It's All Relative(156)

Her voice was nervous. “I feel horrible asking, but I need you to do something for me.”

Mason tensed. Leilani never asked him to do anything. She’d never asked him to stay, never asked him to take her away from her husband, never seemed to think much of him at all. “What?” he cautiously asked.

“It’s my son…Kai.” She paused and a ball of buried anger resurfaced in Mason’s chest. The son who had torn them apart, who had given her an irrefutable reason to never leave her husband.

“What about him?” he asked.

She sighed, and her voice suddenly sounded about twenty years older. “I lied to you, Mason. He’s yours. He’s always been yours.”

Mason furrowed his brow, not understanding. “What do you mean he’s mine?”

He heard Leilani exhale a harsh breath into the phone. “You know exactly what I mean. He’s your biological child. You helped me conceive him. You are half of who he is. You are his father.”

Mason sputtered, then laughed. “You expect me to believe that? After you swore up and down that he was Nate’s? After I left…and you let me?”

Her voice was heated when she responded. “Yes, you left! You overreacted to a brief moment of weakness on my part, and you bolted! I did what I could with what I was left with! What you left me with! How was I supposed to know whose son he was? I panicked, and you didn’t stick around long enough to find out the truth. Don’t blame me because you ran away!”

He blinked in surprise at her sudden outburst. Apparently, she had some long buried aches too. Ones he’d never considered. “Why are you telling me this? Now?”

“Because he’s looking for a job…and he wants to go somewhere new. Nate and I thought he could join your team.”

Mason fell into a chair, again surprised. “You call me, tell me I have a son…just so I can give him a job?”

Leilani sighed again. “No. We also want you to tell him…who you are to him.”

Mason bolted out of the chair. “What? He doesn’t know?”

Leilani sniffled, like she was holding back tears. “No, and I don’t want to tell him either, but Nate is threatening to tell him if I don’t…or if you don’t.”

“Jesus, Leilani. Why are you springing this on me? I don’t need this right now! I don’t even know the kid. Thanks to you, I’ve never even met him!”

“He’s a good boy, Mason. Smart, dedicated. He’ll be a great addition to your team.”

“This isn’t about giving him a job, Leilani.” Mason sat down again, heavily, like the weight of the world was suddenly on his shoulders. “The job is his if he wants it, but I can’t tell him. That’s not something that should come from me.”

Leilani started to cry, and Mason was startled at the emotion that pulled out of him. He could easily picture the beautiful, exotic woman he’d spent countless hours wrapped around. He found himself lost in the past, in all the good times they’d shared. There was a time where he would have done anything for this woman. “Please, Mason…he’ll hate me if I tell him, and he’ll hate me even more if Nate tells him. I can’t have him hating me. He’s all I have…”

Mason sighed, once again moved to irrationality by her. Even after all this time, was there anything he wouldn’t do for her? “Don’t cry, Leilani.” He sighed again, exhausted already. “Fine, I’ll tell him. Somehow, I’ll tell him…if that’s what you really want.”

Her tone immediately brightened. “Oh, please, Mason. I know I’m putting a lot on you, and I know you don’t deserve this, but it has to come from you. If I tell him, it will destroy what we have.”

“But if I do…it doesn’t matter, because we don’t have anything to destroy. Because you never let me have anything with him. You took his entire childhood away from me, Leilani.” Loneliness swept over him in a rush, nearly crushing him. “How could you do that to me?”

Leilani sobbed again. Quietly, she answered with, “I’m so sorry. I was young, foolish, hurt…confused. I thought you were better off being left in the dark. I didn’t want to make things difficult for you…or for Kai.”

“Then maybe you should just let him keep believing Nate is his father. Does it really matter now?” Mason wearily rested his elbows on the table. He felt like the solid oak could barely hold his mammoth weight at the moment.

Leilani sighed. “I completely agree with you, but Nate doesn’t. He’s done with the lies. He feels it’s time.” Her tone turned a little sour. “Personally, I think he’s hoping Kai will turn against me. We’re very close…” Her voice cracked, and she sobbed again.

“Leilani,” Mason breathed, his own emotion bubbling up. “Don’t cry, sweetheart.” He was startled that he’d called her that, after all this time. She seemed surprised as well, and her tears eventually stopped. Mason cleared his throat. He needed to process this conversation, needed to get away from what her voice immediately brought back in him. “It’s late, I should go, Leilani.”

“Okay, Mason. Thank you,” she whispered.

He swallowed that lump again. “Yeah,” was all he could get out.

Just as he was about to say goodbye, she quietly said, “I never stopped loving you, by the way.”