Mended (Lucian & Lia #3)(43)
Lia suddenly extends a hand toward Cassie with a shy smile, and alarmed, I try to pull her back. She places a hand on my chest to stop me before turning back to the other woman. “It looks as if everyone has forgotten their manners around here. I’m Lia, and you are?”
Cassie looks from Lia’s face to her hand and back again. Then she does something that stops my heart. She steps toward Lia and places a hand on either side of her swollen stomach. “My baby,” she says in a childlike voice that chills my blood. Both Aidan and I freeze while Lia looks at me uncertainly.
“Why do you have my baby?”
Horror floods Lia’s face as she steps back quickly. Her actions shake me from my stupor and I jerk forward, taking her arm and pulling her through the partially open door. I pass within inches of Cassie and I think I will shatter if she lays one hand on me. Thankfully, though, Aidan has reached over and pulled her farther inside the apartment and away from us. I hear him speaking softly but shakily to her as I hurry Lia toward the elevator. When the door closes behind us, I collapse back against the wood panel, unable to comprehend what just occurred. The elevator continues to sit in place as neither of us has pushed a button yet. “Lucian. What just happened in there?” Lia asks in a tight voice.
“Fuck if I know, baby.” I shudder, trying to recover enough to function. I’d never expected to see Cassie again and I damn sure hadn’t imagined running into her in some random way. I could only assume that Aidan had followed through with the doctor’s suggestion to bring her for a visit. Why in the hell hadn’t he told me—warned me that he was doing just that? I wouldn’t have been anywhere near his apartment if I’d known and I sure wouldn’t have put Lia right in her path. I’d felt physically sick when she’d touched Lia’s stomach as if it were her own. Fucking hell!
“That was Cassie, wasn’t it?” Lia asks, in a voice that says she already knows the answer.
“Yes.” I sigh.
“Why didn’t you tell me she was out?” Lia’s voice sounds like a mixture of hurt and pissed off.
I pull her into my arms, closing them around her protectively. “I didn’t know, baby. Aidan told me a month or so ago that her doctor suggested having her come home with him for a day to see how she responded, but he never told me that he’d scheduled it. He usually visits her on the weekends, and to my knowledge, that was all he was doing this time.”
Lia shivers against me and I know it has nothing to do with the temperature in the elevator. “Did you see the way she looked at me? Touched me?”
“Yeah, I did,” I say hoarsely. “I shouldn’t have let you near her. Shit, let’s get out of here.” I lean over to punch the button for the ground floor, thinking it wasn’t a great idea to linger just feet from where Cassie was.
“Is she better now?” Lia asks. “I mean, from the few things you’ve said, I assumed she would never be…out again.”
“It’s supposedly the new medication they have her on. I told you that she’d been responding to it. I mean, I hardly believed it when Aidan first mentioned it, and I just shoved the information aside. Especially when I put Aidan solely in charge of her care and removed Max.”
“Was that really a good idea?” Lia asks delicately. “Don’t you want to know what’s going on there to avoid something like what just happened?”
Hell to the f*cking yes, I want to shout, but wait until we’re on the road once again before I answer her. “I needed to avoid as much stress as possible with trying to detox on my own. Having to hear updates on Cassie tends to push me close to the edge. I also didn’t feel it was fair to keep that kind of personal responsibility on Max’s shoulders. Aidan is more than happy to look after Cassie and he’s able to do it far more impartially than I’ll ever be. For the first time in eight years, I thought I might be making a decision concerning her that wasn’t just based on my hate. I wanted to give that much consideration to Aidan.” Hitting the steering wheel with the palm of my hands, I snarl out, “It was a mistake, a f*cking huge one. That should have never happened tonight.”
I feel Lia’s hand on my thigh as she tries to calm me. I’m surprised she isn’t freaking out as well. I can’t get the image of Cassie’s hands on our child as she called it her own. It was such a darkly twisted moment that I have to fight the urge to pull over and heave until there is nothing left inside of me. “I’ll call Debra and cancel dinner. We can go home and attempt to regroup.”
I take a deep breath, knowing that my anxiety level directly affects her. I can only imagine how she feels because I want to freak the f*ck out myself. I need to be strong and downplay what’s happened if possible. I have no desire at all to socialize tonight, but I’ll do it—for her. I place my hand on top of hers and give it a squeeze of reassurance. “It’s fine, baby. You’ve been looking forward to seeing your friends again and I refuse to let my baggage ruin that.”
“Are you sure?” She sounds skeptical.
“Absolutely. There’s no use in going home to dwell on something we can’t change…at least tonight. Tomorrow will be soon enough to get some answers.” Even though I managed to keep my voice level for Lia’s benefit, I’d really like nothing more at the moment than to call Aidan and ask him what in the hell is going on. How dare he f*cking bring her back here—to his apartment—for her first home visit without telling me. I also want to call Max and demand that he finds some way to make sure this never happens again. She’s not well—f*cking far from it. If Aidan can’t see that, then he has no business managing her care. She’s a danger to all that I hold dear. An icy feeling of déjà vu washes over me and I know with certainty that in order to have a future with Lia, I’ll have to battle a past that threatens to take it all away—again.