Chapter Thirty One
Vince
We all eat until we’re stuffed, then get double dessert since it’s Easter. Mia gets up and helps serve, handing out dove-shaped Easter cake to this side of the table while Maria serves the other side. The other maid follows, refilling all the wine glasses so we can all continue to tolerate one another.
“I can’t possibly eat another bite,” Laurel states, looking down at her sweet bread.
Carly leans forward and looks over at her. “I know, I want to desperately, but my stomach is too full. I think this is what failure feels like.”
I smirk over at Carly. “They haven’t even served the chocolate eggs yet.”
“Not more chocolate eggs,” Sal says, groaning. “Easter with both families is too much.”
Francesca accepts her plate with a big grin. “Speak for yourself. Give me all the dessert.”
Some of us know our limits and give up, while others attempt dessert at the risk of feeling utterly miserable. On this side of the table, we all finish our wine.
Once the meal is over, we all retire to one of the larger sitting rooms. There’s more alcohol, but I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not. Those of us who dislike one another may start to get ornery. On the other hand, those of us who do like each other may start liking each other a little too much.
Carly stopped obsessing over Rafe and Laurel so much once her plan backfired earlier, but with the alcohol flowing through their veins, Laurel is cuddly and Rafe keeps her close. He sits on the couch with Mateo so they can talk and Mia sits in the floor at Mateo’s feet, playing with Dom and Roman.
Meg is into the wine. I consider going over and talking to her. I still have to tell Mateo what she did either way, but I’d like to see if she still seems open to causing trouble for Mia.
Patting Carly’s leg, I tell her, “I’ll be back.”
This is the first time in years I’ve seen Meg not pregnant. She sips her wine and surveys the room, pausing when her gaze lands on mine and she sees me approaching.
“Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in,” Meg remarks.
I smirk faintly. “Having a good Easter?”
“Best yet,” she offers, brightly. Her gaze flickers past me toward where Mateo is sitting, next to Rafe. I don’t know whether she doesn’t want to be caught talking to me, or she shares my struggle and sometimes can’t control where her gaze goes.
She feels off, but it could just be that we haven’t seen each other in so long. “Don’t want to be caught talking to me?”
Meg scoffs, bringing her gaze back to me. “Just talk loudly so Mateo can listen to it later and make sure we’re not up to anything sinister.” She turns left then right, looking everywhere she expects a camera to be. “Innocent conversation. Just saying hi.”
I turn to glance back at Mateo, but Mia catches my gaze first. She’s watching my proximity to Meg with no small amount of concern. Her blue eyes beckon me, but this time I swear it’s on purpose. Maybe she’s afraid I am about to do something stupid.
I glance back at Meg, torn. She’s right, though, I can’t say much to her in full view of the cameras. Even if I tried to fish and see if she’d be open to more conspiring, if Mateo watched the footage later, he might believe it. Even if he didn’t, he could pretend to and use it as an excuse to kill me.
“I see you found a new Mia,” Meg remarks, before I can get away. “Does Mateo have a warehouse of blue-eyed blondes somewhere? Just fires one up and dispatches her whenever he needs to?” She cocks her head, regarding the couch again. “Though, this time he seems to have called on a brunette model.”
I frown in confusion, then turn back to look at the couch. The only brunette she could possibly be referring to is Laurel, sleepily resting her head on Rafe’s shoulder.
My gaze is in her vicinity, so it drifts back to Mia and Dom anyway. Since her first eye-only attempt didn’t work, now Mia adds in a smile and crooks her finger, beckoning me with more adamancy.
I barely glance back at Meg. “It was nice catching up. I’m gonna…”
Meg smiles and nods. “Go ahead.”
I don’t like sitting this close to Mateo, but she’s still in the floor at his feet with the babies. Roman is sitting up, smashing cloth blocks against the floor. Dom is lying on the floor in front of Mia’s curled up legs, eating his fist and smiling.
I do my best to ignore my proximity to Mateo and drop down on the floor with Mia and the babies. “How’s he liking Easter?”
“Well, he’s not in love with the gear,” she states.
Right now he and Roman are wearing matching tan suits, Roman with a pastel blue shirt underneath, Dom with a bright teal. It’s cute as hell, but probably not the easiest thing for him to move around in.
“He really digs the eggs, though.” She holds up a shimmery blue egg and shakes it. It must have beads or something in it because it makes a rattling sound and Dom reaches for it.
His eager little kicks further sell it as Mia holds the egg just out of his reach. She caves quickly and hands it over. He holds it and stares at it once it’s in his hands, but he’s not quite sure what to do with it.
Roman reaches over and grabs it right out of his hand. Dom jerks in surprise, then starts screaming. Roman shakes the egg, unconcerned with his screaming brother.
“Roman, you have to share,” Mia tells him, plucking a different colored noisy egg from Dom’s basket and trying to give it to him to replace the one Roman stole.
Dom will not take the egg. He continues to cry his little eyes out.
Mia sighs, her narrow shoulders drooping.
I take the yellow egg from her and reach over to fix the problem myself, plucking Dom’s egg out of Roman’s hand and replacing it with the yellow one.
