Chapter 10 #2
After he’s gone, I walk to the trash and look down at the lilies bent across the rim.
This morning I asked Bella to single those out for Mia.
I told myself it was harmless, that I only wanted to watch and be sure.
The guilt of making that child sick sits heavy in me because I doubted she’d react at all.
She did, the welts climbing her arms within the hour. Being right only made it worse.
I rigged the flowers. The bite happened on its own. I can still feel the bite on her shin under my thumb, the raised heat of it and the smooth skin where it should have been an hour later. A human child doesn’t mend like that. I do. Bella will. And maybe, God help me, so does the girl.
I call Voss. It rings out. He runs someone else’s career these days, but we stayed close after he left mine, and he’s the one man who might remember a night I can’t.
I’d gambled that Jessa would break if I leaned on the birth father angle, that she’d be more invested in keeping Mia at the academy after seeing how good this place is for her.
I thought she would admit the truth. But her actions make me more suspicious.
Whoever fathered her child, she knows his name, and there’s no reason to hide it from me.
The fact that she’d rather burn the scholarship down than tell me makes my earlier thoughts cement even further.
It has to be me.
I drop into my chair and put my head in my hand. How do I not remember? I have never in my life forgotten a woman I touched.
Adrian’s right that drink or a drug could blur a whole night.
Even so, I’d have woken with her scent on my skin and known a stranger had been close.
So what happened to me in Ashford? And what if none of this is real?
What if wanting them, wanting a daughter and the woman who guards her, is louder than whatever sense I’ve got left?
I’ll keep digging quietly. Meanwhile I’ll mend things with Jessa, whatever the truth turns out to be, because when Jessa’s angry, Mia is the one who suffers for it, and that child has paid enough already. There’s a spring festival running in town this weekend. That I can use.
Saturday, a little before five, I find Bella in front of the television, hanging upside down from the couch, and tell her to go change.
“Why?” She twists around curiously. “Where are we going?”
“I thought you and Mia might want to see the spring festival.”
Her lips split into a wide grin, and she launches off the couch. “I’ll call her right now.”
“No.” I catch her by the collar before she can sprint for the phone. “We’ll surprise her.”
A phone call gives Jessa room to invent an excuse. I don’t want to give her any wiggle room.
Bella’s dressed in four minutes, shoes on the wrong feet until I fix them, and then we’re in the car. As we drive over to the apartment building, Bella asks, “Uncle Marcus, is Mia really not like me and you?”
I glance at her. “Why do you ask?”
Bella grins. “Because she’s super strong. Even stronger than me.”
I smile at her, my thoughts churning, and she adds, “Can I ask her?”
My brows immediately knot together. “Don’t ever do that, Bella. You know the rules. You do not speak of our kind till you have shifted. Especially not to anyone you have not been allowed with.”
My niece sighs and folds her arms on the open window. “I know. It’s just so boring.”
“Bella,” I say sternly, and she makes a face.
“Fine. Fine, I promise. How soon till we get there?”
“Another twenty minutes,” I assure her.
By the time we get there, Bella is brimming with excitement.
One of the other tenants lets us in, and we head up.
Jessa opens her door after two knocks, and the smile dies on her face the instant she sees the two of us on her mat.
We left things jagged yesterday over the certificate, and it’s all still there in her eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
Bella barrels past the question and wraps both arms around Jessa’s middle. “We’re taking you to the spring festival.”
Jessa’s hands come around the girl on instinct, settling on her back. “Oh, sweetheart, I don’t think we can. I’ve got a mountain of work tonight.”
Behind her, on the low table, sits a bowl of popcorn and a paused screen. I let my gaze travel to it, then back to her, and lift the corner of my mouth. “Really? I’m sure you can spare an evening.”
She follows my eyes to the popcorn and flushes when she understands I’ve called her bluff. She’s a poor liar caught off balance, and I’m learning how easily I can catch her there. “It’d be good for the girls,” I add.
“Please?” Bella tips her head back to look up at her. “I’ve never been to one, not ever. Uncle Marcus only said yes if you and Mia come too. I want to go with Mia.”
Jessa studies her before caving. “All right. Go tell Mia.”
Easier than I expected. She’ll deny me anything, but she can’t deny those two each other, and that’s the lever I’ll keep using.
Bella shrieks and bolts down the hall. I use the gap to slip over the threshold, pulling the door shut behind me. Jessa rounds on me. She doesn’t lay a hand on me, but she backs me against the door anyway, close enough that I have to look down.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“What do you think? I told you. It’s good for the girls.”
“I don’t want you turning up at my apartment like this.”
I drop the game. “I’m sorry.”
She searches my face, hunting for the lie in it. There’s none to find. For once I’m not playing an angle. I did push her too hard, and the sight of her braced like this, ready for the next bad thing, sits wrong with me.
“I brought these by way of apology.” I bring the basket of flowers out from behind my back and hold it between us.
She doesn’t take it. “What are those for?”
“Exactly what I said. An apology. I was out of line yesterday, and I’ll sort the paperwork out. Please don’t worry about it.” She’s rattled, and she keeps glancing at the hall Bella ran down. At last she takes the basket. Her fingers brush mine on the handoff, and she pulls back too fast.
“Thank you,” she mutters, and it sounds dragged out of her.
“For what it’s worth, those two are turning inseparable.
” I follow her when she retreats to the kitchen.
“Which means you and I have to learn to run a working partnership, Jessa. We’re going to be in each other’s lives whether it suits you or not.
” I set my hip against the counter. “I know you don’t like me. ”
Her head snaps up. She holds the quiet a second, then, “Well. At least I was subtle about it.”
I smile before I can stop myself. “Jessa, the harder you push me away, the harder it is to keep my distance.”
She goes red. “Then learn.”
I like her better furious than careful. The careful Jessa weighs every word. This one tells me the truth by accident.