Chapter 4 #2
Leo looked to her first, and Kate nodded to let him know she hadn't changed her mind.
It was going to take some getting used to after so many years of being a single parent.
She was not, under any circumstances, going to stand in the way of Ariella and Leo bonding.
No matter how much she still hated her ex.
So far, she’d been as polite as it was possible to be.
Impossibly polite.
It was the only way to stop her anger from erupting, and stressing out and upsetting her daughter was the last thing she wanted to do.
Therefore, she’d be sticking with her plan.
Treat Leo and his friends as she would any stranger she happened to meet.
Manners had been drilled into her practically from birth, and she’d always been a people pleaser, a rule follower.
In fact, refusing to follow through on Leo’s demands and keeping their baby was the first time in her life she’d actively done the opposite of what someone else wanted.
At least Leo had taken the lie in stride and seemed to be accepting of their daughter.
More than that, he seemed to want to bond with her.
Kate had been terrified that she’d have to fight Leo to get him tested, and had even looked into whether she had any legal recourse to force him if he didn't want to.
Saving her daughter’s life, or at least giving her every chance possible to live, was all that mattered to her, and to that end, she could suck it up and spend time around Leo. Even let her daughter get attached.
“We sure can, Ari-Bear. Go get your coat on, and I’ll meet you at the front door. Remember the way to your room?”
“Of course I do,” Ariella replied, bounding out of her seat with more enthusiasm than Kate had seen from her daughter in months.
“I read up on aplastic anemia last night,” Leo informed her once they were alone.
That was unexpected. Irritatingly considerate though. But it was good that Leo was taking this seriously, the last thing she needed was him hurting her very vulnerable child the same way he’d hurt her.
“Okay, thank you for that,” she said politely.
It meant they didn't have to have a whole conversation where she explained the condition and how it affected their lives.
Something she was genuinely relieved about.
Polite and keep her distance, that was the plan, and this had made that so much easier.
Leo sighed, like he was frustrated with her, but the smile he gave her seemed genuine. “Still treating me like a stranger. It’s okay to yell at me, Katie-Bear. I deserve it.”
That he thought she needed his permission to be angry only infuriated her further, but she wasn't going to let it show. Instead, she just kept her neutral smile in place and nodded. “You are a stranger to me, Leo,” she reminded him. Then she set about clearing the table, steadfastly refusing to turn around and look at him to see whether her words had hurt him even a fraction of the way that what he’d said to her that day a decade ago had left lasting scars and wounds that had never fully healed.
Instead, he walked away.
Of course he did.
He said she could yell at him if she wanted, but other than a single apology, he hadn't initiated a conversation either.
Not that there was any chance of her losing it on him with her daughter so close.
Ariella was dying, that was a truth she was struggling to accept, but a truth nonetheless.
This was a last-ditch attempt at saving her life, and if it didn't work, then at least Ariella got to meet her daddy before she passed away.
What kind of mother would she be if she filled her child’s last days with anger and resentment?
Just as she was finishing up loading hers, Ariella’s, and Leo’s dishes into the dishwasher, she heard others enter the room. She dragged in a deep breath, dealing with a bunch of Leo’s friends was not what she wanted to be doing right now, but she wasn't going to let it show.
“Good morning,” she said with a polite smile as she turned around to find the five women standing there, but not the five other men who had held guns on her the day before.
Thankfully. Those men still scared the life out of her, but they seemed to be making an effort to keep their distance, and when they were around, they were exceptionally sweet with her daughter.
Like they had forgotten yesterday even happened.
She hadn't, though.
Wasn't sure she could.
Kate had no idea who these people really were, but she knew she feared them, so she had no interest in finding out.
Get Leo tested, give her daughter the bone marrow transplant she desperately needed, or let Ariella die in peace with her parents at her side, and then leave and find a way to rebuild her life with her heart buried in the ground. That was her plan, and she was sticking to it.
“There’s plenty of food,” she said, indicating to the still mostly full countertops.
“Looks like Lion cooked up a storm,” Rose Gardner said. The pretty redhead moved with a confidence Kate could only wish she possessed.
“Where’s Ariella?” Cassandra Charleston asked. Since the brunette seemed like a genuinely sweet and kind person, Kate decided that she actually did care about her daughter rather than just making polite conversation.
“Leo wanted to take her out to his special spot,” she replied. It made her anxious not having Ariella within her line of sight, but with how Leo had been acting since she showed up there and how invested he already seemed in bonding with their daughter, she knew she’d made the right decision.
“He’s really excited to meet her,” Indigo Yates piped up, and Kate nodded her agreement.
It wasn't what she’d been expecting, not anger, not indifference.
It made her wonder what had changed for him in the last ten years that the child he hadn't wanted to exist was now important to him. Not enough to ask, though. There was no way she was seriously interested in a list of excuses or a sob story. Nothing could change the cruel way he’d demanded she terminate her pregnancy, then disappeared from her life, never to be heard from again.
“Have you two had a chance to talk yet?” Whitney Daley asked.
“Nope, and we don’t have anything to discuss beyond Ariella anyway,” she said, polite but firm.
Just because she didn't understand why he lived in a remote Gothic mansion with five other guys and their girlfriends didn't mean it was any of her business.
They had separate lives, had for a decade now, the only thing connecting them was a dying child.
If Leo were a match and the bone marrow transplant saved Ariella’s life, she would be forever grateful, but she wasn't interested in rekindling any sort of relationship. They’d find a way for him to continue to be part of their daughter’s life, and that was it.
“Maybe you should talk to him, let him explain,” Rose said gently.
It was annoying that these people seemed to know why Leo had dumped her when she didn't. More so that they were taking his side when she was the injured party, but in the end, it didn't matter.
Keeping her polite smile firmly in place, she kept her tone calm, even though the anger inside her continued to bubble more furiously.
“I don’t mean to sound rude, but I'm not interested in any sort of explanation. I am here only for my daughter. I won't keep Leo out of her life so long as he doesn’t hurt her, but beyond that, I don’t care to have anything to do with him.
I hope you can understand and respect my wishes. ”
As she brushed past the group, four pairs of eyes clearly expressed that they wanted to argue, to pressure her into doing what they wanted. Only one showed true understanding. The gray eyes of Maya Newell, the quietest of the group, who seemed to hang back, wanting to hide in the shadows.
At least someone seemed to get that some wounds ran too deep to ever heal. All you could do was manage them the best way you knew how, and that’s what she’d been doing for a decade now. What she would continue doing going forward.