Roman eyes me up for a few seconds like he can’t believe my gall. I can’t muster any remorse. Mateo’s son is already an asshole. Pointing my finger at him, I tell him something Mateo probably never will. “Don’t take what’s not yours.”
Dom quiets down once I give him his egg back, but now I’m feeling protective. I don’t even want him in the floor with Mateo’s little brat. Without asking Mia this time, I scoop Dom up so I can hold him. His little face is still slightly red from crying, tear stains on his cheeks. I know they’re just babies, but it still fires me up. I wipe his cheek dry with the back of my finger.
“Don’t let him push you around,” I tell Dom. “He will, if you let him.”
Mia scoots forward, looking a little uncomfortable. “They usually play nice. Well, sometimes. They’re just babies.”
Dread moves over me and I look down at Dom. Now he’s happily gnawing on his egg, but just this brief interaction stirs up fears for his future. Truth is, Mateo and I didn’t like each other even before Mia happened, and our dads didn’t get along either. Raising Mateo’s son and my son as brothers seems like a terrible fucking idea. This isn’t how it should be. I should be around. Mia obviously loves him more than anything, but she’s too loving and soft, she tries too hard to see the good in people. How is she going to be Dom’s champion when Mateo’s other kids are his competition?
This isn’t right. Mateo can’t raise my fucking son. I need to be here for him. He’s going to get walked all over without me here to teach him to stand up for himself. He’s already sweet and happy—that may have worked for Mia, but it sure as fuck won’t work for him.
I can’t leave. I can’t leave him here to be kicked around by Mateo’s other kids. Dom deserves better than this shit, and once I leave this house, I can’t protect him.
I should be the one raising him with her, not Mateo. I could do a better job.
Crazy impulses try to rise up in me again. The white house in the sticks where I should have stashed Mia instead of taking her to Vegas.
No, I can’t kidnap her. For one thing, he’d find me. Also, I don’t think Carly would be down with it.
What if I could stay? Mateo let me come back for a week; he’s seen that I haven’t tried to hurt Mia, that I’m still with Carly….
Granted, it’s been hard as hell, and I can’t imagine living this way.
But I can’t just abandon my son. My father left me in Chicago to pursue a better life for himself and look how I turned out. I was old enough to have an opinion, to choose to stay behind. I didn’t know what I was biting off, but Dom’s just a baby. He has no say.
He’s gonna need me. Hell, Mia might even need me.
I look up at Mateo and find him watching me. “We need to talk,” I tell him.
His lips curve up faintly, like he can read my mind. “Tomorrow. Let everyone enjoy Easter today.”
I don’t want to wait, I want to talk now, but I nod anyway. I haven’t even talked to Carly about this. Now I try to imagine the look on her face if I tell her I want to stay in Chicago. Goodbye, peaceful house in Connecticut. Goodbye, milkshakes and movies.
Moving to Hell is the second to last thing I want to do, but abandoning Dom to grow up the way I did comes in dead last, no contest. It doesn’t matter that I’ve only known about him for a few days—this is my son.
“Don’t do it, kid.”
I look up to the couch again, but this time the voice isn’t Mateo’s, it comes from beside Mateo—Rafe. He’s shaking his head at me, like he, too, can read my thoughts.
“Don’t listen to him,” Mateo advises, smiling faintly. “You do what’s in your heart.”
“This isn’t a game,” I state, glaring at him.
Mia grabs hold of my arm briefly before pushing up off the ground. “I think Dom needs a diaper change. Want to come with me?”
I hold Dom a little more protectively against my chest, but I rise up and follow Mia as she drags me along by the sleeve of my shirt. I’m surprised he lets me follow her out of the room alone with Dom, but Carly’s words come back to me. She swears he wants me alone with Mia, because that does the most damage. Alone with Mia and Dom might be even better.
I hate this house and all the bullshit politics that go along with it. I hate that he uses Mia and she doesn’t even know. I loathe that he’s fathering my son. Right now I feel desperate to stop that, like I’d do anything.
Frankly, if I could kidnap her right now, I might, just to get her and Dom out of here.
Mia pulls me into an empty sitting room and flashes me an almost apologetic smile.
I want to ruin my life. Not for self-destructive reasons, but for good ones this time. I fucked everything up. I want to take her and Dom away from here. I need to keep them safe.
Mia doesn’t know how close I am to blowing both of our lives up, so she gently touches my arm again, moving close so she can smile at Dom and kiss his little head. My heart aches. Every second of these past few days have been painful and hard, but I don’t know else to make it stop. I don’t know how to keep Dom safe and happy and keep Carly. I don’t know how to do any of this. I’ve never been this fucking stuck before, and I have felt stuck in my time.
Clearing her throat, Mia nods toward the bathroom. “His diapers are in there.”
A pinprick of relief trickles through me. A bathroom. There are no cameras in the bathroom.
Mia closes the bathroom door behind us, but before I can turn to her and beg her to leave with me, impulsively destroy every bit of happiness both of us have managed to grasp, Mia starts talking.
“He would have done that if you weren’t sitting there.”
My mind is rolling downhill fast, so I don’t quite follow. “What do you mean?”
