. The anger in my voice is evident, and her eyes widen, and she scans me as if searching for the old Mase. The one she could walk all over, speak down to, and manipulate.
Something flashes across her face, then she clears her throat and shakes her head.
“I’ve got cancer!” she sobs, and I rear back, stunned. Of all the things she could say, I never expected it to be that. Never.
I might not like the woman; who am I kidding? I despise her, but cancer? I wouldn’t wish that on her. Swallowing, I wait for the familiar feeling of guilt at letting her down, but it doesn’t come. In its place is a steely determination, so I widen my stance.
“I’m sorry to hear that. But you shouldn’t be here.” My voice is devoid of emotion.
“Please. Can I come in? I have no one else.” I find that hard to believe; she always had someone else. She spent enough time telling me so and enough time jumping from bed to bed. There was always someone, anyone but me.
“No,” I grit out.
She gasps, and I want to roll my eyes at her dramatics. “Look, Tara. You can’t be here. I’m sorry.”
A strange wail leaves her, and I step back. “P-please. I don’t want to stay at the hospital tonight. The last time I was there, I was pregnant.”
“That was in New Jersey.” I’m quick to correct.
“They put me on a ward where there’re pregnant mothers, Mason. Have you any idea how that feels after losing our babies?”
I grit my teeth, hating the fact she refers to another man’s child as my baby.
“I’m asking for one night, Mason. As the mother of your unborn children.” I wince at her wording, and for the first time ever, I realize something. Not having children with Tara was a blessing. It saved any kids with her from having the childhood I had.
Without the abuse from her, I would never have had that one night with Summer, the night our babies were created. I wouldn’t have had the secure, loving relationship I have now.
I wouldn’t be happy.
“One night, then you’re out. I’m sorry you’re suffering, Tara, but I don’t want to see you again.”
Something flickers in her eyes, a sinister gleam that’s quickly masked, and I’m already second-guessing my decision. But like a fool, I push open the door and allow her access to the mansion I equally hate as much as the woman stepping into it.
The moment she steps inside, all my energy is sucked from me. I’ve gone from sharing memorable moments with the woman I’m falling in love with, to being thrown back into the darkness with the one I once would have given everything to have love me back.
She totters around, circling me in her high heels, and the sound of them brings with it a rush of nausea. Dread lines my stomach. “Mase. I’ve started treatment and really don’t want to be alone.” She snivels and wipes at her nose.
I look her over. Her normally well put–together self is off. Something is off.
My phone blares through the foyer, vibrating in my hand, and I glance down at it to see Owen calling. He was trying to give me a heads-up of this bullshit. I silence it again.
“What kind of cancer?”
She wobbles on her high heels, and I step toward her, sniffing the air, knowing if she’s been drinking, she’s far worse, potentially violent, and I refuse to have that around Summer. “Huh?”
“What kind of cancer do you have?”
“Ovarian.” She swallows, and her dark eyes meet mine.
“I can’t have children.” Her glare is searing into me, tugging at the pain and torment that wraps around my heart like a cord, pulling tighter by the second.
She knows this is my weakness. Does she also know I’m going to become a father?
That I’m finally getting everything I ever wanted.
Her eyes skitter around the foyer. “The treatment is awful, Mase.”
“I’m sorry,” I respond grimly, and I am, but that doesn’t mean I want her here, stepping into my life again when I’m trying so desperately to build my happiness.
“Can you hold me?” she sniffles, and I step back.
“No.”
“No?” Her tone turns harsh before she brushes at her eyes, and her jaw sharpens. “There was once a time when you’d hold me whenever I asked.”
“We’re not married anymore, Tara,” I bite out. “And I told you, after tonight, I don’t want to see you again.”
“B-But I still need you,” she sobs, and this time tears cascade down her face, and I want to tell her there was a time when I needed her too. Needed her not to cheat, lie, or become an abusive, cruel bitch.
“You can stay the one night, but then I want you gone. No bullshit.”
She steps forward, and I somehow manage not to recoil this time. I don’t want her to see my weakness, because she sees it as a game, and as a master manipulator, she’s incredible at it.
“Look, you can stay in my old room,” I breathe out, my chest heavy as she steps closer. “You can find your way there, right?”
In other words, fuck off out of my space while I find Summer and try to explain.
“I remember where it is. We used to fuck in there before you asked me to marry you.” Her hand finds my groin, and fire burns behind my eyes as she gives my limp cock a sharp squeeze. “You could join me. For old times’ sake.” She smiles, her tears all dried up.
Her mouth drops open, and a sound from my father’s office has her eyes darting there before they quickly land back on me.
Just what the fuck is Hugh doing in the office again?
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and annoyance rumbles through me.
I grip Tara’s wrist in mine, pressing down hard in warning, and her eyes widen at the brutality of my touch. I lower my head until we’re on the same level. “Listen, and listen really fucking carefully, Tara.”
She whimpers.
“You don’t get to touch me anymore. You don’t get to come into my life, flirting with me,” I seethe.
“Because I’m not fucking interested. You can stay tonight because you’re clearly distressed, but then you need to find somewhere else to stay.
” I release her and throw her hand to the side; she quickly pulls it up against her chest and rubs at it.
I ignore the guilt rushing through me at the way I handled her; never in my life have I treated a woman so poorly.
“Follow me!” I bark out and start up the stairs. “I’m showing you to the room in case you forget your way.” And to make sure you don’t accidentally on purpose bump into Summer.
The moment I open my bedroom door, I feel like something’s wrong. There’s a coldness in the air, the hairs on my body stand upright, and when I turn my head over my shoulder to face her, the look in her deranged eyes tells me all I need to know.
I’m fucked.
A sinister smile spreads over her face, and a sharp prick in my neck has me wincing before the room tilts and my footing wavers.
What the actual fuck?
All I can think about as my head hits the floor is Summer is in danger, and our babies too.