“Mateo. He doesn’t let Roman get away with being mean to Dom. He loves Dom. He’s a good father to him. He’s just not showing you that because he wants to see if he can provoke you. I know it’s mean, but…” She shrugs. We all know Mateo can be mean.
I don’t know if I trust her. She’s a shitty liar and she seems sincere, but of course Mia thinks Mateo loves Dom. Like Carly said, it benefits him to make her feel that way. “He is provoking me.”
“I know,” she says, placing a calming hand on my arm, like old times. “Please resist. I know you love Dom. I can see that. I loved him immediately, too. I get it. But please don’t throw away your last chance at happiness for him. Please. I’m so happy you found Carly, I’m so happy she’s surviving this week, don’t throw it all away. I can see that look in your eye, and if I can see it, so can Mateo. He will pounce. He’s running out of time. He has one day left to make you screw up. Don’t fall for his tricks.”
I shake my head, looking down at Dom. “How am I supposed to…?”
“Trust me,” she says, simply. “I love Dom. He’s my world. He’s our world. Dom is well taken care of. He’s a happy kid with loving parents. Mateo is, to an extent, performing for you. I’m rooting for you so hard. Don’t screw up in the home stretch. We don’t need saving.”
It’s hard to trust her words. It’s hard to reconcile what I know about Mateo with the idea of him having legitimate affection for a child I foisted on him. Then I look down at Dom and he hits me in the face with an Easter egg. He squeals with delight and grins up at me, and just like that, my resolve weakens. He’s already stolen my heart and I’ve only known him for a few days. Maybe he has worked his way into Mateo’s. He’s half Mia, after all. Maybe he got my looks, but he got Mia’s lovability. And I haven’t seen them together much, probably in part because Mateo is trying to convince me he’s a shitty father so I want to save him, but when I got under his skin in the bedroom, when Mateo came over and took Dom away from me, I saw Dom’s affection for him. Would he give his trusting adoration to someone who didn’t love him?
“I can’t trust anything in this house,” I mutter.
Mia nods sympathetically. “I know. Trust me, I know. It’s usually calm here, but you know how it can be when Mateo is running a show.”
“You promise he’s good to Dom?”
Mia nods fervently. “Cross my heart.”
The door flies open and Mia jumps back. I think we both expect to see Mateo, but Cherie stands on the other side, eyes wide. “What the hell are you two doing?” She looks at me holding Dom, then back to a guilty-looking Mia and scowls. “Stop messing with my brother’s head.”
“Cherie, she’s not. Back off.”
“And why are you so obsessed with Mia’s baby? What did Francesca mean earlier?”
I sigh, looking down at Dom. Seeing us together, I feel like she should see it just looking at him, but I guess that’s because I know. It wouldn’t make sense to Cherie that Dom could be mine. She knows Mia was with Mateo when Dom was conceived.
“Dom’s mine,” I tell her.
I’m already braced for her to shake her head, face twisted up in confusion. “How the hell is Dom yours? You and Mia split up years ago.”
I don’t want to fucking tell her this. The words get caught in my throat, but I force them up. “I came back. Last year. For Mia.”
Not being a complete moron, Cherie loses some of her fire. Now instead of barging in here to tell off Mia for fucking with me, she has to consider something else. Something she doesn’t want to consider. “Mia was with Mateo a year ago,” Cherie states, but her tone is already subdued. I can see the dread I feel mirrored back at me. Once she hears the truth, there’s no taking it back.
I nod my head. “She was. I…”
“We were drunk.”
Cherie’s head snaps to Mia. I look at her and frown.
Mia nods her head, clearing her throat and looking down. “We had too much to drink. It was just one time. But… you know, it only takes once. It was obviously a mistake, but Mateo was willing to get past it on account of… well, he slept with someone else for four years, so one drunken one night stand with my ex—is it even called that with an ex? I don’t know. Anyway, yeah. Let’s not mention that to anyone else, huh?” She forces a completely fake laugh. I want to smack myself in the forehead because she’s such a bad liar, but I can’t push away the life raft she threw me.
I look at Cherie to see if she bought any of that. She appears mildly skeptical, but since she wants to believe it, she tries really hard. “You cheated on Mateo,” Cherie repeats, unconvinced.
Mia can’t help grimacing, but she nods. “That’s what I said.”
Cherie casts a skeptical look between us. I lift up my shirt so she can see my abs. “She couldn’t resist?”
Mia rolls her eyes and comes over to get Dom. “Put those away before someone gets hurt.”
Cherie watches at Mia takes Dom from me, but Mia’s level of comfort around me probably helps sell what her terrible attempt at lying did not. If I hurt Mia, she shouldn’t be this comfortable so close to me, taking our baby snuggling him against her chest.
Cherie doesn’t understand the way Mia is; she’s been sheltered from much of our history. Cherie knows Mateo hurt Mia, but she doesn’t know I ever did.
Now, thanks to Mia covering my ass again, maybe she doesn’t have to.
“I have to change his diaper,” Mia tells us. “Why don’t you two go back in there and I’ll be in as soon as I’m finished?”